NRL Player Movements & Rumours

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Tom said:
**** him. He cut and run from us the moment things got hard and he was told we expected better effort from him. Weak pisshead.
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I certainly agree about that. I think he could have repaid the club for what they did for him. I am not sure he will play origin again.
 
Alec said:
I wonder if they are going to try him at fullback? He's an absolute elite centre though, and with his questionable fitness levels, it's where you'd have to keep him I guess.
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I read online that LM has been verbally assured the fullback role.
It was a newspaper article, so not Facebook or anything, but still can't vouch for the accuracy.
 
It's been confirmed, Latrell signs a two year deal with the second being in the club's favour.

It seems excessive given the calibre of players they have, but that's still a fantastic signing. Latrell is one of the best players in the game and could be the type of player to lead a club to a premiership. It's crazy to think over a year ago you had Roberts-Latrell go head to head in one of the better centre match-ups we've seen and now they're in the same team.

In terms of recruitment and what was out there, Bennett has navigated the post-GI and Burgess years superbly.
 
Big Pete said:
It's been confirmed, Latrell signs a two year deal with the second being in the club's favour.

It seems excessive given the calibre of players they have, but that's still a fantastic signing. Latrell is one of the best players in the game and could be the type of player to lead a club to a premiership. It's crazy to think over a year ago you had Roberts-Latrell go head to head in one of the better centre match-ups we've seen and now they're in the same team.

In terms of recruitment and what was out there, Bennett has navigated the post-GI and Burgess years superbly.
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Cut it out. Bloody giving WB credit, outrageous.
 
I assume this paves the way for Souths to release Gagai to the Titans, which will facilitate Arrow to the Bunnies in 2020.

Interesting side they can field next season, not sure they'll be premiership favourites, but they won't be far off -

1. Latrell Mitchell
2. Campbell Graham
3. Braidon Burns
4. James Roberts
5. Alex Johnston
6. Cody Walker
7. Adam Reynolds
8. Jai Arrow
9. Damien Cook
10. Tom Burgess
11. Jaydn Su'A
12. Ethan Lowe
13. Cameron Murray

14. Adam Doueihi
15. Liam Knight
16. Tevita Tatola
17. Mark Nicholls
 
Tom said:
Good signing= Wayne's doing
Bad signing= Louise's fault
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The truth lays between those claims. Souths signed LM as the Broncos signed their players. Managers, coaches, admins and friends are all part of a signing at any club.
 
Souths are currently ranked forth by the bookies but that's presumably without Mitchell and Arrow. If you look at the teams ranked ahead of them, there's every chance they can surpass them.

There's Canberra in 3rd who surprised a lot of teams with their no nonsense brand of football. We've seen Ricky Stuart coach teams come up with these type of seasons in the past, most notably Cronulla in 2008 and they struggled to back it up the following season. Their hopes ride on an untried halfback from Super League and while Ricky has had success in the past with other Super League players, their playmakers have often struggled in the NRL.

Melbourne haven't been the same since Cooper Cronk left. They're still a very good well drilled side, but they're missing that extra dimension Cronk bought and it's difficult envisioning them having the type of season they did last year.

Similarly, Sydney have been knocked down a peg following the loss of Cronk and Mitchell. While they did incredibly well to win back to back, they were complacent through out the regular season and I can't see that going away.
 
Tbh I'm not convinced that Latrell had many other options. The Roosters didn't want a bar of him, and I am sure that the Tigers said that they were no longer interested? I'm sure the B bulldogs would have had a dig at him, but other then that I don't think he did himself any favours.
I'm still not convinced on Latrell, when the going gets tough he goes missing.
It'll be interesting to see how he kicks on from here.
 
Big Pete said:
Souths are currently ranked forth by the bookies but that's presumably without Mitchell and Arrow. If you look at the teams ranked ahead of them, there's every chance they can surpass them.

There's Canberra in 3rd who surprised a lot of teams with their no nonsense brand of football. We've seen Ricky Stuart coach teams come up with these type of seasons in the past, most notably Cronulla in 2008 and they struggled to back it up the following season. Their hopes ride on an untried halfback from Super League and while Ricky has had success in the past with other Super League players, their playmakers have often struggled in the NRL.

Melbourne haven't been the same since Cooper Cronk left. They're still a very good well drilled side, but they're missing that extra dimension Cronk bought and it's difficult envisioning them having the type of season they did last year.

Similarly, Sydney have been knocked down a peg following the loss of Cronk and Mitchell. While they did incredibly well to win back to back, they were complacent through out the regular season and I can't see that going away.
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I agree with your analysis re the other three. Souths are not without their issues though.

I believe that the pack is significantly weaker, and it is likely that they will not get the same go forward that Cooke relies upon to open his running game.

Reynolds is an ongoing significant injury risk with his issues and seems to be becoming more susceptible to injuries as he gets older. They are significantly weaker without him managing the team and minus his kicking game.

Cody is an enigmatic player and can have a great burst of form and then can go missing like he did last season particularly after the first two origin games.

Similar observations apply to Mitchell and Roberts if they choose to go that way in the centres.. Both can be brilliant but both can completely drift out of games and look disinterested.

If they try to play Mitchell at fullback, he will be lacking a lot of fitness, he has not played there for a while and it will take him some time in my view to both get his fitness up to the necessary level and to become familiar with the requirements of the position again. The issue of him drifting out of games will only be emphasised if he is playing fullback.

If everything goes their way, yes they could be a good chance of winning the whole thing, but there a lot of risk factors above. I could easily see them missing the top four.
 
I agree on a lot of those points which is why I wouldn't necessarily install them as premiership favourites. Still, they have the cattle to surpass those teams and at this stage the competition looks far more open than it has in seasons gone by.

If Souths add Arrow to their roster, anything less than a Top 4 spot would be a major disappointment. If they can get Jai, it will off-set the loss of Sam who let's be honest was really struggling to get through last year.

I don't consider George Burgess a loss at all.
 
Mitchell does not look fit at all. I think he will struggle with th aerobic demands of a fullback. I also think his defensive positioning and urgency at the back could be an issue if fatigued.
 
I'm not a fan of all this talk that you need to be "elite fit" to be a fullback in the nrl.

Players of the style of Slater and Teddy have NRL coaches jumping at shadows around the need for fitness and speed as the key criteria for the position.

Everytime Justin Hodges got a chance to play fullback at the end of his career, he absolutely dominated, and I think Mitchell can be a similar style of player.

You don't have to do all the off ball running and rushing the line every single half chance to be a fullback.

So long as Souths get players other than Mitchell supporting Cook's runs (Walker as a Terry Lamb type) they'll do fine and Mitchell will add more depth back into the fullback role.
 
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