Stefano Utoikamanu named 2021 Rookie of the Year

[426Tlgerland]

Agree Steph needs a hard prop as well as Papi next year , Blore I still think will be with us and could be excellent as well and Joffa just adds to that as well

 

[Papacito]

At the end of the day, Stefano is still very much a rookie and has only played 33 matches.

He's a very long way off a leadership role and for mine, still needs time to establish himself as a first grader.

The club really needs a few experienced props to give him time to develop. Tamou is past his best and even Musgrove only has a fraction more experience than Stefano. With the exception of Twal, everyone else lacks experience.

You only need to look as far as blokes like Jamal Idris (60'ish games and an origin appearance with the dogs) to see how the weight of expectation can destroy some young fellas.

 

[jadtiger]

Agree Steph needs a hard prop as well as Papi next year , Blore I still think will be with us and could be excellent as well and Joffa just adds to that as well

If we can get 2-3 solid hard forwards to go with that i would be happy

 

[crazycat]

I have been thinking about the Props and second rowers.

Good props don't seem to want to play in light teams, bar Manly. (I don't know why but Manly seem to be able to hire 1-2 good props and then get the most out of Curtis Sironen, etc).
Hey why would I want to join a team to be a battering ram, when I can join other Battering rams and get less battered!!

We have Papiiaiiaiiaai coming with Stefano, maybe instead of thinking of experienced props like Tamou or others we should be thinking of getting Props in the Stefano/Papaii age range and building them together. This would mean we would need damn good coaching and support around them. Sure we need leadership up front, but the hire the seasoned prop hasn't worked for us.

I don't know why Tamou hasn't worked here. Honestly I can't understand that as he clearly did wonders at Penrith and probably wasn't quite ready to retire. Dale Finucane clearly inspired Stef at Origin. ... Heck I can't pin what it is, we should be having a much more active pack then we do. We even brought in Cayless this year and he should have upgraded our guys and we seem to downgrade...

I don't get it. Sure some games we are outmuscled but we shouldn't be in the position we are in.

 

[Stevec]

Agree. Although I don’t know if it’s just coaching and retention.

Senior players set the standards and our senior players are Nofa and Brooks. I don’t remember this being so prevalent when Farah was captaining the club.

This is why I wanted us to sign the likes of Finucane. Hopefully Koroisau helps with this but he’s only one guy.

Some recruitment fails ,Matilino, Packet,Ballin,Josh Reynolds,Peachy,Gildart
Some retention fails ,Tedesco,Moses,Aloaoi,Addocarr,Eienheuth,Tapou,
, Materson,Papenhausen,Korobete,
The recruitment errors are totally on us either in choosing them or in not being able to coach and motivate them once they got here
The retention errors some we could do nothing about but they all starred once they went elsewhere

 

[Earl]

Some recruitment fails ,Matilino, Packet,Ballin,Josh Reynolds,Peachy,Gildart
Some retention fails ,Tedesco,Moses,Aloaoi,Addocarr,Eienheuth,Tapou,
, Materson,Papenhausen,Korobete,

It's pretty clear to me our retention is the big issue. Look at those players - some outright stars in Koro and the Turd. I don't include Paps mainly because he took his time making it even in Melbourne. He was unrealized talent.

Mbye was another great recruit. Clearly was a horrible recruiter. Look at the list of the players he bought here.

 

[colinbh]

Some recruitment fails ,Matilino, Packet,Ballin,Josh Reynolds,Peachy,Gildart
Some retention fails ,Tedesco,Moses,Aloaoi,Addocarr,Eienheuth,Tapou,
, Materson,Papenhausen,Korobete,
The recruitment errors are totally on us either in choosing them or in not being able to coach and motivate them once they got here
The retention errors some we could do nothing about but they all starred once they went elsewhere

We can negotiate with Moses come November.

 

[hank37w]

or not.

 

[batboy]

I have been thinking about the Props and second rowers.

Good props don't seem to want to play in light teams, bar Manly. (I don't know why but Manly seem to be able to hire 1-2 good props and then get the most out of Curtis Sironen, etc).
Hey why would I want to join a team to be a battering ram, when I can join other Battering rams and get less battered!!

We have Papiiaiiaiiaai coming with Stefano, maybe instead of thinking of experienced props like Tamou or others we should be thinking of getting Props in the Stefano/Papaii age range and building them together. This would mean we would need damn good coaching and support around them. Sure we need leadership up front, but the hire the seasoned prop hasn't worked for us.

I don't know why Tamou hasn't worked here. Honestly I can't understand that as he clearly did wonders at Penrith and probably wasn't quite ready to retire. Dale Finucane clearly inspired Stef at Origin. ... Heck I can't pin what it is, we should be having a much more active pack then we do. We even brought in Cayless this year and he should have upgraded our guys and we seem to downgrade...

I don't get it. Sure some games we are outmuscled but we shouldn't be in the position we are in.

Just desire mate....

Put 2 Bricklayers that are happy to lay Bricks working side by side... They'll poke along and lay Bricks all day - No problem.

Put in a 3rd bloke that not only wants to lay bricks, But wants to do it better and wants to lay more Bricks than anyone around him.... All of a sudden you get 10-20% more out of the other blokes.

There's no one in our pack with the desire to win the contest - Hasn't been for the best part of 10 years. We get one or 2 of those will go a long, long way to lifting the output of the talent we already have.

 

[BAGNF05]

I think we won’t see the Stefano of last year until next year.

I hope the club are bringing him along slowly and get him some experienced help up front. He’s still a kid.

 

[twentyforty]

I hope the club are bringing him along slowly and get him some experienced help up front. He’s still a kid.

Maybe we had to stop hiring wingers and halves as coaches and get an ex prop to understand that a go forward team needs not just one, but 4 props?

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Maybe we had to stop hiring wingers and halves as coaches and get an ex prop to understand that a go forward team needs not just one, but 4 props?

Um Cayless has been coaching all year…

 

[yeti]

I have been thinking about the Props and second rowers.

Good props don't seem to want to play in light teams, bar Manly. (I don't know why but Manly seem to be able to hire 1-2 good props and then get the most out of Curtis Sironen, etc).
Hey why would I want to join a team to be a battering ram, when I can join other Battering rams and get less battered!!

We have Papiiaiiaiiaai coming with Stefano, maybe instead of thinking of experienced props like Tamou or others we should be thinking of getting Props in the Stefano/Papaii age range and building them together. This would mean we would need damn good coaching and support around them. Sure we need leadership up front, but the hire the seasoned prop hasn't worked for us.

I don't know why Tamou hasn't worked here. Honestly I can't understand that as he clearly did wonders at Penrith and probably wasn't quite ready to retire. Dale Finucane clearly inspired Stef at Origin. ... Heck I can't pin what it is, we should be having a much more active pack then we do. We even brought in Cayless this year and he should have upgraded our guys and we seem to downgrade...

I don't get it. Sure some games we are outmuscled but we shouldn't be in the position we are in.

Regarding Tamou - He has always been bog average. How he ever got to play Origin I will never know. Did alright at Penrith because he had a great team around him and he is obviously a reasonable leader. But as a player - very average. We need more than 'average' up front. That's what we have had forever. (Even the 2005 team had a a couple of very average props - if we are being honest. But they had amazing talent around the place so the team got by). We have some real talent coming for next year in Paps and Api. But at least one really good prop would be exactly what is required to make us competitive. Then the other average players like Tamou can do a job.