Tedesco backflips on the Raiders

[Bucking Beads]

The rule is stupid. Why can't players only be allowed to sign with other clubs once their season is over.

 

[Bucking Beads]

It does seem that Tedesco was promised that he would be joining the other three at Canberra.

No doubt I think once Mansour re-signed with Penrith the alarm bells started going off for Teddy.

 

[worm of the north]

There is definitely a massive victim mentality down south. It seems to be a thing that if you reside in Canberra you must have sand in your vagina.

I do believe we are not on an even playing field when in comparison to many other clubs, but I understand this is because of two reasons; the first being we are from the least marketable city and the NRL does not see the need to pour coin into it, and the second because we have an inept management and ownership team that fails to distinguish between professionalism and the family farm mentality as often as they fail to distinguish the difference between family members and appropriate suitors.

We do get left out when it comes to FTA and promotions and other NRL driven sponsored events, but this is also due to the club being shit. A lot of the guys on the GH seem to have blinkers, well even that is a compliment, they are just outright morons, but anyway they are passionate but oblivious to the required needs of any club to be taken seriously. When you run out Josh McCrone and Captain Catch'n'Pass every game for 5 years where possible and continue to scream at the media that they are worthy when every person not paid by Queanbeyan Leagues Club is seeing an entirely different opinion than what hope do you have?

I love the Raiders and will defend them until my or rather "their" (considering recent events) dying day but sometimes you cannot defend the indefensible. One of those times being now.

We need massive changes throughout. I was always a little worried about the Ricky appointment and, who expected anything less than another former player, but I got behind it in the hope he would clean out like he did Parra and buy newbies, Well he can't even buy a team in Canberra, so I can't blame him completely. It goes a lot deeper than just he. They need a massive overhaul and if the QLC don't do something soon and appoint a new board of directors etc (possibly coach) then we will end up folding or being relocated.

Only time will tell, but god I would love nothing more than seeing my once great club return to former glory.. But it's very unlikely..

 

[1910]

The rule was voted on by the clubs, they wanted it instead of the June 30 deadline.

Every system will have flaws, why will the end of the year work better than June 30? All that will happen is 15 players will announce deals the day after the Grand Final- gee they nutted those out quickly. Exactly the same as all those deals got worked out on the 1/07.

 

[Big Pete]

Nobody believes that the end of the season transfers would be perfect, they would just rather have these transfers take place when it isn't so distracting.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Worm or Bushman might be able to answer this but why don't the Raiders concentrate their development more closer to home? When you look on a map, they have a huge area from which players would be closer to Canberra than any other NRL team.

Why not identify and cultivate these youngsters and then the problem of wanting to go home (or the cold) might not be such a problem.

The loyalty to a club might have been a trump card ten or twenty years ago but not these days.

 

[Harry Sack]

Worm or Bushman might be able to answer this but why don't the Raiders concentrate their development more closer to home? When you look on a map, they have a huge area from which players would be closer to Canberra than any other NRL team.

Why not identify and cultivate these youngsters and then the problem of wanting to go home (or the cold) might not be such a problem.

The loyalty to a club might have been a trump card ten or twenty years ago but not these days.

This is sort of what I was getting at in another thread. Get off the market Raiders because you just look foolish, identify and promote some talent from the area and yes, enter the market but stop throwing massive figures at anyone off contract.

 

[Big Pete]

But that's just it, the Raiders have promoted local talent and it hasn't helped them because they lack the senior players to help guide them and set an example. There is also this perception of out of sight, out of mind where it doesn't matter how well one of their players is playing, their chances of being selected for representative football isn't as great as players in other sides. (eg. Fensom)

Just to give you an idea, here is a number of players who they have promoted from their local area

Matt Allwood
Shannon Boyd
Glenn Buttriss
Terry Campese
Mitch Cornish
Jarrod Croker
Shaun Fensom
Jarrad Kennedy
Josh McCrone
Mark Nicholls
Sami Sauiluma
Paul Vaughan

Even a player like Jack Wighton who grew up in Orange could be considered a local product given that it's situated between the Central Coast and the ACT.

Then consider the likes of Todd Carney & Josh Dugan (among others) who had to pack their bags, I think the Raiders have backed their local talent but to a fault and really you can't keep doing it.

I don't think that's the problem.

The problem is they just haven't targeted the right players and have too much dead wood they signed from other clubs.

Look at this list of signings they made...

Joel Edwards
Jake Foster
Tom Learoyd Lahrs
Lagi Setu
David Shillington
Dane Tilse
Bill Tupou
Brett White

Those are the players right there that explain why they haven't been so succesful this year. It's basically a list of plodders.

 

[Morkel]

Worm or Bushman might be able to answer this but why don't the Raiders concentrate their development more closer to home? When you look on a map, they have a huge area from which players would be closer to Canberra than any other NRL team.

Why not identify and cultivate these youngsters and then the problem of wanting to go home (or the cold) might not be such a problem.

The loyalty to a club might have been a trump card ten or twenty years ago but not these days.

I'm not an expert on population density, but the areas closer to Canberra simply don't have that many people living there. It's like giving a team a catchment area of the lower half of the NT, the top half of SA, the east of WA and the west of Qld, and saying that they should be world-beaters because they have literally half the country.

What I am an expert on is selected pieces of Grade 5 Australian History. Back when they were arguing about what should be the capital of Australia, Sydney and Melbourne kept fighting for it, to the point where someone said **** It, we'll make the capital half way between you two bitches. So Canberra, or "Meeting Place" (in Aboriginal) was marked on the map. And since then, not many people live there and not many people go there unless they want to live a boring life being a public servant. Not exactly Rugby League people, is what I'm getting at.

 

[Harry Sack]

But that's just it, the Raiders have promoted local talent and it hasn't helped them because they lack the senior players to help guide them and set an example. There is also this perception of out of sight, out of mind where it doesn't matter how well one of their players is playing, their chances of being selected for representative football isn't as great as players in other sides. (eg. Fensom)

Just to give you an idea, here is a number of players who they have promoted from their local area

Matt Allwood
Shannon Boyd
Glenn Buttriss
Terry Campese
Mitch Cornish
Jarrod Croker
Shaun Fensom
Jarrad Kennedy
Josh McCrone
Mark Nicholls
Sami Sauiluma
Paul Vaughan

Even a player like Jack Wighton who grew up in Orange could be considered a local product given that it's situated between the Central Coast and the ACT.

Then consider the likes of Todd Carney & Josh Dugan (among others) who had to pack their bags, I think the Raiders have backed their local talent but to a fault and really you can't keep doing it.

I don't think that's the problem.

The problem is they just haven't targeted the right players and have too much dead wood they signed from other clubs.

Sorry, I was probably a little clearer in the other thread. Long story short, the Raiders are being made to look like fools right now. They're throwing big money (apparently) at talented players who are turning them down or backflipping. Make some signings from outside of the club sure, but make a couple of quiet signings who are solid and actually likely to leave their current club. There's a decent team there IMO with a few tweeks but going on the market for every Tom, Dick and Harry does nothing but destabilise the team. A broom does need to be taken to the place, but I'd be working on the culture there first and filling positions with outside talent is the wrong way to go about it imo.

Look at this list of signings they made...

Joel Edwards
Jake Foster
Tom Learoyd Lahrs
Lagi Setu
David Shillington
Dane Tilse
Bill Tupou
Brett White

Those are the players right there that explain why they haven't been so succesful this year. It's basically a list of plodders.

I take your point. I don't think Shillington and TLL deserve to be in that list though.

 

[Big Pete]

Oh okay, I see what you mean.

I agree that their first priority should be to blood and develop their own, which they have been doing. They need to continue down that path because they do have some great young talent there.

However I don't blame them looking to sign the likes of Tedesco, Ennis or Mansour either. What happened with Tedesco was just unfortunate really, Ennis was looking to leave but got offered a ridiculous deal by a more desperate club while Mansour is a damn good prospect who I wouldn't even minded us making a play at but like the majority, chose to stick with the club that gave him a shot at first grade. The Proctor signing was stupid and was seemingly the catalyst behind all the other deals. Still don't know what they were thinking there.

On Shillo & TLL. They've just stayed on their books too long for mine. Shillo maybe a tad harsh because his form really only deteriorated last year but TLL has struggled to make it onto the park for awhile now and is one of their highest paid players. Don't think he'll see any first grade at all this year either, especially since he dislocated his knee and was set to join the Dragons (which would have been a decent buy for them, but how do they have all that spending money?). Regardless, they need to be smarter with their money.

As I've argued with the Broncos, I don't think they can necessarily shuffle through their juniors to see who can solve their problems. Just think they need to back Cornish, promote Vaughan and give McIllwrick more of an opportunity. I think they're actually doing a fair job with their juniors at this point - the likes of Mago, Bateman, B. Lee & Pangai are given time in the ISC and NSW Cup respectively and it should give them a chance to develop without being thrown into the deep end right away.