Recruitment And Retention Discussion

Dragons and Eels were interested. Bulldogs, Panthers and Tigers (and Knights) were among the teams after him when he was a free agent last year off the top of my head. Raiders were comfortable letting Papali'i go to keep him until this season went better than they expected and they had to pivot.

Definitely not just the Knights that are interested, though I don't doubt the we've probably offered the most.
 
Sandon Smith is a great signing. You can see POS is spending the dollars, obviously, on our spine, and trying to create some more affordable depth in the forwards with cheaper signings. Mooney is also a fantastic signing, let’s hope new club will get him playing to his high potential.

Pretty happy with the overpaid deadwood we’ve got rid of this year, Hastings, hetherington, brailey, Elliot, KPP, and cogger, throw in Will Pryce as well. On their best day, which was rare, they are all a 6-7/10 performance, cogger maybe a 5/10 at best.

If we can sort a decent coach, definitely plenty to look forward to next year. Especially after we hear of another great off season.
 
krustykraz said:
$500k a year is good for Smith considering Brailey was rumoured to be on $750k.

I'd still prefer Smith in the halves. I haven't seen him play hooker but his defensive stats aren't the best.
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i don’t think you can judge Smiths ability to defend in the middle off his current stats, of course his stats aren’t going to be as good defensively when you’re defending at half 3 man in.
it’s a whole different type of defending with decision making, relying on inside push, overlaps, and talk in general with player around you. I think his defensive stats as is can be fully ignored when talking about his ability to defend in the middle.

From all reports he’s signed to play hooker, so i don’t know why we are all so negative on a halves combo (brown & sharpe) that hasn’t even happened yet, plus talking about how smith should play half when he’s signed for 9
 
Junior said:
i don’t think you can judge Smiths ability to defend in the middle off his current stats, of course his stats aren’t going to be as good defensively when you’re defending at half 3 man in.
it’s a whole different type of defending with decision making, relying on inside push, overlaps, and talk in general with player around you. I think his defensive stats as is can be fully ignored when talking about his ability to defend in the middle.

From all reports he’s signed to play hooker, so i don’t know why we are all so negative on a halves combo (brown & sharpe) that hasn’t even happened yet, plus talking about how smith should play half when he’s signed for 9
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Has the club come out and said he is signed to play 9?
Or is it just the media?

I'll give him a chance either way just throwing out options.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
I know Greg has his issues, but can someone find me the 15 metres he makes per set please?
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Maybe the others will have extra energy for hit ups without having the extra tackles after his dropped balls?
Here’s hoping anyway. I started typing that it’s a tough one, because he does one aspect so well, but another so bad. But then I remembered all the times he dropped the ball during hit ups too. I don’t think we improve greatly without him, but do think we’re better off, unless the coach can fix his faults. If it’s Holbrook… he’s gone
 
Good signing.
Great that he has shown promise in halves and at 9.

Hopefully our new coach will put them all through their paces and figure out the best team whether that’s Smith at 7 or 9.

Either way, it definitely pays to have GOOD depth.

1. Ponga, Sharpe

6/7 - Brown, Sharpe, Smith before we get to Gamble

9 - Crossland, Smith, Arthur, Graham.
 
Sounds like sharpe is almost in kurt gidley situation of being great at a number of positions but finding it difficult to nail 1. Not sure who out of ponga marzhew best gagai young brown smith I’d pick him ahead of. Not much in it in any of the positions really.
 
Krambach said:
Sounds like sharpe is almost in kurt gidley situation of being great at a number of positions but finding it difficult to nail 1. Not sure who out of ponga marzhew best gagai young brown smith I’d pick him ahead of. Not much in it in any of the positions really.
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Gagai to wing.
 
Defence wins games said:
Why not develop his catching and defensive skills or organise team mates around him so he is not stranded.
Doesn’t a good coach have to develop the skills of their players.
This didn’t happen under AOB unfortunately.
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One of the many failures of AOB this year. Plenty of other short wingers in the comp that didn’t get targeted, and stranded on their own like Marzew did this year. Either drop the player because they’re letting in too many tries, or figure out a way to protect them, basic stuff really.
 
Jon Snow said:
One of the many failures of AOB this year. Plenty of other short wingers in the comp that didn’t get targeted, and stranded on their own like Marzew did this year. Either drop the player because they’re letting in too many tries, or figure out a way to protect them, basic stuff really.
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It’s hard because normally you’d tell the centre to drop back and keep Marzhew up but our centre is Bradman and also can’t jump to save his life, and if physics is anything to go by with his weight and muscle he will never be able to jump that high, so that leaves one option.

Drop him, I think people put waaayyy to much into his metres, is it good? Yes it is bloody great and no one has ever gone against that but there are many teams that are better than us whilst they don’t have a winger that churns 200+ metres a game and they are fine, it’s up for the team as a whole to pitch in on a regular and a coach to get a plan, honestly at 19 years old De Coursey leave Marzhew for dead as a complete player
 
Staggs did a great job on Friday protecting Arthurs from Coates, he didn’t get near the ball.

Score some points and make more metres in yardage and long kicks and they won’t have to constantly defend their line from contestable kicks. It can be managed a lot better than it has been this year
 
Newygirl said:
Staggs did a great job on Friday protecting Arthurs from Coates, he didn’t get near the ball.

Score some points and make more metres in yardage and long kicks and they won’t have to constantly defend their line from contestable kicks. It can be managed a lot better than it has been this year
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Staggs got fortunate and should’ve been penalised more than once on Friday. They were happy to give away the penalty though.
 
Newygirl said:
But he wasn’t and it worked, so I expect more teams will do the same. Point is there are ways to combat it.

Good teams push the rules all the time the Storm, Panthers, Raiders all do constantly
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Staggs gave away 3 penalties on Friday night according to the NRL app. I was only half watching the game, but I do remember him giving away a blatant penalty running a block for Arthurs.
 
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