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DeadShotKeen

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  1. I think Cotric is superb personally. Safe as houses under the high ball and a brilliant metre maker for a winger. Generally needs 3 in the tackle to contain him. More in the Blake Ferguson mould than the spectacular finisher mould then perhaps but I'm not sure there's a better all-round winger in the comp. Whether he'll transition to the centres remains to be seen. I would have thought a pitch at FB would be the more natural promotion for his skill set but hey ho.
  2. Shame for the Raiders and quite a big gamble for him footy-wise given how utterly abject the Bulldogs are just now. One thing that surprises me about the deal is that Cotric has apparently been assured that he'll play in the centres with the Bulldogs. I'm not sure how you give that guarantee when there's no coach in place. It might not go down well with an incoming coach either. I find it hard to believe that a new coach would be enamoured by being told by a Director of Football (or some such) that if they take the job they have to play a certain player they've just signed in a certain position. Puts lots of extra pressure on Cotric too. A pretty weird situation for me and in some ways shows a bit of desperation from the Bulldogs. A more confident team would say "No guarantees of anything - sign for us because we're going places and play your way into your favoured position".
  3. Err....you're the one who crossed forums to defend SL. Yet I have a chip on my shoulder! Priceless. We all pays our money and takes our choice. I choose NRL. You choose to make lame excuses on behalf of a structure that has spent the last 20 years stubbornly refusing to modernise and thus writing its own suicide note. Good luck to you.
  4. *yawn* Can we keep these tired old 100 year excuses in the English forum please? RL faces challenges in England but ultimately SL is the master of its own destiny. It chooses to be parochial and dysfunctional. And be honest, you rather like it that way.
  5. I'm not sure Munster is a half back. Looks like an out-and-out natural FB to me. At times last season he looked like the best FB in the league. I honestly think the Storm should lock him down and cut Slater loose. Harsh but fair IMHO. No room for emotion at the top.
  6. These players realistically see their moves to SL as holding moves before getting them back into NRL. As such they know that they can walk out of their contracts and in most instances an NRL club will bail them out. That doesn't make the practice right or excusable but it does expose the obvious and widening gap between NRL and SL, which most SL fans seem somewhat blind to. Every year we hear of SL coaches saying that they will scrutinise their Aussie imports more closely for "mental toughness", "commitment" etc. but this is of course just tough talk to pacify the fans. On the one hand these things are impossible to assess (every player is going to tell you they'll honour their contract and that applies equally to homegrown players) and on the other hand if a Segeyaro, Sandow etc. becomes available - even temporarily and in dubious circumstances - then as Farmduck says the top SL clubs will fall over themselves to sign them regardless because they are better than most of the players in SL. Ignoring the wider issue is pointless. SL has major issues attracting top Aussie and Kiwi players and instead simply gets the cast-offs/"bad boys". That ultimately is SL's problem. Bleating about the odd individual and taking the moral high ground is not going to reinvigorate SL. The only way to do this is to raise standards. The only way to raise standards is to begin a long overdue radical restructuring of our elite level.
  7. Spot on. It's nothing more than the net result of SL becoming more inward-looking and unambitious post-licensing. SL can have all of its creaking old M62 clubs in a P&R format or it can have its share of high calibre Antipodean players. There is no logical reason why it should expect both in 2016. What's most worrying for SL is that these player walk-outs have long since been the preserve of the fringe sides like Hull KR, Castleford etc. and even the slightly bigger likes of Hull FC, Warrington et al but until now they hadn't infected a "Holy Trinity" side (Leeds, Wigan, Saints). Clearly it marks the beginning of a slide back into the pack for these sides, which will excite many heartland fans by leveling the playing field but obviously result in yet lower standards and a general falling tide for all SL boats. And obviously a still smaller regard for SL as a viable career option for any half-decent Aussie player. We reap what we sow.
  8. The James Roberts thing is really poor. I have no problem whatsoever with players moving on or exhausting all options for the best deal etc. (thus why I fully supported DCE on his backflip) but for him to seize upon a technicality to move is a totally different ball game. I mean, you signed a 2 year deal then it turns out it's null and void so you get a better one by way of apology/inconvenience - how much better does that get for you? Take it, spend the extra cash and bask in the glow of the club and its fans for their gratitude and use it to clean up your slightly tarnished off-field image. To turn it down can only mean that you obviously didn't want it in the first place. It's really the very worst way imaginable to leave a club and has put a target on his back for his whole career. If he does end up at the Broncos I think it's hard to see past them next year and it's a hammer blow for the Titans, for whom he was really their only genuine star. Chris McQueen is a decent pick up but they look pretty thin right now. I've said it a few times before and with the Titans surely having tons of cap space and making noises that they think they're being overpriced by free agent players (whose agents presumably know this and the Titans' recruitment woes in general) surely they should be looking at Super League? If I were them I would go after Hardaker, Watkins and Hall at Leeds and make them offers they simply can't refuse. Damn shame on many levels as he (Roberts) was arguably my favourite player to watch but now I'm firmly rooting against him. As for the Titans, what more can possibly go wrong for that club? Losing rookie of the year Paul Carter over some nonsense (and watching him become re-established at the superior Rabbitohs), the cocaine scandal (which admittedly appears to have blown over), the DCE backflip and now this. Short of Cbus Super Stadium vanishing into a crack in the ground caused by an Earth tremor I'm at a loss as to what more bad luck could befall that club. Come on the footy Gods - give that club a break.
  9. Well, don't forget that the lad did just nearly kill himself messing about with prescription drugs so I think for the Rabbitohs the Sambo arrival may be a case of "2 birds with 1 stone". I think Walker can consider himself very lucky if his next contract is an elite level one personally.
  10. Yeah pretty sure that's the one. He also picked up James Maloney and dumped him on his back when he was on the deck and had already been tackled though, don't forget that one. Good player but something of a loose cannon.
  11. Te'o's good but strikes me he's a very unpopular player in the league - plays on a bit of a knife edge. Forget which big Rabbitohs game it was on their run to the GF last year but after scoring a try the cameras went in on the opposition as they were walking back to regroup and you heard them discussing some dirty Rabbitohs stuff and someone say "F---ing Te'o again!" Ha! Made me giggle anyway. One of those "you'd rather have him on your side" dudes I suppose.
  12. It's a salary-capped franchised league! There are no good teams or bad teams beyond short-term form guides - that's the beauty of it. They've lost some big players so have a lot of spare cap spend. Myles will go there to get paid but will also know that just by adding him it brings them back into contention (a couple more big name recruits will of course help and I'm sure they'll follow). This is ultimately the beauty of NRL and other franchised leagues - the better players move down the ladder to get paid. It makes for the best possible spectacle.
  13. Especially when they let the Eels have De Gois to ease their hooker woes when Peats went down last season. Surely they're owed one, not the other way round?
  14. That a fabulous sport cannot provide an intense, commercially attractive vehicle for its elite players outside of Australia. That's all. No biggie really - what's the fuss, eh? It doesn't matter anyway, because British rugby league has a rich history and the 1985 Challenge Cup final between Wigan and Hull was a beauty.
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