OPINION New Captain, New Outlook for 2019

[Jedhead]

Last week I castigated many posters for being too hard on the boys performance against the Dragqueens. This week I have no qualms agreeing with almost anything that is said about last night's shoddy group capitulation.

Last night's performance was rank in the extreme. Any patience or sympathy I had for Boyd and Macca were wiped out for good last night. I recall one pass of Macca's to Milf (who was standing perhaps 4 metres away) going behind Milf's shoulder! The look he gave Macca was pretty telling.

 

[Eta Carinae]

Milford can be fine if he can be allowed to play his natural game.
You can hardly blame Bird for last year - signs have been promising this year but lets see how he goes before he gets pilloried.
Boyd - I've swung pretty rapidly from pro-Boyd to meh, he's Ok, to Please go, mate - you're cooked.
Gillett was put in the middle straight back from a major injury. He's had one game back in his favoured sport - I'm going to give him a bit of grace. To say he's not NRL standard is fascicle indeed.

Based on last night and his games in the middle, he isn't NRL standard anymore. He gets bullied by even opposition backs these days. He was consistently smashed when in the middle.

 

[Battler]

Guys, Wayne didn't do a job on us. Please stop with that, it's nonsense.

He basically built this club, I'm sure he is not in the business to ruin something he helped build. Use your common sense and take your emotion out of this.

We are horrible at the moment. The team is dreadful. No energy, no enthusiasm, no passion or desire. No communication in the team. We are just bad but it isn't Wayne's fault. The players must take responsibility for their piss poor attitude and desire.

I agree that he didn't intentionally destroy the club from within and then flee down south cackling all the way as his evil intentions began to unravel. What he did do was make extremely bad decisions. The blokes who need to go the most are all signed long term and Bennett is responsible for that.

The thought even crossed my mind of getting Gould up here to try and help fix shit. Not as coach or whatever role he had at Penrith, but as a board member or something involving player retention and management. He's the only bloke with the standing in the game, apart from Bennett and Bellamy, to be able to do what needs to be done and not have the squad melt down.

 

[Dee]

I agree that he didn't intentionally destroy the club from within and then flee down south cackling all the way as his evil intentions began to unravel. What he did do was make extremely bad decisions. The blokes who need to go the most are all signed long term and Bennett is responsible for that.

The thought even crossed my mind of getting Gould up here to try and help fix shit. Not as coach or whatever role he had at Penrith, but as a board member or something involving player retention and management. He's the only bloke with the standing in the game, apart from Bennett and Bellamy, to be able to do what needs to be done and not have the squad melt down.

You can question some of Wayne's decisions but the one thing we need and needed was a genuine game managing half back. Ben Hunt left which we really had no control over since the Dragons offered him a million a season and Ash Taylor was never getting a game here after 2015 so letting Taylor go was the right decision at the time. Nobody could forsee how things were going to turn out. We needed a half back and Wayne didn't bring that in for whatever reason. He brought in Bird.

As for bringing Gould in, that would be the nail in the coffin of this great club. Gould is a disease within a football club. He's done nothing at Penrith and look at all their internal fighting that's going on with Griffin and now Cleary. He would be a disaster. No thanks. Plus, he has no passion for QLD clubs or a passion to help the Broncos get better. He'd come here, get paid very well but achieve nothing.

 

[Broncapz]

Can you just pay out someone and release them to get them off the salary cap? Theres no way this club can take another 3 years of Boyd and Macca.

 

[Eta Carinae]

You can question some of Wayne's decisions but the one thing we need and needed was a genuine game managing half back. Ben Hunt left which we really had no control over since the Dragons offered him a million a season and Ash Taylor was never getting a game here after 2015 so letting Taylor go was the right decision at the time. Nobody could forsee how things were going to turn out. We needed a half back and Wayne didn't bring that in for whatever reason. He brought in Bird.

As for bringing Gould in, that would be the nail in the coffin of this great club. Gould is a disease within a football club. He's done nothing at Penrith and look at all their internal fighting that's going on with Griffin and now Cleary. He would be a disaster. No thanks. Plus, he has no passion for QLD clubs or a passion to help the Broncos get better. He'd come here, get paid very well but achieve nothing.

He has done very little for the NRL team thus far but apparently he has done a tremendous amount in setting a program for long term success. We already have such programs in place so Gould isn't needed.

 

[tommy]

Can you just pay out someone and release them to get them off the salary cap? Theres no way this club can take another 3 years of Boyd and Macca.

nope, outside of a career ending injury, we're screwed.

 

[Renegade]

nope, outside of a career ending injury, we're screwed.

If you drop them to q cup and say you can see out your contract but you prob wont see first grade again at least it puts the onus on them in a pride sense. The titans are probably stupid enough to grab him.

Nah let's just keep picking him.

 

[tommy]

If you drop them to q cup and say you can see out your contract but you prob wont see first grade again at least it puts the onus on them in a pride sense.

Nah let's just keep picking him.

Is it outside the realm of possibility to get the Titans to pick them up? Throw in one of our young forwards that Mal is hanging out for to sweeten the deal. Are the tits THAT stupid?

 

[Renegade]

Is it outside the realm of possibility to get the Titans to pick them up? Throw in one of our young forwards that Mal is hanging out for to sweeten the deal. Are the tits THAT stupid?

We think alike

 

[ostin86]

You simply can’t replace your captain part way into a season. We all know and most have been saying for a while that Boyd is a terrible captain, he’s also become a terrible fullback.

He shouldn’t be on the wage he is on or signed as long as he has been, very few were fans of that ridiculous signing even when it happened.

So regardless, replace him as captain next year but not now, that’s a sure fire way to lose the dressing room. By all means though, get him out of fullback ASAP.

Its a professional sport and we are probably the biggest sporting club in Australia. Cut throat decisions sometimes need to be made in order to meet the demands of representing a club like ours, especially when it comes to captaincy.

It's one thing to be affected by constant injuries and be a shell of his former self...ie 2017 and 2018, however it is another thing all together to not even try. I can guarantee you his team mates see his effort play or lack thereof. These kinds of things are contagious, just like how some guys lift teams when they go beyond what their teams think they are capable of.

Put simply, BOYD HAS TO GO! He can take his boyfriend Macca with him too.

Kodi at 7 is an issue aswell. The thing with Kodi is that he is a brilliant footy player and very valuable to our team. He just needs to be re-positioned.

 

[Battler]

If Dearden is the next big thing then we have to give him a run. Even from the limited glimpses I saw from him in the trials he'd provide more than Niko at HB (as would SOS whose kicking game was excellent in the last trial I think it was) and it's not like your D can get any worse than Niko's. The Eels did it with Brown who came in and immediately did well and are now trotting out another kid in Salmon and it's working way better for them than when they had Norman stinking it up.

Drop Boyd and put Bird there as captain. I'm a die hard fanboy of his, but I still think Isaako has a bright future as a full back. Despite his form being rubbish, it could possibly be worth doing it now and hoping it helps him get back into form, but if Roberts is available it's better from a team make up POV to have Staggs and Roberts in the centres and Bird at the back. Staggs would also be interesting at the back, would give us a bloke who puts in effort and is a hard runner, plus he seems like a natural footy player who goes well in pretty much any position.

I said it in the live thread, but we're deadset going to end up like the Dogs with a million dollars of cap space running around in the state comp. It doesn't mean we're fucked, but we have to identify the half that's going to be the next big thing from the four we've got and sign him before the rorters lose Cronk. We have to make peace with the fact that we're going to lose 1-3 quality jr forwards, and I wouldn't be crying if the bloke we lost was Pangai on recent evidence.

EDIT: We have plenty of talent and options for spine spots, we just need the will to make the necessary moves. Hooker is a tough one, someone in another thread suggest Paix playing there? It's probably a good idea to turn one of our young halves in a hooker given the dearth of talent in the NRL and the abundance of potential NRL quality halves we have in our system. I'm a big fan of Blayke Brailey and would be chucking Pangai's cash at him for next year, that doesn't sort us out this year though, so we may have to live with a Macca/ Niko combo for 2019 and then in 2020 have either Paix or Brailey as hooker with Niko as the utility.

Fifita needs to start, and I'd be starting Haas and giving him big minutes after a few games off the bench. Both those blokes, along with Lodge, are the future of our pack.

 

[Nashy]

Darius is the captain, and I support him as the captain. He's the best man we have for it too.

I would like to retract this statement.

 

[Sproj]

Based on last night and his games in the middle, he isn't NRL standard anymore. He gets bullied by even opposition backs these days. He was consistently smashed when in the middle.

I was always concerned about this with Gillett. I’m also willing to give him time though because he was so so good pre-injury.

However, you look at guys like Tallis, Scott, Tamou, Johns even (though he was a back) and none of them were or have been the same since they broke their necks around Gillett’s age. It doesn’t bode well for him.

 

[Nashy]

I was always concerned about this with Gillett. I’m also willing to give him time though because he was so so good pre-injury.

However, you look at guys like Tallis, Scott, Tamou, Johns even (though he was a back) and none of them were or have been the same since they broke their necks around Gillett’s age. It doesn’t bode well for him.

It was the biggest fear from most when we gave him a stupid long contract too. Before he'd played again.

 

[rnabokov]

I was always concerned about this with Gillett. I’m also willing to give him time though because he was so so good pre-injury.

However, you look at guys like Tallis, Scott, Tamou, Johns even (though he was a back) and none of them were or have been the same since they broke their necks around Gillett’s age. It doesn’t bode well for him.

Seriously? Gillett's defence carries this side, and when our halves learn to create holes for our back rowers - Knik managed 1 last night - Gillo will score a heap of tries. I often wonder where this anti-Gillett rubbish comes from. It certainly isn't on the basis of his form

 

[Gaz]

Clearly the club has become a product of years of poor recruitment and retention policies. Put simply, we have 'run out' of good experienced players. Sadly it’s going to take some time for our current crop to grow into what we need. We either wait for that to happen or go to the market place and buy who we need when they become available. As other clubs do. If not we need to have patience.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Adam Reynolds and Brailey from the Sharks. Make it happen.