2025 Pre-season discussion. The Madge dynasty begins.

Renegade said:
Honestly feel its wing or bust for mariner, and it may well be bust if hes not willing to bulk up and start taking hit ups as part of a back 3.
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I think he should've stayed on the wing this season... he was producing tries out of nowhere and was a serious danger player out there.

He was also required to get through work, because he was on the wing, so that at least gets him used to workrate as a part of his game.

I think there could be a bit of FOMO pressure from the club with Mariner though... he's ear marked as our long term centre at this point, so there is potentially going to be pressure to play him there, instead of developing via the wing until he's ready.

This year was basically his first full year of first grade as well, so he was still adjusting to full time NRL and also learning a new position on the wing... and then he got put into left centre, another foreign position for him, in a team that was well out of form at that point.

His move to centre occurred in round 18 this year and his run meters didn't seem to get impacted too much following the move, but he is up and down in terms of his consistency... when playing for Samoa maybe he's just not required to do the work when you have players like To'o, Tago, etc. taking up the slack.

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Sproj said:
He hasn't entered preseason yet, he hasn't really had a chance to bulk up yet. He definitely needs to improve dramatically but I'm excited to see what the new regime can do with all of our guys after such a backward trending season.
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I'm a little bit worried that he's going to have a disrupted preseason this year due to travelling to England for Samoa games.

He's still so inexperienced, so it will be an important preseason for him this year... fitness, bulking up and learning new defensive systems from Madge (hopefully he's only having to play one position this year as well and not chopping and changing between wing, left centre and right centre), but I don't think he will start training until January or so because of it and then it's trial games in February.

Being young and inexperienced he's potentially not yet knowing how to keep himself in good condition like an old pro would.

Hopefully he is as professional as Walsh, Patty, etc. and follows a training program over the offseason, because he needs to come into preseason ready to go.

The league calendar is just way too congested at the moment.... because that is a very short preseason for a guy with less than 30 games and potentially coming into maybe his 3rd full time preseason.
 
Sproj said:
He hasn't entered preseason yet, he hasn't really had a chance to bulk up yet. He definitely needs to improve dramatically but I'm excited to see what the new regime can do with all of our guys after such a backward trending season.
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Yeah Mariner is a peak example of the issue with our development philosophy of the past 10 years. Freak athletic attribute + highlight reel plays.

No grit, football IQ, robustness. These might be able to be developed but a big part of it comes naturally
 
Renegade said:
willing to bulk up
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I talked about this early this year .
Folks here told me I didn`t know what I was talkin about . He was plenty big enough .
I argued most centres are a lot bigger and stronger in their upper bodies than Mariner who has some big legs but is more slightly built up top . Being bigger is better for fending off larger men , also more grip strength for tackling .

Well whatdya know .
Now it seems the consensus is - he needs to bulk up .
 
Big Del said:
I talked about this early this year .
Folks here told me I didn`t know what I was talkin about . He was plenty big enough .
I argued most centres are a lot bigger and stronger in their upper bodies than Mariner who has some big legs but is more slightly built up top . Being bigger is better for fending off larger men , also more grip strength for tackling .

Well whatdya know .
Now it seems the consensus is - he needs to bulk up .
Click to expand...

I don't remember anyone saying he didn't need to bulk up but comprehension isn't your strong point to be fair.
 
Yeh was a very strange move putting him at centre and Cobbo on the wing over half way threw the season
No wonder why the team didn’t gel
 
theshed said:
Yeah Mariner is a peak example of the issue with our development philosophy of the past 10 years. Freak athletic attribute + highlight reel plays.

No grit, football IQ, robustness. These might be able to be developed but a big part of it comes naturally
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One of Mariner's strengths at Meninga and School was running from dummy half. He was strong and has massive leg drive. He's never been great out of his end unless it was a break but he was excellent in the dummy half role. For some reason he has completely gone away from that in 22 and 23.
 
1910 said:
One of Mariner's strengths at Meninga and School was running from dummy half. He was strong and has massive leg drive. He's never been great out of his end unless it was a break but he was excellent in the dummy half role. For some reason he has completely gone away from that in 22 and 23.
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Sounds like he needs do some sessions with Justin Hodges
 
Just finished watching the 1st episode of the rabbitohs documentary....

Holy shit that preseason camp was insane lol. I was thinking our round 1 team wouldn't be that different to the 2023s uninjured version. But **** me, there will be some broken players. Any weak links will be nutted out, and there were great players who were weak links last year....

How madge talks about teo is exciting too.
 
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