Recent content by 2041

Swap them for one of their good players. Like, er, y'know, that one guy. Nah I got nothing.

I'd put Makasini above Bula, if only because if we can lock up Makasini now it could be for a real bargain whereas Bula's next deal is going to be full-whack market value if not more.

100%. The only way to build a sustainably successful club without financial advantages is to have a production line of junior talent. As soon as you're paying players market rate - or, worse, signing them as free agents in an open bidding war, where paying overs is more or less guaranteed -...

Sure, I'm also just debating a point, nothing personal. I guess what I'm saying is that it's pretty reductive to say signings were "lucky": the strategy was clearly to strip the roster of dross ASAP and bring it better players as quickly as they became available. It's not rocket science but it...

It's no surprise we're hard to please having been conditioned to expect excellence for so many years.

What I'm talking about is Marshall learning on the job. I absolutely agree that he wasn't ready when he first got the job and clearly he made mistakes: if you want to look at my post history you'll see how critical I was of the Bateman signing from before it was even official. Getting rid of...

Something this update has no bearing on whatsoever.

Your view is that the club shouldn't sign *anyone* until they have re-signed May and Bula?

Broncos not challenging Carrigan's suspension so he's definitely out.

Both points are right in a way and I think combining them gets to the truth. The actual turnover hasn't been huge 2025-26, at least not compared with 2024-25. But it feels to me like a tipping point was reached in the sense of finally having some depth in the squad. I keep coming back to...

I don't proclaim to know much about Wayne Bennett but for all the grumpy old man exterior he does seem to be a "player's coach" above all else. His players always feel he's fundamentally on their side, providing they do what he asks of them. I'm also not saying there isn't a place in the world...

What I'm happiest about is the methodical way Marshall has gone about his business as coach. He had clear ideas about how he was going to do things and he hasn't been distracted from them: all the BS about playing golf and not taking it seriously enough has been shown to be exactly that...

Great to have signed two edge back rowers who are actual footballers rather than props who happen to be a bit quicker. Papali'i is obviously a good player but his strength as a back rower was as a hole runner - something we were incapable of setting when he was in the team, hence he became not...

Named at starting prop mate. Together with Tim Grant, who I had similar feelings about: he'd come off the bench and we'd immediately start letting people run straight through the middle of the ruck. Minutes 30-55 were very, very perilous.

Akuola narrowly missed out because I couldn't look past the holy trinity of Lovett, Edwards and Santi as back rowers. The ultimate nuffie, a bloke I literally can't recall playing for us and possibly the least effective player of all time. Maybe I should have picked Akuola on the wing. I...