**Live game thread**
- Thread starter Tigerdave
- Start date
MacDougall
New member
Salary cap works!
That team has signed our best player for next year.
Huzzah for the salary cap!
That team has signed our best player for next year.
Huzzah for the salary cap!
timmings01
New member
They looked ok for half the game. Then it all fell apart. Half the time they just look lost. Among many other things, what they need is a leader. The one they have is clueless when it comes leading his team.
voice_of_reason
Well-known member
@ said:
We looked very vulnerable before half time and were lucky to hold on - we were fatigued from only having 39% of possession and a 15 minute break wasn't going to refill the tanks. They were always a class above and it just played out in the second half. Most of our blokes are having a go but the reality is the other mob were simply a better team and it would have been incredibly optimistic to think we'd win.
It's going to be a painful year - I can't see a lot the coach can do to help for 2017.
JLJ I don't think will be dropped next week. Teddy will be with nsw and I'm assuming Lolohea will go to fullback whilst JLJ and Brooks are the halves.
G
Guest
Guest
@ said:
And who do you replace them with? We don't have the cattle to compete fullstop.
Chicken_Faced_Killa
Well-known member
@ said:
That's the thing everyone is calling for mass changes but we have no one to step up. A few of the young guys are worth a shot but there's no point bringing them all up at once - that would be disastrous.
Pawsandclaws
New member
We can't complain about the effort yesterday. The players put in for Cleary but unfortunately we don't have the talent. I got a lot of satisfaction from the performances of Lolohea, Suli, Marsters, Felise and Liddle. I believe Woods and Tedesco are tired of the WTs and the feeling is now probably mutual. Time for both to move on and for a new era to commence at WTs.
@ said:
Good post. Lolo in the first half was very solid - With a full off season to get fit etc I think he can go to another level next year. We clearly just lack cattle at the moment and whilst I'm sure Woods and Tedesco are trying, anyone who has resigned from a job and has to work out a notice period knows that mentally you aren't really there.
WestsBenTigers
New member
@ said:
I don't think we want to be moving Lolohea around aspect ally as he is only settling into a new team. If I was Cleary I would move Nofoaluma to fullback and put MWZ on the wing.
momo_amp_medo
Well-known member
@ said:
Yeah I agree 100%
I just don't watch anymore.
I really think Cleary should just give this year away and experiment.
I know that he has very little talent in lower grades to work with …. but you never know a gem may emerge .
Marsters, Suli, Lolo, Liddell and Felise may struggle at present but at least they are picking up valuable experience.
I would still have a shot at TMM before 30/6 ..... he would add a lot at 5/8\. Logo to wing or centre or to fullback with Teddy to centre.
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
@ said:
Are you serious? How about you put aside the vandetta for JT for just a second and read what he is saying. JT never had the cash to rub two sticks together. Cleary came in with the entire cap to play with from next year on. And given that Cleary is currently getting no more out of these players than Taylor did, it's being shown the real problem has been our roster and cap management. If we had no cap space from next year, would you be expecting miracles from Cleary? I mean, you've already started questioning him yourself. Anyone who can't see and acknowledge that are the ones who need to get a freaking clue.
At some stage people will realise that blaming individuals is pointless - whichever individual that maybe JT, Farah, Benji, Woods, Brooks, Moses, Cleary, Rankin, line them all up - the problem is and has always been with the management of the club and their abject failure to manage the cap, recruit and retain. We have one of the biggest supporter bases in the NRL with the richest man in Australia as a supporter and yet we have been constantly let down through poor agenda based management decisions. The management has been/ is below standard and that filters down through our roster, our facilities, and our results on the field. Problems with the joint venture certainly have been a contributing factor however using it at as an excuse after 17 years just amplifies that we have been let down by those who were privileged to be given the opportunity to create a great club who havnt been able to deliver.
Has it or is it improving - they keep promising next year - we will see. At least the one obvious difference is there is money being spent.
Has it or is it improving - they keep promising next year - we will see. At least the one obvious difference is there is money being spent.
earl
Well-known member
We are in a really bad situation now but I think a lot of it comes back to decisions when Taylor was here. I don't think they were management decisions. Prior to that to be fair to Taylor there were a lot of poor decisions that I assume were management decisions.
Paying Robbie overs was always dumb. Getting rid of him was an even worse decision. Letting go of a heap of players like Taupau, Siro, JAC and Austin to placate the big 4 was a terrible long term decision. To be fair to Taylor he went for the low percentage play in relation to retaining the big 4 and thought they would turn into our saviours and I suppose other commentators/coaches may have done the same thing.
I don't think that you can blame management. That is basically a nameless entity which makes it easy to make broad generalised statements which are basically meaningless.
Cap management has been our biggest problem but coaches make those decisions. The management support them or don't support them. The only time I remember management not supporting the coach was when Potter didn't want Robbie retained on a long term contract. That was clearly a dud management decision.
Paying Robbie overs was always dumb. Getting rid of him was an even worse decision. Letting go of a heap of players like Taupau, Siro, JAC and Austin to placate the big 4 was a terrible long term decision. To be fair to Taylor he went for the low percentage play in relation to retaining the big 4 and thought they would turn into our saviours and I suppose other commentators/coaches may have done the same thing.
I don't think that you can blame management. That is basically a nameless entity which makes it easy to make broad generalised statements which are basically meaningless.
Cap management has been our biggest problem but coaches make those decisions. The management support them or don't support them. The only time I remember management not supporting the coach was when Potter didn't want Robbie retained on a long term contract. That was clearly a dud management decision.
@ said:
I think that you may find in the long run that you are incorrect.
Possibly we will never know (I maybe wrong as well) but I do not think that JT could have gotten rid of Farah without Board/Management approval (did they suggest it to him or did he suggest it to them?)
Likewise I would sense that the Board/Management would have said it is imperative that we retain the "Big 4" - you must have them in every team you select and don't do anything to rack them off - we will give them to forever to sign, have you got that JT?
And you will be be the fall guy if anything goes wrong.
earl
Well-known member
@ said:
This is an example to me of why I think it's a rough call to blame management. Is there any proof of any of this happening ? I don't think that there is. It's easy to blame management rather than blame JT and it's easy to stomach as well. We are so bad because we are incompetently managed rather than JT just stuffed up.
I think JT pushed to get rid of Robbie and management backed him because they figured it was up to JT to win games and if he failed he was gone. I think management wanted to retain the big 4 but at the same time had some sort of a limit on what they would pay. I think recruitment and retention has changed a bit recently and this is an example. I think recently the club has decided cap management is a key component of long term success.
The biggest mistake this club has made recently was betting on the big 4 of which the only really good player is Tedesco and he is hot and cold for us. I'm starting to think the amount that we had to pay him to retain him wasn't worth it.
I don't think we can continue to blame management going forward apart from the dumb things they have stated. The club shouldn't state we have a 5 year plan to win the comp. I think now we have Cleary and the club going out and recruiting players and it looks a lot better. If we fail next season then we need to go through the process again. We can't rely on young juniors that may turn into quality players at some point.
Club_Sandwich
New member
@ said:
If you're seriously saying that JT's coaching is even in the same ballpark as Cleary's you are a delusional muppet.
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
@ said:
Cleary isn't doing any better of a job with the exact same roster. Its not about the coaching, its the fact the roster is mud. The only difference is that JT copped the brunt of our cap problems and never had a chance to operate with a full cap. Cleary does and will no doubt come out smelling like roses, and good luck to him. But there will be a lot of revisionists who will refuse to acknowledge the roadblocks Taylor had to deal with.
