Toohey's News

Seth Gecko said:
But having said that i reckon they will throw the entire City Ford vault at The Clearys. Ivan may get the offer he can't knock back.
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The media's obsession with Cleary not being done yet is such a weird one.

He is already doing an office/consultancy role at Penrith, on top of potentially being a rep coach. So that's enough to scratch the itch for something he's done as a player/coach for decades.
He's stepping away from full time club coaching because he knows how much it takes out of you and how much time it all takes up. And on top of the stuff he went through before 2020.
Players retire and step out of the limelight and they don't totally miss it, why can't it be the same for coaches?

I'll even say dollars wise, Penrith are financially secure enough to give Ivan a blank cheque if they want so I don't see how any other club could offer something more then Penrith can't.
 
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Ties in with the POS prediction so I'll put it here. Things that can be difficult to overcome just aren't a thing this year. Trip to Vegas, no worries. Winning the round after going to Vegas, no worries. Winning in Brookie, Brisbane or Canberra, no worries. Short turn around, no worries. Big injuries, no worries. Milestone games, no worries. Holbrook seems to have instilled that mindset of it doesn't matter who it is or where, we can handle it. That's a massive step towards a premiership in itself.
 
Anyone else think we are still an elite prop or 2 off a premiership? I know arguably there is only 2 at the moment in Haas and AFB in his day, I know Hopwood will be great but to me will peak after that window.

Saifiti is probably approaching past his best as well.

Mooney, is good, but would he really start in a top 4 pack?
 
Going through teams quickly, Moses Leota, Keaon Koloamatangi, Joseph Tapine, and Tino are who I would consider out and out Elite, plenty of very good props, but those guys are probably the only game breakers and worth a $1 million plus.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
Anyone else think we are still an elite prop or 2 off a premiership? I know arguably there is only 2 at the moment in Haas and AFB in his day, I know Hopwood will be great but to me will peak after that window.

Saifiti is probably approaching past his best as well.

Mooney, is good, but would he really start in a top 4 pack?
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Yeah I get what you mean but expansion changes the equation a little bit because teams are getting gutted of their forward depth. Probably no coincidence that 3 of the top four are the teams with a full bench of good forwards on top of their starters. Penrith is actually sneakily light on, the illusion of depth is propped up by a lock who plays 80 minutes. Will be very interesting to see what they look like without him.

Penrith and Cronulla are already losing a lot of depth to expansion, I would bet the Roosters lose players too. The Wahs have already lost Barnett for next year but should hold the rest. If this coincides with our young guys becoming genuine finals quality bench middles over the next few years than yeah we could very well have the cattle.

Grandpa Joe said:
Going through teams quickly, Moses Leota, Keaon Koloamatangi, Joseph Tapine, and Tino are who I would consider out and out Elite, plenty of very good props, but those guys are probably the only game breakers and worth a $1 million plus.
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Would have James Fisher-Harris & Naf Whyte over all these guys, and over AFB too. I think Fish is the best middle defender I’ve ever seen and he’s actually a really good yardage guy with ball skills who never seems to get kudos for that stuff for some reason. Fish is closer to “best prop of the NRL era” than not.
 
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Owey said:
Winning in Brookie, Brisbane or Canberra, no worries. Short turn around, no worries. Big injuries, no worries. Milestone games, no worries. Holbrook seems to have instilled that mindset of it doesn't matter who it is or where, we can handle it. That's a massive step towards a premiership in itself.
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Can we win in townsville though!?
 
Remember that night George Carmont and Craig Hall, had legit about 8-10 tries down their side one night?

I still have nightmares about it.
 
Owey said:
Really don't see why not. Nz is going to be interesting in a few weeks. Even then, I reckon the wahs will have to beat us on the field, we won't be beaten before we run out.
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Also can't understate that there will be real pressure on them. This is the best chance they've had to win the comp in years and they still haven't broken the duck. They need to keep winning because finishing 2nd and getting two home finals makes more difference to them than anyone else.

Kind of feel like there's no real pressure on us this year, if we get to 14 wins everything after is house money.
 
It's the best position the roster has been in for a long time. There’s a great mix of experienced players either in their prime or just about to enter it combined with some elite talent at the start of their careers who are already showing signs they’ll be ready sooner rather than later. With minimal spending room in the short-term the development of those players is going to dictate the ceiling of the team.

Mooney, Sharpe, Hopwood and Manuleleua are genuine bluechip prospects, at many points in our recent history we'd be desperate for just one of them. McEwen is already an NRL-quality starting second-rower every week. Hunt has all the natural ability you could ask for and has made good strides towards rounding out the rest of his game (say whatever you want about him, if he's our 6th best prospect at best that's a really good position to be in). There's also those just below the surface like Winter, Hagan, Mulherin, Nonu. They inevitably aren't all going to become the ideal versions of what we believe they could be but there's so much potential in that group, and when you surround that with an already very good nucleus of experienced players in a positive environment you're giving them the best possible chance.

I’m not going to start thinking about premierships for my own sanity but for the first time in probably 20 years (give or take a brief Tinkler/Bennett-fuelled pipe dream) a club official can go on the record with his name behind it and talk about having expectations of actual success without it sounding like an empty statement to sell memberships, and that's nice.
 
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slotmachine said:
Can we win in townsville though!?
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mozza said:
Never. It’s not physically possible.
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Or Melbourne...

Even when you take into account the previous window, 2000 'the intercept' 16-2 lead, opportunity gone begging, 2002, Joeys injury...We matched it with the Warriors and were close with a Bulldogs team over the salary cap. Then there was the armwrestle against the Roosters without Joey in the finals, no chance they match us with him there...considering the year before.
 
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