Matt Ballin signs for two years - official

[foreveratiger]

You are wrong Forever.

I have been a great Farah fan over the years. He has been great for the club, probablt the best WT player.
However just not keen on what has been going on over the past few years.
imo I hold him responsible for undermining Potter and I feel he has been doing the same with JT.
Now it has nothing to do with how good or bad these coaches are or have been - it is a case of doing what you are told.

Just my opinion.

Fair enough Russell….point taken .

Farah ain't a clean skin not saying that at all , my dispute is the way this has been handled by the Club and Coaching staff.

It's not really a case of always doing what your told either as at the time Robbie signed that Contract in good faith that it will be honoured.....the Club has said that it will honour it but lets not be fools in the understanding that the Club is doing the utmost possible in moving him on.

If Robbie had the chance to go to the Knights , Dragons etc. and decided against it and stay here ? then if he is in Reserve Grade next year and his Contract is still being paid ? well not much Robbie can do i suppose , the Coach will live and Die by his choice and he has a right in not playing him in 1st Grade if he wishes , i don't agree with it but his choice .

 

[TYGA]

Is Ballin confirmed with WT. The signing makes no sense to me even if Farah plays reserve grade.
Ballin was one of Manlys worst last year and they wanted to get rid of him mid way through the year.
Its a braith Anasta type signing.

 

[sunshine_coast_tiger]

Is Ballin confirmed with WT. The signing makes no sense to me even if Farah plays reserve grade.
Ballin was one of Manlys worst last year and they wanted to get rid of him mid way through the year.
Its a braith Anasta type signing.

x100.

For mine this is not about Robbie, it is about signing an old guy that is not good enough for a strong club anymore as time and injuries have caught up with him. It is the same as when we signed Braith.

I could accept if he club said we are going to put our faith in Cherrington (the guy has a lot of talent and does everything at speed, he is also probably too dynamic for the style JT wants to play). If to keep Cherrington was the reason to move Robbie on I could live with that. We would have Dene as a back up hooker as well. Signing a deteriorating Ballin for two years would piss me off if I was Cherrington and to be honest the club would be far better sticking with Robbie as the experienced hooker (he is still a vastly better hooker then Ballin).

 

[TYGA]

Matt Ballin is a good boy , he'll do as he is told and won't be rebellious like Farah …

On the flip side what a garbage signing ..30+ years old and coming off a knee reco ...
Surely were not that much of a basket case are we ???

_Posted using RoarFEED 4.2.0_

Regardless of this situation - putting crap on Ballin is ridiculous.

Obviously you wouldn't know a decent footballer if you fell over one.

What are you seriously on about ? :bash , i think Ballin is a great footballer but doesn't add anything more than what we have in Farah .

Farah does more tackles than Ballin adds a bit more flair than Ballin but is obviously instructed he can't use it :unamused:

Yeah you know your footy :crazy Farah is crap.

It's a very astute move by the Club lets pay another Club to have Farah playing for them .

I was saying - if you READ what I wrote.

That Ballin is a pretty good footballer and does not need to have crap tipped on him.

I was not comparing him to Farah, how many tackles they make etc.

The point is Ballin, Halatau and Cherrington will do what the coach wants.

AND - just in case you came in late (What are you on about????)

Farah is not wanted for 2016.

You didn't watch much of Manly last year I am guessing. He was terrible and went out with an ACL.
Ballin is a legend for Manly no doubting that however, they have moved onto younger players, which, we should do. We have to bite the bullet with Cherrington for the full 80 each week with Halatau as cover.

 

[Eddie]

Nothing but respect for Ballin.

Played for years at a winning culture just doing his job., hard footballer who everyone respects.

We actually need more players like this overall.

Coming off a knee is a concern, forgot about that. However he has never relied on speed in his game.

He wont win or a game but he wont lose it either. He could help a bit in different areas for a couple of years.

Assuming Farah is gone its not a bad signing culture wise.

 

[stevetiger]

Assuming Farah is gone its not a bad signing culture wise.

Like Anasta !

I could be wrong but this is my concern if we have signed Ballin. Culture and experience don't win games. Quality players do win games.

 

[TYGA]

Nothing but respect for Ballin.

Played for years at a winning culture just doing his job., hard footballer who everyone respects.

We actually need more players like this overall.

Coming off a knee is a concern, forgot about that. However he has never relied on speed in his game.

He wont win or a game but he wont lose it either. He could help a bit in different areas for a couple of years.

Assuming Farah is gone its not a bad signing culture wise.

Culture wise yes but I have faith in Halatau for leadership. We need talent and to front rowers to replace Galloway and taupau.

 

[Flippedy]

Forget losing Robbie, if signing Ballin means we end up losing Cherrington in the long run, I'll be spewing! I disagree with the many, who say he is not yet ready for long stints in first grade. If Brooks and Moses were deemed ready for permanent positions in first grade last season, then Cherrington is well and truly ready now.

 

[goldcoast_tiger]

GNR4LIFE, finally we agree and well said!

"but his ability as a coach is grossly exaggerated'.

Have to agree with that statement As wellPaws, and I have to admit that it's great that you and Gnr are at last on the same page. A long awaited meeting of like minds .Ill add my name to the list as well and add that I'm glad to see that GNR has come over from the dark side. And They said it'd never happen. :roll

Hell has finally frozen over and the sky is falling

The Apocalypse has finally arrived 😱pen_mouth:

NO!!!! The world is now in complete harmony and peace and Goodwill will reign supreme
I think there's something in that for all of us , don't you 😛ray:
We will now pause for a moment of quiet meditation.

 

[Eddie]

Assuming Farah is gone its not a bad signing culture wise.

Like Anasta !

I could be wrong but this is my concern if we have signed Ballin. Culture and experience don't win games. Quality players do win games.

Thats a fair point.

Anasta was finished as a footballer.

However you could argue with him in the side we started the year 8 wins and 6 losses in 2014, then he got injured and we won 2 from the last 10.

So was he making some sort of difference even if to the eye it did not appear that way?

 

[Mickeyboy]

Honestly, I must be missing the point. Ballin won't make a difference. If you don't have a strong forward 'go-forward' pack that can beat the other pack, or at least can lay the platform, it wouldn't matter who you have as halves and backs. You just can't win. Getting rid of the one player that had any kind of intimidation factor in the squad just makes no sense

 

[Telltails]

_Why hasn't it been announced?_ Duh, Robbie. Trying to sort things out there a bit first. Would be unprofessional for the club to publicly confirm anything just yet and cause another storm in the media and with disgruntled fans without any further progress on that situation. It may come to that, but they'll try and avoid it for now anyway.

If he has signed we not only of course won't be paying Taupau anything, but it's highly probable we won't be paying Ballin anything next season either.

_Why 2 years?_ Ballin probably wanted a little more job security than to sign with a troubled club, with a star young hooker for only one year, especially when he's coming back from injury. We'd be paying some-all of his salary for the second season for sure.

_Ballin given time off training?_ Well he's injured so can't train anyway… But yes he could show up and start socaialsing with the players.

_Why sign Ballin given we have a great young prospect (and possibly Robbie)?_ He's a consummate professional. Something our club lacks. Whether he plays or not he'll train the house down, do media/community stuff and generally be totally professional and an excellent role model for our juniors.

And really signing a player who's known for their professionalism, in place of your existing captain certainly suggests he may not be the role model some may have thought he was.

….. so you are suggesting we sacrificed another year of Marty in our squad to secure Ballin while we have Farah and lets not forget Halatau in our team ? I cant believe that anyone is defending this decision even if you want Farah out ! I honestly think Taylor has lost all sense of reasoning - there is no attempt of resolution for his part - he may as well have poured petrol on it.

Hello!!!!

Halatau can play hooker - he is not a hooker.
Cherrington needs another 12 months at least.

Your going to run with that - give us a break.

"Hello" to you too - cant be bothered with the rest.

 

[Russta]

There is always a silver lining. Matty is from my home town Kingaroy. Which means when my local club raffles off a jersey, finally it will be a Tigers jersey and not a crappy Manly one. It's not much of a positive but for me, it's good. :smiley:

 

[Pawsandclaws]

Forget losing Robbie, if signing Ballin means we end up losing Cherrington in the long run, I'll be spewing! I disagree with the many, who say he is not yet ready for long stints in first grade. If Brooks and Moses were deemed ready for permanent positions in first grade last season, then Cherrington is well and truly ready now.

This is the issue Flippedy. Cherrington is the future and likely one of our best.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Assuming Farah is gone its not a bad signing culture wise.

Like Anasta !

I could be wrong but this is my concern if we have signed Ballin. Culture and experience don't win games. Quality players do win games.

He was down on form last year, but the team as a whole were. Axe hanging over Toovey's head and key players moving away from the club saw them struggle.

Ballin is a very good player. Coming off a knee reco is a worry of course but there's no guarantee it will happen again.

 

[balmain boy]

What if Ballin's professionalism rubs off on our juniors, and they each put in extra hard yards to improve by 5%, or they cut out some of the crap they may have gotten away with previously…

You need glue players in a team. Players that do their job and bring out the best in their team mates. This could be Ballin. We're also not likley to be paying for him so we can also drop him if we need to!

Cherrington isn't ready for 80 mins yet in NRL. You see the way he got brushed off by Shannon Boyd to score under the posts last year? He needs to keep filling out, working on his stamina and strength so he doesn't have as many mental lapses in defence.

That's why he'll be our #14 for at least the first part of the season...

Robbie won't be playing NRL with us next season. Halatau is more an emergency hooker at this stage of his career. If injuries hit then yes he can cover, but not as a preferred option from the start.

 

[hammertime]

Forget losing Robbie, if signing Ballin means we end up losing Cherrington in the long run, I'll be spewing! I disagree with the many, who say he is not yet ready for long stints in first grade. If Brooks and Moses were deemed ready for permanent positions in first grade last season, then Cherrington is well and truly ready now.

This is the issue Flippedy. Cherrington is the future and likely one of our best.

With Liddle coming through, I don't think we have to worry all that much.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

What if Ballin's professionalism rubs off on our juniors, and they each put in extra hard yards to improve by 5%, or they cut out some of the crap they may have gotten away with previously…

You need glue players in a team. Players that do their job and bring out the best in their team mates. This could be Ballin. We're also not likley to be paying for him so we can also drop him if we need to!

Cherrington isn't ready for 80 mins yet in NRL. You see the way he got brushed off by Shannon Boyd to score under the posts last year? He needs to keep filling out, working on his stamina and strength so he doesn't have as many mental lapses in defence.

That's why he'll be our #14 for at least the first part of the season...

Robbie won't be playing NRL with us next season. Halatau is more an emergency hooker at this stage of his career. If injuries hit then yes he can cover, but not as a preferred option from the start.

All this wrist slitting would be warranted if Ballin wasn't half decent. While admittedly he is not as dynamic as Farah, he is still a very good player, and will offer plenty (hopefully on last tackle plays in particular close to the line, we have long struggled with this.)

He is far from a Braith Anasta signing like some have implied.

 

[everett]

For the future of the club we need to move Farah on no matter of the expense and bring in Ballin who in any other era would have played for Queensland and maybe Australia but for Cam Smith.

Farah would be the last of the "boys club"

 

[sheer64]

For the future of the club we need to move Farah on no matter of the expense and bring in Ballin who in any other era would have played for Queensland and maybe Australia but for Cam Smith.

Farah would be the last of the "boys club"

And is Ballin does not recover from his knee injury?