Taupau and Blair versus our back row.

M

Magpie_Magic

Well-known member
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Wish Taupau and Blair were with us. Touch wood not injury prone tough game changers instead of Halatau, Lawrence, Lovett and Sironen

Still cant believe they were signed before Tedesco.

Our lack of three quarter depth and back row quality that the weakness.
 
Blair only offers the 1% er's to pump a good team…... its like he tunes into the squad level, and only has the fine tuning to adjust one point higher, find that little extra... we dont have the class yet to utilise it. He wouldnt turn us around, he as proven sunk to our level.

Sounds like a crappy compliment, but it is indeed that, a compliment to a pro.
 
I'm not fussed about them. Blair failed for years and probably needed the change of clubs for an excuse as much as anything. Taupau has some great aspects to his game but also makes a lot of boneheaded plays. Keeping him long term would have cost a lot of money and I'm yet to be convinced he's a consistent game breaker that would justify that sort of money.

I thought Bodene Thompson was starting to look good for us in 2014 and was disappointed when he left. He was a solid defender and a workhorse who also posed a threat in attack. I'd pick him ahead of our entire second row stocks at the moment.
 
@Nelson said:
I'm not fussed about them. Blair failed for years and probably needed the change of clubs for an excuse as much as anything. Taupau has some great aspects to his game but also makes a lot of boneheaded plays. Keeping him long term would have cost a lot of money and I'm yet to be convinced he's a consistent game breaker that would justify that sort of money.

I thought Bodene Thompson was starting to look good for us in 2014 and was disappointed when he left. He was a solid defender and a workhorse who also posed a threat in attack. **I'd pick him ahead of our entire second row stocks at the moment**.
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As would I.
He's been underrated for the Warriors.

If we still had Taupau and Blair on our books we would have less money for the likes of Brooks/Moses/Tedesco/Cherrington etc.
 
Thompson was another.

Dont rate Cherrington at all.
I always look at it from an opponent's point of view.

Would they rather face Cherrington Sironen Halatau and Lawrence or

Farah Taupau and Blair and Thompson.

And Potter got the best out of the NZs
 
Blair is shining for the Broncos because Bennett told him to do just 2 things, run hard and defend his territory nothing more.
Sometime players can be over coached, remember Jack Gibson "keep it simple stupid".
 
Another Jason Taylor thread. It all comes down to not only what a coach can get from their players but also their coaching staff.
 
I can understand us releasing Blair.
Taupau was offered big money and our cap was a mess, so due to bad management..we didn't have much choice there.
Thompson on the other hand, I don't remember big offers coming his way from rival clubs. I don't know why we let him go??
 
@Tigerdon said:
I can understand us releasing Blair.
Taupau was offered big money and our cap was a mess, so due to bad management..we didn't have much choice there.
Thompson on the other hand, I don't remember big offers coming his way from rival clubs. I don't know why we let him go??
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supposedly wanted to go home to NZ….
the offer was there so we didnt stand in his way
 
@Tigerdon said:
I can understand us releasing Blair.
**Taupau was offered big money and our cap was a mess, so due to bad management..we didn't have much choice there.**
Thompson on the other hand, I don't remember big offers coming his way from rival clubs. I don't know why we let him go??
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Was there the necessity to purchase the number players that we did? Could we have purchased or re-signed less and kept Taupau?
 
I reckon it would be good if we had both of them but Blair was overpaid and didn't perform especially when he started with us. He is though a quick agile prop and I reckon in the right role he is a really good player.

Taupau is a beast that can turn games. You need players like this.
 
@Magpie Magic said:
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Wish Taupau and Blair were with us. Touch wood not injury prone tough game changers instead of Halatau, Lawrence, Lovett and Sironen

Still cant believe they were signed before Tedesco.

Our lack of three quarter depth and back row quality that the weakness.
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How many times do we go through this topic.

There would have been maybe one person on here that was not happy when Blair left. Good for Melbourne and Brisbane - For us he was a dog. He wanted out from us as well.

Taupau was offered good money by us to stay - he wanted to chase the big money, don't care how good he becomes, HE did not want to play for us.

Thompson wanted to go back to NZ - he was homesick or wanted to be close to his Relos so he wanted out and we let him.

We wanted to free our cap of pressure so they were all let go, so we could buy people who wanted to play for us.

I much prefer Lawrence, Sironen and Halatau because they want to be here.

Why we need to keep visiting players that wanted to leave I don't know. Same with Koro and Austin - they wanted to go. See ya, no regrets.

If you must, lament on someone the CLUB wanted and couldn't keep. Not many of those.

That leaves Lovett - know anyone that wants to buy him, in fact know anyone that wants to take him off our hands for nothing?
 
@Russell said:
If you must, lament on someone the CLUB wanted and couldn't keep. Not many of those.
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The club clearly wanted to keep both Bodene and Taupau.
Bodene had actually re-signed, but some stuff came up back home and so we agreed to allow him out of the contract. Shame for all parties tbh, he was a good asset and I assume on a reasonable contract.

We wanted to keep Taupau and made him a decent offer - unfortunately he took a different offer (we assume for more $$) with Manly. A shame, but hard to properly judge without actually knowing the specific dollars involved.
The issue with him was letting him go for 2016\. I didn't agree with letting him go early then, and don't now. He's left a massive hole.

As for Blair, it just wasn't working so no issue with pushing him out.
 
So we had the option of keeping Taupau on for 2016 at the old cheap price but let him off to grab the loot and bought a handful of lesser lights with the dough? Don't ruin my day.
 
I'm guessing the club saw it as a chance for some cap breathing space, either for the Farah debacle or to pay forward some cash for one of our young stars
 
@Byron Bay Fan said:
So we had the option of keeping Taupau on for 2016 at the old cheap price but let him off to grab the loot and bought a handful of lesser lights with the dough? Don't ruin my day.
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It frees that money up for someone else. If he's leaving anyway, why not spend his salary early on someone who is hanging around?

Same situation as Blake Austin.
 
we made the right decision re taupau. this is where it stood as far as i am aware.

he had a contract with us for this year but there was no way we could've managed manly's offer for 2017\. so he asked for a release (or we asked him to go) simply because there is no point in us having him in the squad and keep people like lovett, siro, ava etc. (who we thought would be the future) from the squad.
 
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