Sharks drama on ABC 7.30 tonight

[Coxy]

yeah I don't think there was a sudden spike. From day 1 he was a workhorse, and his workload and fitness just kept increasing steadily each year.

Don't jump to conclusions people.

 

[Bull Shark]

what is interesting is that ASADA has been stalking Gallen hard for quite a while ...

 

[Kaz]

yeah I don't think there was a sudden spike. From day 1 he was a workhorse, and his workload and fitness just kept increasing steadily each year.

Don't jump to conclusions people.

And other players fitness & workload kept decreasing steadily each year, seeing as some players can't play the entire 80 mins.

Too late for me, I have jumped to conclusions. (I know what a surprise)

 

[Charmamba]

And other players fitness & workload kept decreasing steadily each year, seeing as some players can't play the entire 80 mins.

Too late for me, I have jumped to conclusions. (I know what a surprise)

Josh McGuire can play massive minutes at prop when called upon, I wouldn't be surprised to see him do it in Origin sometime in the near future. If minutes played are what you base it on then you'll wind up with a list of players as suspects.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Josh McGuire can play massive minutes at prop when called upon, I wouldn't be surprised to see him do it in Origin sometime in the near future. If minutes played are what you base it on then you'll wind up with a list of players as suspects.

More minutes played .......more metres ran .....more tackles made. Paul Gallen isn't the only NRL forward who works hard on his game. No-one else was raking up the stats like Gallen.

"We've got a motto here at the Sharks - do whatever it takes to win."

said Paul Gallen.

 

[Dexter]

Exactly when did that happen, the suddenly bit ? Some evidence would be nice. I thought his numbers were always high from the first time he stepped on a field. Props used to play eighty minutes for decades, hardly new. Even in tests or origins

The first time he was asked to play prop in Origin when he was playing second row for his club. I thought I made that clear in my post.
Now that is a feat of fitness and a leap from his week to week workload at the Sharks. Of course that doesn't mean he is cheating, just like I said in my original post, when players start performing over and above every other athlete in the same position you start to wonder how they are doing it.

As far as the comparison to bygone eras, please CF, 10m rule, speed of the game, speed of Origin etc, it's really no comparison.
His endurance has been pointed out by commentators and players, past and present, and been lauded as freakish, it's not like it hasn't been noticed.

State of Origin: Paul Gallen stars for Blues | The Roar

 

[Huge]

He became a great player when he suddenly started doing things others couldn't, like playing 80 mins at prop in Origin. When athletes anywhere start outperforming their peers alarm bells sound.

No Dexter, there is nothing in your post that made it clear. Just some innuendo which does not match the facts.
In 2005 Gallen outperformed all players in the competition running for 3,920 metres !! That was long before Steven Danks involvement in Cronulla.
He first played prop in Origin 2 in 2011 playing 80 minutes but this was nothing new as our very own Steve Price did the same thing a few years earlier in 2007 !!!! That was not a different era or played under different rules, no excuses there.

Love or hate him, Gallen has always been known to have a big motor, play more minutes, make more tackles and make more metres since day one. Ftr I don't particularly like him either but I loath unfairness and being proclaimed guilty before being proven guilty.

 

[Kimlo]

No Dexter, there is nothing in your post that made it clear. Just some innuendo which does not match the facts.
In 2005 Gallen outperformed all players in the competition running for 3,920 metres !! That was long before Steven Danks involvement in Cronulla.
He first played prop in Origin 2 in 2011 playing 80 minutes but this was nothing new as our very own Steve Price did the same thing a few years earlier in 2007 !!!! That was not a different era or played under different rules, no excuses there.

Love or hate him, Gallen has always been known to have a big motor, play more minutes, make more tackles and make more metres since day one. Ftr I don't particularly like him either but I loath unfairness and being proclaimed guilty before being proven guilty.

I'm with you on this mate, I strongly believe in innocence until proven guilty. Until the authorities that be pronounce Gallen to be guilty then he has a right to innocence. I strongly hate cheaters, hence I hate Melbourne but Gallen is 100% innocent until he's proven to be guilty.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Tick tock tick tock tick tock ..........

 

[Dexter]

No Dexter, there is nothing in your post that made it clear. Just some innuendo which does not match the facts.
In 2005 Gallen outperformed all players in the competition running for 3,920 metres !! That was long before Steven Danks involvement in Cronulla.
He first played prop in Origin 2 in 2011 playing 80 minutes but this was nothing new as our very own Steve Price did the same thing a few years earlier in 2007 !!!! That was not a different era or played under different rules, no excuses there.

Love or hate him, Gallen has always been known to have a big motor, play more minutes, make more tackles and make more metres since day one. Ftr I don't particularly like him either but I loath unfairness and being proclaimed guilty before being proven guilty.

So when I said "like playing 80 mins at prop in Origin, that wasn't specific enough?
When I said that doesn't mean he's cheating means I think he is?

Steve Price to my knowledge didn't play 80 min, Glen Lazarus was the only other time anyone has done it and that was in 1996, Gallen did it 14 years later, quite a faster game by then and he was already playing prop not second row.

For the record, I hope he is not found to be getting an advantage it's just something the Sharks and the game can do without.

 

[Huge]

Ftr, the reason I wrote Steve Price did it in 2007 is because he did it in 2007. The last player to play 80 minutes at prop was Gallen, previous to that was Price in 2007. Easily checked Dexter as relying on memory is a flawed practice, it is so unreliable. The following is an excerpt from wiki.

Paul was selected for the Games I, II and III of the 2011 State of Origin series as well as for the Australian team. Paul scored his first try of the season in Round 3 against the Panthers. Sharks won that game 44-12. He continued scoring tries and as of Round 16, he had scored 6 tries and droped 45 people. In State of Origin II Gal was controversially selected to play prop and became the first prop to play 80 minutes in an origin match since Steve Price (rugby league) in 2007. His performance was recognized as one of the greatest ever in the blue jersey[citation needed], earning him the reward of man of the match. Gallen also limped into the 2011 Anzac test match and was awarded Man of the Match.

So I suppose you would concede that there was no 'suddenly' playing long minutes and the attendant inference that he was gaining some advantage from illegal drugs. As the evidence proves from his 2005 season onwards, he has always been an absolute powerhouse. Just as an aside, Steven Prices record as a prop with respect to minutes played and metres gained is in fact greater than Gallens !
To highlight, in 2007 he ran 4,515 metres, a record and more than any other prop. During that season he set a record ,twice eclipsing his own league leading best of 272 metres , in round 14 running for 306 metres and finally in round 21, 323 metres in the one game !!!!!

 

[Big Pete]

Reliance on Wikipedia isn't exactly smart either - Price never played 80. He played 76 minutes in Game 3, which is the closest he arrived to playing 80 minutes.

In Game 1 & Game 2 he played 61 and 62 minutes respectively.

Source: Big League 2007

Myth busted.

Now the point will be, well, the difference was 4 minutes, that's hardly a difference. True enough, but Price was basically forced to play those minutes due to Queensland suffering 4 injuries which basically rendered them to 13 men. Price was made to play those amount of minutes, where as Gal did so on his own accord.

Mind you, I don't agree that Gal's impressive feat necessarily makes him guilty either. I'm unsure at this stage but honestly hope he isn't guilty - the game doesn't need that type of press.

 

[Dexter]

CF, Firstly I think you are wrong re Price, if you read the link in my post it says the only other player to play 80 mins was Lazarus.
The point is it is a rare achievement and only performed prior to Gallen by hardened props not a second rower.

At no stage have I said Gallen is cheating only that when athletes start doing extraordinary things it bares watching.

Like Lance Armstrong, Flo Jo, Marion Jones, Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson and Rodney Howe all were doing things out of the ordinary, now don't go getting all worked up and think that I'm infering something about Gallen

Gallen switched to the toughest position in the game and what he has done there is extraordinary and from that point IMO is when he turned into a great player.

That is what I said and you seem to have a problem because I prefaced the comment with "suddenly". Take from it what you will CF

 

[Huge]

Irrespective whether someone played 80 or 76 minutes it is not the point big pete. The point was the inference that Gallen was doing something not done before. Not so as the season produced by Price in 2007 broke all the records. The other point raised by Dexter was a statement that Gallen had suddenly started doing more than he had before which is demonstrably untrue. Just because he went from second to front row on the sheet didn't change one single thing about his game, he played the exact same way that had got him noticed.

 

[Dexter]

The other point raised by Dexter was a statement that Gallen had suddenly started doing more than he had before which is demonstrably untrue.

Wrong again CF, I said when he started doing things others couldn't, you see I was comparing him to his peers not to himself.

His performance in Origin and since has been described as "freakish" and "superhuman" by his coach Ricky Stuart and John Raper and commentators such as Peter Sterling

Shane Webcke said, " he's the best I've seen, he's some sort of freak,"

So you see what I said is demonstrable he did start doing things others couldn't match and that has been acknowledged by the greats of the game.

 

[Huge]

Freakish,superhuman is not unmatched. Unique perhaps is the word you would wish to use. One of a kind, no other like him ? However that's not true is it ?There are others like him, players with big motors. There have been other freakish,superhuman efforts hasn't there ? Prices 300 metre plus games as a front rower springs to mind. I just do not get where you assert he is doing things no other player can do or has not done. Nowhere do the 'greats' of the game say he started doing things no other could do. Only that his efforts were Herculean ( a better choice of word methinks )

 

[Dexter]

Nobody said unmatched, stick to the facts, don't put words in my mouth.

Norm Provan said "I can't think of anyone who has ever played like him"

Raper said" he is the best forward in 50 years. since Norm Provan"

 

[Huge]

Wrong again CF, I said when he started doing things others couldn't, you see I was comparing him to his peers not to himself.

Do you not understand what you have written ? If he does a thing no other has done or a thing others cannot do then he is unmatched, yes ? No matches right ? No other can do = unmatched.