Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Great coaches 99 times out of a hundred have great rosters. Granted they usually have the ability to entice quality recruitment based on their reputation and success.

Since day one we have had coaches come and go in a flash bar Sheen’s first gig and nothing has changed. Nothing will change till we get a competive roster and strong depth through the grades.

2025 on paper we look like we have a NRL standard backline with some depth, unlike this year. Forward pack looks under strength, but Iam sure we will land a couple of forwards to bolster our pack. Come September next year will the time to judge Benji, up and till then I am willing to give him a go. Of course another bad year and he ends up on scrap heap with all the others who have failed

Im starting to think that this is likely the pack they are going with … hopefully they at least re-sign Sione
 
My POV the teams attack started to really click towards the last 6 rounds of the competition. If the boys can keep that up, big chance with Luai coming. What we need to improve is the defence, i thought the team defended well to start the year and it fell away.

Panthers i think have been the best defensive team the last 4 years or close to.
 
Not every poor performer is going to self destruct like Nofo did … ..

Show up to training on time and sober and it’s hard to be be kicked out …

Anyway …by then it’s too late to sign other guys on the market now

So... Who are we picking?

On form initially way back with Jason Taylor, Nofo was a good keeper. A fast winger that crossed the line A LOT.
Moses Suli too, a great center with an attitude somewhat worse then Kyle Scandalance.

A boss said "identify what skills we can train, and what skills are innate". Lazy people can improve a little, but if you get someone who's like Suli... they wont' improve.


I think that's where we have gone wrong. We have been looking for cheap buys... Not leadership at all. Our Club Culture (playing group, not members) sucks.
 
Rubbish…
What about Barrett at Penrith before he took the Manly job,
It seems glazed over he was there twice.
Leave him where he is, he was the assistant that helped turn a Runner up into a club battling for the spoon - where’s the attraction in that?

Shane Flanagan’s best player just came out and declared our old coach is the best coach he’s ever had - hands down…
He’s a myth as well.
Flanagan is no myth.

None of the tiger boys said McGuire was the best coach they ever had. Benji would have brought him in if that was the case.

Lets explain the facts of life. When a player is feeling that the thing in their pants (Wallet) is getting too small they go talk to the temp daddy aka Manager. Good old Temp daddy says "flatter McGuire in a press confrence. He may just hire you into the team he is building".
 
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If any of you experts begging for Benji to be sacked had any thoughts on how you think Ciraldo Bennett Bellamy Cleary would have faired with the same team Benji has coached these last 2 seasons,
Then put Benji into the coaching roles each of those coaches has, and you would probably be calling Benji a great coach????
I think we had enough significant player personnel changes over the past two years to warrant a better performance than the last two wooden spoons. Not sure about Ciraldo, but I’d wager a lot money that those other three coaches you’ve named would’ve had our team much higher on the ladder than bloody last again.
 
I can’t be 100% sure ..because all these shit show years just blend together now and I can’t be bothered looking it up… But I think Ivan made some of the worst signings the club has ever made, like Russel Packer and Josh Reynolds along with the already injured Chris McQueen and Matulino …it still pisses me off to this day that he could just walk out the door mid contract to a team full of superstars in waiting…

I hate Pascoe as much as anyone … but Pascoe trusted Ivan to do the right thing and Ivan screwed him and us over … it also made him cling tighter to the player signings after Ivan left and we all know that led to further misery…
McQueen is a Taylor signing. He was signed end of 2016
 
those other three coaches you’ve named would’ve had our team much higher on the ladder than bloody last again.
I think mnay coaches would have had us not winning the spoon again; but I think we were looking at development above performance this season. If it was about performance and winning we would not have had so many kids playing while proven NRL players were languishing in Reggies in the latter half of the season. There was clearly a decision made by Benji and Richo that enough was enough and the leaders of the club were put on notice - and didn't like it. Some chose to leave; others may take up the challenge to prove Benji and Richo wrong.

The coaching wasn't attrocius - you don't pull games out of the bag like we did against Cronulla without training and a plan. Nor do you grind your way through the Parra game without a bit of Mongrel.

Looking back on the season I personally think that between the coaching staff and Moussa's team we got the pre-season wrong. It was too late to recover once that was done. We got too lean and couldn't win the ruck, couldn't get out of our end and as a result started our defensive sets in the middle third of the field. This is a huge disadvantage that we could not overcome.

Frustration at being unable to perform leads to ill discipline that leads to penalties that leads to points that makes the cycle start again. Add the NRL grind to the list and you can't keep players on the paddock due to injuries arising from losing the collision time and time again. If you can't keep players on the park where is the consistency?

We have definitely improved, despite the runs not being on the board. This off/pre season is crucial to getting us off the bottom of the table and trending towards a middle third finish in 25 and a top 8 finish in 26.

If Benji didn't learn his lesson from last year's prep he should get booted early. I've got a feeling that he is a smarter cookie than that though.
 
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