2024 Round 4 v Sharks: Game Day

[Mr Squiggle]

Players reading their own press. We've played outstanding the last 3 games and then dished that up. Horrible. I hope the players get absolutely shredded this week. Leaders of the team need to have a look at themselves and front up. We lacked energy and our focus on the simple things just wasn't there. We showed in that 20 minute period what sort of team we can be but the players started getting too big for their boots. Honestly, some of the personel in the team need to get a rocket. That was a horrible, horrible performance.

The coach is no better too. We ain't winning a premiership with him.

The coach is the root cause of the problem. He and Don must be terminated for the club to move forward. Every useless player and every structural weakness on and off the field is a direct result of the unaccountable decisions of these two.

[President Clinton]

Ricky in presser admits we lost to 2nd grade team.. blames individuals.. not himself ofcourse.

He's holding the players to accountability

Was it Ricky who was lazy or Savage?

Was it Ricky giving it up on the 5th, or Fogarty?

Was it Ricky dropping a simple pass or Horsburgh?

Was it Ricky making a bad defensive read or Hosking?

Was it Schiller not making the hard hit ups or Ricky?

Was it Kris MIA or Ricky?

Was it incomplete sets, stupid errors or Ricky?

Pretty good point there

Geez this is an ordinary post. All the things mentioned are heavily influenced by the coach. And we’ve seen this **** on repeat since 2014.

It doesn’t matter who is in the squad, it’s the same mentality and lapses.

[BadnMean]

Ricky in presser admits we lost to 2nd grade team.. blames individuals.. not himself ofcourse.

He's holding the players to accountability

Was it Ricky who was lazy or Savage?

Was it Ricky giving it up on the 5th, or Fogarty?

Was it Ricky dropping a simple pass or Horsburgh?

Was it Ricky making a bad defensive read or Hosking?

Was it Schiller not making the hard hit ups or Ricky?

Was it Kris MIA or Ricky?

Was it incomplete sets, stupid errors or Ricky?

The only ones of those that belong to Ricky are not expanding on the game plan by R4 to include more than one kicker occasionally. After a month of footy if you're other half or hooker (even FB) isn't taking the occasional kick or setting up as an alternate then you become a bit of a sitting duck.

By now that should have evolved a little bit.

Schiller was good up the attack end but needed to take more than 10 runs.

And yeah, stupid errors prevented any chance to get momentum back in the game.

[Billy Walker]

Ricky in presser admits we lost to 2nd grade team.. blames individuals.. not himself ofcourse.

He's holding the players to accountability

Was it Ricky who was lazy or Savage?

Was it Ricky giving it up on the 5th, or Fogarty?

Was it Ricky dropping a simple pass or Horsburgh?

Was it Ricky making a bad defensive read or Hosking?

Was it Schiller not making the hard hit ups or Ricky?

Was it Kris MIA or Ricky?

Was it incomplete sets, stupid errors or Ricky?

Pretty good point there

Geez this is an ordinary post. All the things mentioned are heavily influenced by the coach. And we’ve seen this **** on repeat since 2014.

It doesn’t matter who is in the squad, it’s the same mentality and lapses.

Dubby suggesting that Ricky doesn’t hold a hose.

[Regs Revolution]

That was a disgusting performance. Wow. Doesn’t get worse than that. Sitting here blaming individuals doesn’t achieve anything because 17 players were just ordinary at best, and I’m trying to be polite here. Absolute dribble. People saying Fog this, savage that and Young crap and horse out of shape. How about you throw stones at Timoko for letting Iro waltz through the defensive line that gave them the lead? They didn't have their head in the game whatsoever and you could tell when they had a completion rate of 1/4 inside 5 mins.

Who’s just as equal to blame. Ricky. There have been people on here that want to blame him here for everything and anything and have their own agendas and I kind of defend the fact of what he does, but yesterday was on him just as much as the players. It was a horrible game plan. We tried to play that up the middle footy, got owned and didn’t try and play out wide to our strengths. There was no game plan from the halves and that’s not the halves fault. He needs to be better and actually think about the games they’re heading into with an actual plan.

Having Fogarty as our only kicker isnt helping us either. Can Strange kick a ball? I’m certain he can. Start utilising it. If you wanna shoulder the whole kicking and attacking game around one half who isn’t the strongest half in the league, we’re doomed.

Yea we had 17 ordinary players but it was an ordinary game plan too.

[Botman]

I agree. After a performance like that, you review everything in the lead up. Including coaching plans and training schedules, game plans, everything.

However, that performance was out of skip with what we have delivered this season. Certain players were horrible and the overall team didn't perform.

For the coaches it's now about what they do about a performance that wasn't up to standard. If they do nothing, nothing will change. However, based on that press conference there's been a large shift over the off season. Ricky said straight up they were embarrassing which he rarely says, i often think he is too kind to the players. Says to me there is a bit of a different mindset.

Your reference to management is a good one. If you go to a restaurant that's a good establishment but you get a poor service experience - it isn't directly the restaurants fault but they have overall responsibility and need to address underperforming staff in order to maintain their standard. Last night was a player issue, we need to address it in relation to our standards for this season and players need to be held accountable. That's the job of the coaches. 1 bad performance can't be pinned on the coaches, just like 1 good performance can't either. The standard of what happens week to week can. If we perform like that again, we've got a management issue. I'd suggest we don't though and players will improve.

I tend to agree
No need for panic stations, it was a poor performance and I think the three prior week were mostly good

But opening the season with comprehensive victory’s over bad team perhaps fooled us into thinking we are better than we are. But Stuart said in the presser “that’s not us”… it’s up to the players and coaches to go and prove that statement

The Parra game will say a lot about who exactly we are imo.

[gangrenous]

Savage will be lucky to keep his spot this week, errors are one thing but lack of urgency and complacency just doesn't cut it in the NRL. Very surprising the amount of people making excuses for him.

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

Schiller and Savage both did good and bad things.

Both should be there to fix them next week. They’ve shown they’re the goods if you address any issues as they pop up.

[-PJ-]

Pretty simple game Rugby League.

Ya gotta hold the ball.

We didn’t.

[Billy Walker]

I commented before kick off yesterday that Big Red looked more like Enormous Red. I was very disappointed but not surprised by his performance and believe his dropped balls and errors all came down to his lack of conditioning and inability to keep pace with the game. I’m seeing a trend.

All last week leading up to the game was focused on Rapa around his 200th club game and while we lauded his competitive spirit we bemused his lack of effort on the training paddock and reportedly horrible diet.

This year I’ve read about Savage returning from off-season break overweight and out of condition. In previous years that has been Papa Woolfold or BJ.

On the other side of the stories of players out of condition I read about how Raps and Papa trimmed right down and are in great condition this year. That’s great, but why only now?

I’m not sure if the culture needs adjustment, if contracts need fitness clauses or if there is another answer but in a sport that is difficult enough to get the structures and tactics right, the base fitness of individuals in your squad shouldn’t need to be a focus.

These kids are very well paid, have access to elite dieticians and trainers and should be returning from injury or off season in near peak condition.

[Botman]

Stuart likes to give his favoured 17 chances to redeem themselves after poor performances. I’d like to see him do the same here. Leave the backline as is
We’re going to have to have EW recover from his calf to replace hosking so that’s a forced change
And I think given how poor the middle performed against a severely weakened sharks middle a change there to reward Mooney’s cup form is warranted

[Bluesbrother]

Stuart likes to give his favoured 17 chances to redeem themselves after poor performances. I’d like to see him do the same here. Leave the backline as is
We’re going to have to have EW recover from his calf to replace hosking so that’s a forced change
And I think given how poor the middle performed against a severely weakened sharks middle a change there to reward Mooney’s cup form is warranted

Based on yours and others comments about Sasagi it seems he wouldn't look out of place either in Hosking's absence?

[Dr Zaius]

Relax. Several players put in their worst performance in living memory. We showed what we can do in the 12 minutes that we held onto the ball and put 18 on them. We're going to have an up and down year, won't be there on grand final day, bit we are a much better team than what played yesterday.

[-PJ-]

Did somebody say KFC ?

[Botman]

Stuart likes to give his favoured 17 chances to redeem themselves after poor performances. I’d like to see him do the same here. Leave the backline as is
We’re going to have to have EW recover from his calf to replace hosking so that’s a forced change
And I think given how poor the middle performed against a severely weakened sharks middle a change there to reward Mooney’s cup form is warranted

Based on yours and others comments about Sasagi it seems he wouldn't look out of place either in Hosking's absence?

I think he’s been really good
If EW’s calf is actually real and not just a way to manage a captain through his last year, he’s next man up at edge imo

[Billy Walker]

Stuart likes to give his favoured 17 chances to redeem themselves after poor performances. I’d like to see him do the same here. Leave the backline as is
We’re going to have to have EW recover from his calf to replace hosking so that’s a forced change
And I think given how poor the middle performed against a severely weakened sharks middle a change there to reward Mooney’s cup form is warranted

Stuart alluded to players being dropped but I think his hands are a bit tied to be honest.

I see no value dropping Savage. It will only dent his confidence and yes he was poor but he is the point of difference we need.

Schiller didn’t do enough to make a wing position his own but if Hoppa is still injured I’d stick with Schiller. If Hoppa returns it isn’t like Schiller is actually dropped it’s just the incumbent returning.

Young is the one where Ricky could make a big statement and put everyone on notice by sending him back to NSW Cup, but with Hoskings out I can’t see that happening and agree this isn’t the week to do that.

So I suspect Hors might drop out for Mooney. The slower pace of NSW Cup won’t help Hors but if we can leave him out for the best part of 80 mins that can’t hurt him.

Changes probably deserve to be made but I suspect they will be quite minimal this week.

[Billy Walker]

I commented before kick off yesterday that Big Red looked more like Enormous Red. I was very disappointed but not surprised by his performance and believe his dropped balls and errors all came down to his lack of conditioning and inability to keep pace with the game. I’m seeing a trend.

All last week leading up to the game was focused on Rapa around his 200th club game and while we lauded his competitive spirit we bemused his lack of effort on the training paddock and reportedly horrible diet.

This year I’ve read about Savage returning from off-season break overweight and out of condition. In previous years that has been Papa Woolfold or BJ.

On the other side of the stories of players out of condition I read about how Raps and Papa trimmed right down and are in great condition this year. That’s great, but why only now?

I’m not sure if the culture needs adjustment, if contracts need fitness clauses or if there is another answer but in a sport that is difficult enough to get the structures and tactics right, the base fitness of individuals in your squad shouldn’t need to be a focus.

These kids are very well paid, have access to elite dieticians and trainers and should be returning from injury or off season in near peak condition.

I don’t think this is a game day issue, but potentially a systemic issue worthy of discussion. I’m keen to hear views about whether our fitness and conditioning coaches could be an issue, whether it’s a cultural thing where we glorify and excuse the rogue who likes to skip out on training effort. There is definitely a trend emerging.

[Botman]

I’ve got some great news actually
Just occurred to me that I’m going to be overseas for the next 3 games
The raiders are 10/11 in games when I’m in another country over the last 4-5 years

We’re about to get this season back on track

[Rick]

I’ve got some great news actually
Just occurred to me that I’m going to be overseas for the next 3 games
The raiders are 10/11 in games when I’m in another country over the last 4-5 years

We’re about to get this season back on track

Thanks for taking one for the team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Roger Kenworthy]

Savage will be lucky to keep his spot this week, errors are one thing but lack of urgency and complacency just doesn't cut it in the NRL. Very surprising the amount of people making excuses for him.

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

Schiller and Savage both did good and bad things.

Both should be there to fix them next week. They’ve shown they’re the goods if you address any issues as they pop up.

Happy for Schiller to be there but he has been rocks and diamonds every NRL match he has played. Savage has had some genuinely good games, although he has had a lot more opportunity.

[Billy Walker]

Savage will be lucky to keep his spot this week, errors are one thing but lack of urgency and complacency just doesn't cut it in the NRL. Very surprising the amount of people making excuses for him.

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

Schiller and Savage both did good and bad things.

Both should be there to fix them next week. They’ve shown they’re the goods if you address any issues as they pop up.

Happy for Schiller to be there but he has been rocks and diamonds every NRL match he has played. Savage has had some genuinely good games, although he has had a lot more opportunity.

I suspect it is easier to get the rocks out of the game of a player who produces diamonds than it is to trying to create diamonds from a player who hasn’t got any

[Colk]

Players reading their own press. We've played outstanding the last 3 games and then dished that up. Horrible. I hope the players get absolutely shredded this week. Leaders of the team need to have a look at themselves and front up. We lacked energy and our focus on the simple things just wasn't there. We showed in that 20 minute period what sort of team we can be but the players started getting too big for their boots. Honestly, some of the personel in the team need to get a rocket. That was a horrible, horrible performance.

The coach is no better too. We ain't winning a premiership with him.

The coach is the root cause of the problem. He and Don must be terminated for the club to move forward. Every useless player and every structural weakness on and off the field is a direct result of the unaccountable decisions of these two.

Jesus settle down Arnold. I order you not to terminate them

[gangrenous]

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

Schiller and Savage both did good and bad things.

Both should be there to fix them next week. They’ve shown they’re the goods if you address any issues as they pop up.

Happy for Schiller to be there but he has been rocks and diamonds every NRL match he has played. Savage has had some genuinely good games, although he has had a lot more opportunity.

I suspect it is easier to get the rocks out of the game of a player who produces diamonds than it is to trying to create diamonds from a player who hasn’t got any

Precisely

[kona_dream]

Stuart likes to give his favoured 17 chances to redeem themselves after poor performances. I’d like to see him do the same here. Leave the backline as is
We’re going to have to have EW recover from his calf to replace hosking so that’s a forced change
And I think given how poor the middle performed against a severely weakened sharks middle a change there to reward Mooney’s cup form is warranted

Based on yours and others comments about Sasagi it seems he wouldn't look out of place either in Hosking's absence?

I think he’s been really good
If EW’s calf is actually real and not just a way to manage a captain through his last year, he’s next man up at edge imo

I also think Simi’s form has been good the last few weeks. He does appear to be one of the 3 or 4 players each week that is above NSW cup level. Clearly the Raiders have him in the 2nd row rotation as they have him paying there in cup. I think he would be a good Hosking replacement as he can cover a backline injury. It probably means EW plays closer to 45 mins than 20 which isn’t ideal.

[Colk]

Are they not better bets than Ethan Sanders though? Again what is the strategy and why do you think a 18 year old halfback who is out of this depth in reserve grade is going to be any better than what we have over the next 2-3 years?

They aren't better bets for halfback. No idea why you’d even bring them into the discussion.

The strategy is to focus on pathways and scout and sign the best juniors. Hardly “hit and hope”.

No use continuing the back and forth, like the rest of us you’ll get to see if it works or not.

That’s fine if that’s the strategy but it is definitely a hit and hope; particularly if you are going to focus on one. Watching him play thus far, he has a decent kicking game but he doesn’t look threatening with the ball at all. He is also two to three years away - heck he has only just started playing reserve grade and he looks overawed at that level thus far. Playing the averages he is more likely to be just a baseline halves player who has a good kicking game and a basic passing game; essentially what we have with Fogarty now

Also bring on the Colonel posts after a bad loss is exactly my point - this type of thinking which implies that some 18 year old halfback needs to come on in now. We need to be realistic unless he is absolutely dominating reserve grade than he is not likely to be better than what we have

[NoMan]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

[Roger Kenworthy]

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

Schiller and Savage both did good and bad things.

Both should be there to fix them next week. They’ve shown they’re the goods if you address any issues as they pop up.

Happy for Schiller to be there but he has been rocks and diamonds every NRL match he has played. Savage has had some genuinely good games, although he has had a lot more opportunity.

I suspect it is easier to get the rocks out of the game of a player who produces diamonds than it is to trying to create diamonds from a player who hasn’t got any

Anyone who coached Scott Dureau disagrees Schiller has the same level of howler in him.

Either way happy to see him get a decent run.

[Colk]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

[Botman]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

On the other hand a year ago Ethan Strange had not even made his debut in NSW Cup and when he did it took him a little while to get going. He's now starting and very much holding his own in the NRL.

Chevy Stewart was the same, took him a good half a year to find his feet stepping up at that level, and he's going to be playing NRL football this year. The good ones make strides very quickly and from what i've seen of his Cup performances, Sanders has not been overawed at all, i dont know what you're seeing on that front. I think he's playing within himself and focusing on kicking and defence in a team that he doesnt need to run right now
I think you in particular are entirely too quick to judge players at that level and you havent learnt the lessons on that either.

[The Green Hornet]

Savage will be lucky to keep his spot this week, errors are one thing but lack of urgency and complacency just doesn't cut it in the NRL. Very surprising the amount of people making excuses for him.

Schiller will take Savages spot unless Hopoate is no good

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Why on earth would that be the case? Schiller was terrible. He scored two tries any decent winger could finish and other than that had a completely lackluster game.

Savage created a try out of nothing, secured a couple of loose balls as good as you'll see and was powering through tackles. He clocked off once in defence and spilt the ball twice. That was bad, but every other game this season has been quality from him. No coach is dropping a great player after one indifferent game.

I agree, but am nervous Stuart will drop Savage. He doesn't deserve to be dropped, but won't think it's our of the question.

[Roger Kenworthy]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

On the other hand a year ago Ethan Strange had not even made his debut in NSW Cup and when he did it took him a little while to get going. He's now starting and very much holding his own in the NRL.

Chevy Stewart was the same, took him a good half a year to find his feet stepping up at that level, and he's going to be playing NRL football this year. The good ones make strides very quickly and from what i've seen of his Cup performances, Sanders has not been overawed at all, i dont know what you're seeing on that front. I think he's playing within himself and focusing on kicking and defence in a team that he doesnt need to run right now
I think you in particular are entirely too quick to judge players at that level and you havent learnt the lessons on that either.

Strange is playing a pretty simple role it must be noted. Doing it well though.

Carney and Campo good examples for us. Campo came on at 23. Carney was really good by his third season of FG.

[nachopants]

I’ve got some great news actually
Just occurred to me that I’m going to be overseas for the next 3 games
The raiders are 10/11 in games when I’m in another country over the last 4-5 years

We’re about to get this season back on track

Finally, someone's doing something. Excellent commitment here.

[Botman]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

On the other hand a year ago Ethan Strange had not even made his debut in NSW Cup and when he did it took him a little while to get going. He's now starting and very much holding his own in the NRL.

Chevy Stewart was the same, took him a good half a year to find his feet stepping up at that level, and he's going to be playing NRL football this year. The good ones make strides very quickly and from what i've seen of his Cup performances, Sanders has not been overawed at all, i dont know what you're seeing on that front. I think he's playing within himself and focusing on kicking and defence in a team that he doesnt need to run right now
I think you in particular are entirely too quick to judge players at that level and you havent learnt the lessons on that either.

Strange is playing a pretty simple role it must be noted. Doing it well though.

Carney and Campo good examples for us. Campo came on at 23. Carney was really good by his third season of FG.

Yep and i think that's what Sanders is doing for their NSW Cup team right now, only 4 games into his career at that level and they're not over burdening him... Strange will expand his game as he gets more time, as will Sanders in Cup

But i promise you, the money we're going to be paying this kid and the promises made to get him here re: opportunities, he's not a 3 year project. He's where Stewart was this time last year, and like Stewart being expected to play some NRL footy this year, i expect Sanders to be in the running to play some NRL footy next year. Maybe like Stewart not until mid year or later but he'll be in the frame.

[Roger Kenworthy]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

On the other hand a year ago Ethan Strange had not even made his debut in NSW Cup and when he did it took him a little while to get going. He's now starting and very much holding his own in the NRL.

Chevy Stewart was the same, took him a good half a year to find his feet stepping up at that level, and he's going to be playing NRL football this year. The good ones make strides very quickly and from what i've seen of his Cup performances, Sanders has not been overawed at all, i dont know what you're seeing on that front. I think he's playing within himself and focusing on kicking and defence in a team that he doesnt need to run right now
I think you in particular are entirely too quick to judge players at that level and you havent learnt the lessons on that either.

Strange is playing a pretty simple role it must be noted. Doing it well though.

Carney and Campo good examples for us. Campo came on at 23. Carney was really good by his third season of FG.

Yep and i think that's what Sanders is doing for their NSW Cup team right now, only 4 games into his career at that level and they're not over burdening him... Strange will expand his game as he gets more time, as will Sanders in Cup

But i promise you, the money we're going to be paying this kid and the promises made to get him here re: opportunities, he's not a 3 year project. He's where Stewart was this time last year, and like Stewart being expected to play some NRL footy this year, i expect Sanders to be in the running to play some NRL footy next year. Maybe like Stewart not until mid year or later but he'll be in the frame.

Yup I'm totally on board with Sanders. We've tried the journeyman path the past few seasons and it doesn't get you anywhere.

[Colk]

Overawed in NSW cup, right.... like I said, lets leave it there.

Oh well we’ll watch him today - he is on Fox. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he doesn’t look ready at reserve grade level let alone pushing first grade anytime soon.

Halfbacks are just different propositions. Outside of say true champion halfbacks or freaks like Nathan Cleary or Andrew Johns or Peter Sterling, most halfbacks aren’t really ready until their early 20’s. Even great ones like Allan Langer and DCE didn’t start until they were in their 20’s. Jack Cogger for instance was massively hyped when he was a teenager. He has now only become an ok first grader in his mid 20’s. Jackson Hastings ditto. Tanah Boyd was the Australian Schoolboys halfback and QLD under 18’s halfback and look at him now.

On the other hand a year ago Ethan Strange had not even made his debut in NSW Cup and when he did it took him a little while to get going. He's now starting and very much holding his own in the NRL.

Chevy Stewart was the same, took him a good half a year to find his feet stepping up at that level, and he's going to be playing NRL football this year. The good ones make strides very quickly and from what i've seen of his Cup performances, Sanders has not been overawed at all, i dont know what you're seeing on that front. I think he's playing within himself and focusing on kicking and defence in a team that he doesnt need to run right now
I think you in particular are entirely too quick to judge players at that level and you havent learnt the lessons on that either.

We’ll see on the last point. I’ve seen enough young players who are hyped who go on to first grade and become just solid first graders. Halfbacks in particular.

He might be an absolute stud but law of averages states that he is more likely going to become either a bloke who is in and out of first grade or a solid first grade halfback. As long as you go in with those expectations that is fine I would have thought.

On your point, I think a lot of people just see what they want to see. For example, you’re seeing a bloke playing within himself because you have it in your head that he is the one whereas I see a bloke who is not there yet. That’s nothing on him because most teenagers aren’t ready for reserve grade/first grade because they’re not confident enough or they are just not physically ready.

[Chicka Chicka Chicka]

For those playing at home, Ethan Sanders watch will commence in about 15 min on Kayo - Eels v Magpies