laney - whether they are doing their job or not they still run the risk of breaking their neck every time they hit it up or get tackled. Going into either half hearted increases the risk. Mullen wouldn't have had the final say on whether he played or not. It would have been a collective decision. Despite what we think most of these blokes have a good pain tolerance and would play in most cases no matter what. Being able to play with pain often sorts out the men from the boys. I have coached a 20 year old that became a quadriplegic through playing footy. Taking the field takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude.
Get Mullen off NOW!!!
- Thread starter jamesgould
- Start date
Quinny
Todd Bates
Mullen was not that bad but what was the go with him and Stig bombing Slater it must have been our game plan as it did limit his kick returns. Mullen did not get a chance in the first half to come up with any attacking plays. The whole team with the exception of Houston,McManus and Gidley were poor. We lost that game as a result of poor ball security, a poor kicking game both Stig and Mullen and wanting to go wide to early. An issue that plagued us in this game and has all season is our instability to wrap up the ball carrier at first contact. Had we been successful at that Melbourne would have been playing the game in there end of the field not ours.
Mate i understand that i played and got smashed my fair share off times too well actually more than my fair share if id been a bit quicker i probably wouldnt have so many scars beer was the problem not lack of talent lol . But the my problem there is that what ever the reason mullo has played ordinary for a long time his running game disapeared his kicking game was rubbish and his passing went out the window in your opinion its because of injuries and ok maybe it is but in my opinion he goes to pieces even when hes fit ......so you think they should get paid even if theyre not doing theyre job because they run the risk of getting hurt .Ever worked in a steel mill you would get sacked there for not doing your job and everything there can kill you and most people do that 5or 6 days a week 8 hrs a day not 80 min a week and for a lot less.
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How many times this year have we heard stone say yes that player is injured my staff will check him but we,ll leave it up to him as he knows his body best he said that about mullo too a few weeks back and thats not the only time hes said that this year .Also remember these guys are there to do a job a highly paid job it is theyre choice to play this game profesionally they know the risks before they start .I think Bennett will give mullo a go next year but if he plays the same way he has since he played SOO then i bet he wont be here in 2013 bennett will release him . I hope bennett can turn him around as this guy has the skill he can kick defend and run the ball but he never puts it all together and is never consistant .
Added after 18 minutes:
How many times this year have we heard stone say yes that player is injured my staff will check him but we,ll leave it up to him as he knows his body best he said that about mullo too a few weeks back and thats not the only time hes said that this year .Also remember these guys are there to do a job a highly paid job it is theyre choice to play this game profesionally they know the risks before they start .I think Bennett will give mullo a go next year but if he plays the same way he has since he played SOO then i bet he wont be here in 2013 bennett will release him . I hope bennett can turn him around as this guy has the skill he can kick defend and run the ball but he never puts it all together and is never consistant .
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Tim
Neil Piccinelli
Fair call, but Sowards game seemed to pick up skill wise. Skill isn't Mullens problem, it's his head.
Angelus
Cory Denniss
That's true. Everyone is bagging Mullen for the "bomb to Slater", but do you think there's just a chance that the coach TOLD the kickers that's what needed to be done????
Maybe a bit of credit to the World's best fullback who manages to take it on the full almost every time regardless of the kicker. If you have to kick to Slater why not along the ground it's not like we have anyone who is going to out jump the bloke. Why not kick it dead and take the Slater return out of play. I thought Mullen was ordinary at times yesterday too but FMD after he kicked it straight to Slater a couple of times surely the coach is entitled to send out the message kick it into the MCG if you have to just keep it away from Slater. If the coach did send out the message then what's doing ?
Angelus
Cory Denniss
Storm VS Knights
I think the only players who had a good game were McManus and Houston. We make bad decsions as a team and as individuals - that includes the coach. So its not fair to target Mullen directly - he can't win the game if 90% of the team misses tackles, drops balls or gives away penalties - even Joey couldn't pull that one together.
IMO Mullen would be better at 5/8, with the leadership pressure off him. Maybe a model a bit like the Dragons with the 7 directing traffic but the 6 making the plays. OK, he may not be a leader of men, but his potential is enormous. Let him play the game without that added pressure and I'm certain his game will start to flow. I always remember in the latter part of last year when Gidley was at 7 and Mullen at 6, Mullen's game was very good. And I have to agree, he was much better when Matty Johns had hold of him this year. Who will be the halves coach nexy year, I wonder?
I think the only players who had a good game were McManus and Houston. We make bad decsions as a team and as individuals - that includes the coach. So its not fair to target Mullen directly - he can't win the game if 90% of the team misses tackles, drops balls or gives away penalties - even Joey couldn't pull that one together.
IMO Mullen would be better at 5/8, with the leadership pressure off him. Maybe a model a bit like the Dragons with the 7 directing traffic but the 6 making the plays. OK, he may not be a leader of men, but his potential is enormous. Let him play the game without that added pressure and I'm certain his game will start to flow. I always remember in the latter part of last year when Gidley was at 7 and Mullen at 6, Mullen's game was very good. And I have to agree, he was much better when Matty Johns had hold of him this year. Who will be the halves coach nexy year, I wonder?
No chance... hes a good coach and no coach in the nrl would tell his halves to bomb slater and even more so after it didnt work in the 1st half .Theres no way our game plan was to kick to slater and especially not chip to him in his in goal and im not into mullo just for this game he played a couple of good games this year but mostly he played crap last year crap the year before crap not just this game thats why every pre season he comes out and says this year he needs to shine trouble is he hasnt done it yet and im sick of waiting .1 bad game i wouldnt get into him for.... but years of inconsistant football is enough for me .
Quinny
Todd Bates
This might sound crazy but in a way I think bombing Slater worked. Not from an offensive point of view but from a defensive point of view. Slater made hardly any meters from his kick returns by bombing Slater it allowed the defense to be up in his face and limit his space. From that point of view bombing Slater worked but limiting his impact in that part of the game but its hard to limit great players like Slater.
Quinny
Todd Bates
NO he did not but I was talking about the bombing tactic. The chip kick was a bizarre move, I think forced out of desperation due the the situation they were in. IN saying all this I think all the playmakers decision making was poor yesterday. All three had there moments but were overall poor imo.
I think the people saying Mullen wasn't the only one bombing Slater, that may have been our gameplan, etc are missing the point.
Bombing Slater was the least of my worries with his game yesterday.
Bombing Slater was the least of my worries with his game yesterday.
Yeah but...if that's the logic then why not do it to Duffie or Quinn? If it worked with Slater then it would work twice as effective on Duffie or Quinn who would probably drop the ball with pressure.
Quinny
Todd Bates
No idea but it appeared to be the game plan, along with Houston running up to put pressure on Cronk every chance he got. Mullen has a year to run on his contract I say let him prove himself next year and if he fails we will be able to promote Stig or Roberts. In saying all this Roberts also buckled under pressure in the under 20s final, his kicking game was awful and failed to control the game at all.
Why the bomb in the first place? Why not grubbers or the those low kicks into the in-goal.
We were in that game up until the 80th minute. Our goal line defence was supurb- we continuously repelled them. Every one of their set plays bar one, we shut down. But we lost the plot and the Storm capitalised via the two tries. Starting with Costigan two errors and ending with MacDougall's spray and Uate's knock on. So basically we handed the Storm the game on a platter. The Storm were playing way below their best and we still couldn't come up with the goods.
In addition, Bennett won't have any of that crap we dished up. He won't be like Stone or Hagan giving players second chances week after week. We won't ever seen the likes of Bennett, there will be ruffled feathers for sure. I can't wait.
We were in that game up until the 80th minute. Our goal line defence was supurb- we continuously repelled them. Every one of their set plays bar one, we shut down. But we lost the plot and the Storm capitalised via the two tries. Starting with Costigan two errors and ending with MacDougall's spray and Uate's knock on. So basically we handed the Storm the game on a platter. The Storm were playing way below their best and we still couldn't come up with the goods.
In addition, Bennett won't have any of that crap we dished up. He won't be like Stone or Hagan giving players second chances week after week. We won't ever seen the likes of Bennett, there will be ruffled feathers for sure. I can't wait.
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I didn't like that we didn't put any kicks to Quinn, but in a way it works out, you put the bomb up to Slater, he can't get any metres, and he can't take the 1st run of the set. The problem was letting them get to many metres up the field. Don't know why people think Gidley had a good game either, he's still making costly errors, from fullback, missing kicks he shouldn't. There was only a couple of things that cost us that game in the long run, Costigans fail went from 0-4(Gidley can't kick) to 6-0, and the crappy call on MacDougall being penalised for saying he was getting hit in the face. Take away those 2, and it's 6-6 at halftime, even 6-0 as we would of got the momentum we got when we scored out first try. Would of been a completely different game