2024 NRL General Discussion Thread

[BroncsFan]

Anasta pisses me off more. So biased and so stupid. Likes to crap on others opinions, but when someone calls him out, it's all "I'm jut asking the questions".

He seems to really hate Read, which makes me slightly like Read tbf.

Demetriou has really fucked up dropping Ilias this early in the season aka Anasta's number one boy (and client)... the crosshairs are well and truly directed at him right now.

He needs to completely 180 this team and it still may not be enough to get them off his back.

 

[Sproj]

The knives are well and truly out for Big Ears. He might need to hire Siebold's crack team of super sleuths to get the media off his back.

 

[1910]

I would recommend people watch Mansour's interview on James Grahams podcast.

I've shared the link that will take you to the moment where he talks about his relationship with JD when he was at the Rabbitohs.



If what he says is true, perhaps it's a sign on why the Rabbitohs have been going downhill under JD. It kind of makes me glad we said no to him when Bennett was pushing for him to take over.

I don’t know Mansour but I always look for patterns and he had the same thing happen at Penrith and the same issue with Cleary.

Why does no one communicate effectively to him?

 

[LittleDavey]

I don’t know Mansour but I always look for patterns and he had the same thing happen at Penrith and the same issue with Cleary.

Why does no one communicate effectively to him?

He does seem like a bit of a knob, to be fair, and I'm quite sure the truth lies somewhere in between.

However where there's smoke, there's usually fire... And the fact remains JD hasn't gotten the best out of the roster at his disposal. With a couple of key long term injuries this year, the chatter is only going to intensify.

The only way to stop that is to start winning footy games.

 

[Renegade]

Yeah but the real elephant in the room is Mitchell and everyone knows it. It will be interesting to see if and how they address it. You can't have a senior figure and arguably most influential at the club doing whatever the **** he pleases.

It's not even about the swearing, I couldn't give a shit about that although he needs to realize who pays him. He has been in half ass mode for at least 2 years plus. No one with a straight face could look at his efforts over the last few years and say yeah that's a guy that leaves everything out on the field. He's their best player and he's only in it for himself. Imagine busting your arse in a team where the best player just ***** around and only turns up when he feels like it? I'm sure most of us in a sport on some level have experienced this, it's incredibly frustrating and is a cancer for team spirit. Gould's comments are interesting too albeit draped with the normal "i said it first" undertone - he hasn't been pulled in line and now is he too big for anyone to? Would he listen to anyone at this point or is any criticism going to be seen as racially tinged?

 

[Santa]

Yeah but the real elephant in the room is Mitchell and everyone knows it. It will be interesting to see if and how they address it. You can't have a senior figure and arguably most influential at the club doing whatever the **** he pleases.

It's not even about the swearing, I couldn't give a shit about that although he needs to realize who pays him. He has been in half ass mode for at least 2 years plus. No one with a straight face could look at his efforts over the last few years and say yeah that's a guy that leaves everything out on the field. He's their best player and he's only in it for himself. Imagine busting your arse in a team where the best player just ***** around and only turns up when he feels like it? I'm sure most of us in a sport on some level have experienced this, it's incredibly frustrating and is a cancer for team spirit. Gould's comments are interesting too albeit draped with the normal "i said it first" undertone - he hasn't been pulled in line and now is he too big for anyone to? Would he listen to anyone at this point or is any criticism going to be seen as racially tinged?

He gets the attention for "being lazy" because he is their best player, but I think he's still doing much better then the rest of the team. Look at the last try he scores, every Souths player stops and watches... no support at all. Souths have some really big issues, which won't be fixed by Latrell running more.

 

[JayPee]

I think people are missing it all together. Their forward pack is the main problem. They don't have much punch regularly. Tatola has fallen off a cliff. Burgess is just about done. Cook is close to cooked. Arrow is always injured and just isn't the same and the rest of the young guys haven't really taken that next step. Alot of old players. Throw in the dogshit outside backs and lack of speed and you get what they are. Wighton will help defensively and have a bit of a presence but I just don't think the roster is as good as people think. Graham is injured too. I actually think Latrell has been pretty good the first two weeks. Cody is older. I think he is trying but might be just peaking over the edge of footy mortality.

I can't speak for the outside the footy stuff because its all rumours and speculation but Latrell has always had this perception about him and he is a big personality. That has never changed though. Maybe JD just doesn't know how to handle it. Wayne and Robinson could. Thats why I wouldn't be surprised if Wayne is back next year. Depends how close he is to JD and whether he would do that to him.

 

[mitch222]

Souths issues stem from a coach playing favourites. Burgess was 100% right about the coach, you cant operate a team with two different standards and expect success. And you really cant do that when your a rookie coach looking to make your mark on the team. I think the Bennett apprenticeship did him more harm then good because Bennett is a big man manager and has shown in the past he is willing to overlook laziness in the club as long as they are producing on the field for certain players.

 

[Sproj]

I think people are missing it all together. Their forward pack is the main problem. They don't have much punch regularly. Tatola has fallen off a cliff. Burgess is just about done. Cook is close to cooked. Arrow is always injured and just isn't the same and the rest of the young guys haven't really taken that next step. Alot of old players. Throw in the dogshit outside backs and lack of speed and you get what they are. Wighton will help defensively and have a bit of a presence but I just don't think the roster is as good as people think. Graham is injured too. I actually think Latrell has been pretty good the first two weeks. Cody is older. I think he is trying but might be just peaking over the edge of footy mortality.

I can't speak for the outside the footy stuff because its all rumours and speculation but Latrell has always had this perception about him and he is a big personality. That has never changed though. Maybe JD just doesn't know how to handle it. Wayne and Robinson could. Thats why I wouldn't be surprised if Wayne is back next year. Depends how close he is to JD and whether he would do that to him.

Wayne would totally do that, he would just make sure it can't directly be traced back to him.

 

[Sproj]

Souths issues stem from a coach playing favourites. Burgess was 100% right about the coach, you cant operate a team with two different standards and expect success. And you really cant do that when your a rookie coach looking to make your mark on the team. I think the Bennett apprenticeship did him more harm then good because Bennett is a big man manager and has shown in the past he is willing to overlook laziness in the club as long as they are producing on the field for certain players.

Same issue affecting the Lions currently. They are getting older and have injuries for the first time in ages (sound like Souths in recent times?) which is exposing the considerable number of passengers that have been considered part of the 'success' which is similar to what Souths have had - lots of finals for years and a close losing grand final to show for it.

Now that the key players age getting on and the non-droppables can't get dropped, it leads to unhappiness among the players.

 

[mitch222]

I think people are missing it all together. Their forward pack is the main problem. They don't have much punch regularly. Tatola has fallen off a cliff. Burgess is just about done. Cook is close to cooked. Arrow is always injured and just isn't the same and the rest of the young guys haven't really taken that next step. Alot of old players. Throw in the dogshit outside backs and lack of speed and you get what they are. Wighton will help defensively and have a bit of a presence but I just don't think the roster is as good as people think. Graham is injured too. I actually think Latrell has been pretty good the first two weeks. Cody is older. I think he is trying but might be just peaking over the edge of footy mortality.

I can't speak for the outside the footy stuff because its all rumours and speculation but Latrell has always had this perception about him and he is a big personality. That has never changed though. Maybe JD just doesn't know how to handle it. Wayne and Robinson could. Thats why I wouldn't be surprised if Wayne is back next year. Depends how close he is to JD and whether he would do that to him.

Wayne would walk over a dead body to get the next job at football level. He wont have any qualms about taking JDs job at souths if offered to him.

 

[JayPee]

Wayne would walk over a dead body to get the next job at football level. He wont have any qualms about taking JDs job at souths if offered to him.

Well they would be stupid not to. We would find out whether it really is the players or whether the coach is just a dud. I suspect it is a bit of both. Maybe they just missed their opportunity in that grand final. This would be easier to take for them if they actually won. They played extremely well that night they just ran into a dynasty and didn't have Mitchell. That probably ruined them and they don't have the young talent to make up for it.

 

[Allo]

Probably very late on this, but holy **** do the Cows have a soft draw this year

Teams they play twice: Dolphins, Titans, Tigers, Sharks, Bulldogs, Raiders, Broncos

If they don't make top 6 from here it would be amazing especially already being 3-0

 

[Waynesaurus]

Probably very late on this, but holy **** do the Cows have a soft draw this year

Teams they play twice: Dolphins, Titans, Tigers, Sharks, Bulldogs, Raiders, Broncos

If they don't make top 6 from here it would be amazing especially already being 3-0

Well it sort of makes sense that they play more of the lower quality teams as they had a poor year themselves.

It will be interesting to see if the players get burnt out again this year by Payten if he flogs the into the ground with his 'everthing as fast as you can gameplan'.

 

[Harry Sack]

Well it sort of makes sense that they play more of the lower quality teams as they had a poor year themselves.

It will be interesting to see if the players get burnt out again this year by Payten if he flogs the into the ground with his 'everthing as fast as you can gameplan'.

 

[Waynesaurus]

He Heeee.....................I'm attempting to apply some form of NRL logic to the draw.........not that the words logic and NRL should be used in the same sentence.

However, let's suspend reality and remember we are in an NRL logic universe here...................seeing that there isn't enough time for all the teams to play each other twice, to help out the 'strugglers' and encourage the appearance of 'close games' and a 'competitive' competition, the 'strugglers' down the bottom half play each other twice and the 'quality' at the top play each other twice.

I also imagine the gambling companies prefer to have the least one sided games as possible.

 

[BroncsFan]

He Heeee.....................I'm attempting to apply some form of NRL logic to the draw.........not that the words logic and NRL should be used in the same sentence.

However, let's suspend reality and remember we are in an NRL logic universe here...................seeing that there isn't enough time for all the teams to play each other twice, to help out the 'strugglers' and encourage the appearance of 'close games' and a 'competitive' competition, the 'strugglers' down the bottom half play each other twice and the 'quality' at the top play each other twice.

I also imagine the gambling companies prefer to have the least one sided games as possible.

Except that doesn't compute for the Sharks... they have finished top 8 last 2 years in a row and have had 3 straight years of piss easy draws.

So they're a winning team that only has to play bottom 9 teams.

 

[Sproj]

I also imagine the gambling companies prefer to have the least one sided games as possible.

That’s the only point applied to anything the NRL does.