Watson shakes his head despite it being confirmed out by video.

Watson. Learn to play straight instead of across the line, or better yet, don’t try to score 4 off the first ball after drinks you fool!

Gordon? Do you mean Ashley Gordon? Michael Gordon has done nothing to suggest he is remotely close to Origin form.

I agree, it has had to be his style of play because he has to do that every week with the Tigers so it is kind of what he is used to. Benji might have some amazing skills, but he is more of an entertaining sideshow than an organiser.

I tend to think Farah could be the most influential Blue as well. Gallen is important and captain, no question, but he isn’t a shadow of his former self right now (for whatever reason).

Maybe it is unfair.

But after Armstrong, what is fair? He (Gallen) is linked with it, his performance has dropped considerably (not skills, but performance) and it has been very dramatic. To say it is age is more of a stretch (IMO) given how sharply the drop in form is (Again IMO).

Maybe we wouldn’t be as forgiving if it was Steve Matai, Fui Fui or someone who wasn’t the NSW captain. Cadel Evans won a TDF, then there was a big drug scandal in the sport, a few months after the scandal he can barely pedal a bicycle with any sort of forward momentum, and it is “because he is getting old”. Nobody even questions him because he is our first TDF champion.

Its been a pretty steep decline though. Maybe there is a reason he has been able to carry is state and club for the last two or three years (something he didn’t really do before in terms of work rate) and thus has been a “freak”. Sooner or later, given the situation with that club, questions have to be asked.

I don’t think it is a joke.

I mean Gallen has not had the same enrgy for a full 80 minutes that he has been able to produce in previous seasons. It keeps getting put down to the stress of the investigation which undoubtedly is part of it, but at what point are questions going to start to be asked? I think the difference has been quite obvious to this point.

I agree with Gallen that he can’t play the role he did last year in Origin. Since he stopped taking the peps ( i mean since the distraction of the peps) he doesn’t seem to be able to have the same impact in a game.

It is sad, and i don’t doubt the relevance to the Polyneasian community and expectations of young stars. I’m sure similar studies have been done in the US with Black ahtletes coming from poverty and the impact family has when they start making money and the pressures to support large families.

My understanding is the NRL do a fair bit in the welfare space, probably above and beyond what they are required to and what most of us recieve from our employers. They can probably tailor something to the Polynesian community, but I would think that it is a bigger societal issue within that community and should be something experts are funding and driving (with the help of athletes not by athletes)

Can we at least get some terms right?

Fa’oso’s tackles (certainly his second one) weren’t spear tackles, they were dangerous throws. Difference is small, but difference exists.

Sorry dude

Anyone who hits the ball then hits the head gets suspended – well usually, the judicary are known to be inconsistent. Backs usually do get away with more (and certain hookers.. Buderus). Fui, as an example taps a bloke on the shoulder to say hello and he gets two weeks. I remember him getting 5 weeks for hitting Berrick Barnes when he not only came off the ball, but Barnes was falling.

You hit the head you get suspended. You go as high as Matai did with a swinging arm which has little control, you run the risk of bouncing up into the head.

He deserved a week, he got a week. Well he would have got off if he hadn’t been in the wrong so many times before.

No, I was replying to the first poster (Nev) but didn’t get the reply in the right spot. To reiterate that point for Nev the Eels won 35 games in a 10 year period from 1952-1961 including 8 wooden spoons.

As for the comparison to Souths and Maggies sides, I get your point, the counter would be that in those more uneven comps, there should have been more weak teams that Souths and the Maggies would have been competitive against, but they weren’t. There was six teams in the 99 season that finished with a for and against worse than -150

Here is the line-up from their last game of that 1999 season, i know it is only jibber, but I think that team is a fair bit worse than the one the Eels are trotting out.

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/games/1999/199908290224.html

I’m trying to work out how they got 7,500 to that last round 60-16 point loss!

You know what, I wrote my reasoning in a reply but because as i said, this article was supposed to be more fun, so I just deleted it rather than get into a back and fourth with you which will not change either of our opinions. I’ve written my reasons before, so I am not going to do it here again. But take heart in the fact that you need not pity me, I am comfortable in my life, you just keep supporting Manly… 🙂

They behave at member functions do they! We’ll blow me down, if they don’t behave for an hour in an environment where they are told how to behave. I mean have you ever heard of any players from any club getting into trouble at a members or sponsors function?… oh wait….

Have we not done this to death? Can’t we just leave it as this article was a slightly more fun way of ragging on the teams/individuals we don’t like?

Why is it “choice bro”? Why not, “that’s really cool”? 🙂

I agree, as much as I don’t like Manly, North Sydney only have North Sydney to blame. Maybe it was a case of “nice guy’s never win”, but they failed to step up.

You’ve hit on two things for me Ferret;

Rab’s (grrrrr), how quiet did he go when he saw the replay of “Brett” cocking an elbow into Evringham the other night?!
But not only does he do the first name thing, but when he does just use the centre and captain’s surname it is “lyon”, but when he add’s the first name, his name weirdly becomes “Jamie Lyons”. Infuriating for MAnly and non-Manly supporters is suspect.

As for the Giant Cat himself (messer Lyon) and his whinging, referee Klein took way too much rubbish the other night. Like when he penalises for inside the 10m and says, standing right next to DCE, “Offside. Daly Cherry Evans went early”. Lyon defends right next to DCE and wanted to question it. What is there is to explain? Evans is penalised for offside, you heard the what it was for, why do you possibly need to talk to the ref? Someday, they will put him on notice and he will get binned, then watch Toovey’s maroon and white eyes pop out of his forehead.

By the way Nice article Ryan. I don’t hate Manly because of they have had success, because other teams have had success, and I don’t hate them. I hate them for the reasons you listed, that they have a long line of players over the years who have similar records, and that they think they are hard done by when in fact it is the complete opposite. I also hate that grown adults as fans, maybe can’t turn off their support, but how they can take children to cheer for people, not players, but people like Watmough, Matai, the Stewarts etc, when their off field behaviour, never mind their on-field behaviour (of which, to be fair, Watmough’s isn’t too bad) is something they would not want to see their own children around. – or maybe they would which I guess is a reflection on them.

Good Grief.

I have previously been a member of Parramatta and a season ticketholder at Parramatta.

As bad as this side is it wouldn’t make the top 10 worst sides the Eels have ever put out, maybe not the top 20. Dating back to their very early days when they had the odd superstar like a Thornett, surrounded by nobodies, through to the early ninties when Brett Kenny was trying to set up Robert Muchmore, to Tulsen Tollett chip and chasing for Vince Fawcett, this is just another poor Eels side. Heck it isn’t that long ago that Jamie Lyon screwed the club and left them in a salary cap hole so the side had the corpses of Darren Tracey, Ben Duckworth and Corey Pearson playing for them in a side where Pearson (prop) was the best ball player!

As for the article, is a bit confusing. The league is more comeptitive now, the 2013 Eels will win more games in this more competitive competition, won’t concede as many points, but may be worse than those Souths and Magpies sides of the late 90’s early 2000’s?

Agree Hinchcliffe covers the forwards and hooker and you have Lewis on the bench to cover the forwards and backline (and he only gets a start because of previous good performances at Origin level). Hoffman starts though ahead of Lewis, his form is too good and he ha splenty of big match experience.

And Hayne will be on a wing. He has played well for NSW and contrary to the opinion of the author, actually isn’t in poor form.

Actually basketball struggles in this country because it is too much “you miss, we miss” from a bunch of underwhelming athletes.

Well me for one…

I have no beef having sporting fixtures on ANZAC Day, but they are commercialising it for finanical gain instead of simply bringing forward service men and women past and present, so that we can show our repsect and gratitude and then get on with a gold old fashion sporting contest.

I don’t see the need for Soccer/football to chime in. I think any attempt to do so would be looked at with questions from the public as to the motives.

Socceroos v Turkey? Wallabies v French? All well and good but ANZAC day is about more than just one War and doesn’t reflect or represent the tens of thousands of men and women who have served Australia right across the world.

I’m with Oikee…

And so is Phil Gould who is pushing to be allowed to play NSW Cup as the curtain raiser and Holden Cup before hand (where itisn’t a tlevised HC match.

The NSW Cup has a live game on each week on Fox this year and to date it has been significantly better quality than Holden Cup. Lets face it Holden Cup is just Jersey Flegg.

The other big issue with using H/Cup as essentially the platofrm for firsts is that all the players are starting in first grade at a younger age, so at the back end of their careers, instead of being able to play until they are in their mid 30’s they will be done by 29 or 30. In 10 or 15 years time first grade will look a lot like Holden Cup at this rate.

And he can’t differentiate between islander players which, apart from being racist when he makes jokes about it, is a rather large problem given the increased number of polynesian players in the game.

Yes Hadley was cranky because,according to him Smith has PA’s on top of PA’s who wouldn’t take his calls. The irony of Hadley’s rant is that he probably has a staff twice as large as Smith doing all of his dirty work and making the calls for him.. So Hadley was probably more cranky because he wanted to yell at his staff for not getting through to Smith, but he has a few organisations watching the way he treats his staff very closely…

Timmy
I guess your first comments reflect the issue. The author can tell you all about the games played on ANZAC day, can recall quotes from coaches and adminstrators, but gets the facts wrong as to the history of our Country as it relates to our involvement in war.

I have no problem with afternoon/evening games being played on ANZAC day, as most of the official services are done in the morning. I think it is a great opportunity to show our respect for service men and women past and present, by acknowledging them before games, providing them with opportunites to be guests at the ground and be in attendance. But any more than that, like linking players and their actions to acts of those in the military and the over the top pieces done by the television networks is just commercialising patriotism and that, to me, is pretty disrespectful.