The Roar
The Roar

The Roar

Ryan O'Connell

Expert

Joined February 2011

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"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting." - George Orwell

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There’s a part of me that’s impressed by the bravado to write the following sentence:

‪“Does Tedesco hate the bright lights? I think so . . . yes, he scored the winning try in Origin last year and yes, he scored the winning try in the grand final last year, but . . . “‬

There’s a larger part of me that’s extremely unimpressed. But hey, I read the piece and commented, so well done! You win! Of course, the modern coverage of sports loses once again though . . .

Smith remains the game’s best player because Tedesco disappears in big moments

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Jul

I certainly respect him coming back from a serious injury. Though it’s touch difficult for me to call him a “good team player” when he came back from the off-season overweight and lacking fitness. That was the beginning of the end of him in Canberra, apparently.

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Excuse my ignorance, but how is that “being a team player”?

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Touche!

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

But not the coach, apparently, who said he wasn’t good enough for the team.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/leilua-reveals-fallout-with-stuart-led-to-raiders-exit-not-scott-arrival-20200127-p53v6e.html

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Haha! Touché!

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

That’s not quite the way it was reported . . .

(Coach Rick Stone:) “Culturally, we have made a decision and made a bit of a stand for what we think is acceptable at our place. I know it’s a hard one to pull the trigger on and possibly, it mightn’t make our team any better but we think for the long run, it will be better for our club.”

The breakdown in the relationship between Leilua and the club can be traced back to Stone’s public criticism of the centre in The Daily Telegraph back in February after he returned to pre-season training from the Four Nations tournament a few weeks prior badly out of shape and weighing 111kg.

At the time, Stone fired a rocket at Leilua because of his poor attitude to training and suggested he was no certainty to start the season in the NRL.

Around the same time, Leilua also had a run-in at training with senior player Beau Scott, who accused him of not putting in.

Leilua’s reaction to the criticism was to seek an immediate release which was when his management first put feelers out with other clubs.”

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Yep, agreed that we’re all experts in hindsight, but I think that’s the issue: many people predicted this when Leilua was signed, rather than just mouthing off now.

If in 3-4 years Joey has matured and eradicated the mental errors in his game, I’ll happily eat humble pie. He won’t be the first player to grow up and change the narrative on his career. But at 28 years of age and ten seasons of experience, time is running out. At a certain point, some players are simply who they are.

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Aiden gets it! 👍

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

No, they weren’t! That’s what makes it a horrible signing! It’s like dating a girl that everyone tells you will break your heart, and then dating her and getting your heart broken anyway.

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

” . . . the people in charge of these Clubs are not silly”. Not sure I could disagree more with that statement! Plenty of clubs, including the Tigers, have made very silly decisions in recent times.

Agreed that many coaches/management back themselves to be the club that can harness a player’s ability and minimise their deficiencies. But like I said, with Leila that is a massive risk, because the evidence is stacked against you. All 3 of Leilua’s previous clubs showed him the door, and if you’ve watched a decent amount of his games, you’ll know what type of player he is.

It’s fine to roll the dice with a player like that, and believe he’ll be better when he’s playing for your club, but when it fails – and the evidence told you it would fail – you need to need to bare the brunt of criticism.

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Well, if you read past the headline, you’ll see it’s a little more nuanced than that, but I take your point, as I hate pieces that are purely based on tweets as well.

Two things though: as mentioned, it’s more about the Leilua signing than the tweet. And second, after Smith attacked fellow News Corp “journos” last year for being sensationalist and bashing refs, he has my respect as someone who isn’t just a headline chaser.

Joey Leilua the “worst signing by any club in the NRL era”? Hmm, he may well be

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Jul

Cheers mate – now that there’s some actually footy, it’s (ironically!) a bit easier to find some time to write!

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

I don’t disagree that it’s (potentially) unfair; but the concept of unfairness during the course of a season is not uncommon.

We could rattle off a number of things that have happened to teams over the years that was “unfair”, but we don’t give the resulting premiers an asterisk because of it.

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

It is quite different, but only in the specifics of what is actually different. The fact is, teams had to adjust in both seasons, in mid-season, to changes in the way the game was officiated. And that advantages some teams and disadvantages others.

(And it’s happened before: the shoulder charge rule came in mid-season, for example. Not sure how much that would advantage some teams or not, but it’s still and adjustment players needed to make.)

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

But is that any different to the crackdown on the ruck last year? Which they then reversed halfway through the season? Penalties decreased by 20% or more at one stage. Didn’t that advantage/disadvantage teams last season in much the same way?

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

I concur.

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

😂

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

Not often we disagree, TB, but here we are! Guess it would be boring if agreed with each other all the time!

eels47 has actually saved me a lot of time by replying with what I was going to say, but one thing I’d add to, is your point around ‘magnified’. I do things are magnified this season, but that merely draws more attention to the changes. The reality is, if you magnified every season, you could find things that arguably deserve an asterisk.

Last season the refs changed how they called the game during the season, going from a ‘crack down’ to totally reversing it, mid-season, which advantaged/disadvantaged different teams. The Origin period advantages/disadvantages teams every single season (and no two seasons the same either). There are inequities in the draw each year which advantage/disadvantage teams. Etc, etc.

However, these changes weren’t/aren’t as magnified as they are this season, therefore no one talks about previous seasons with an asterisk, when in reality, if you pushed hard, you probably could.

Each season brings its own challenges, and when everyone is facing the same ones, I don’t believe any type of asterisk should be put next to the premier – especially this season.

Forget an asterisk, the 2020 NRL premiers may be the most impressive winners ever

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Jun

You were right . . . I did enjoy! And you’re 100% right – the lack of data, analytics and analysis in rugby league is quite staggering.

Using the comparison of the NBA, where is the data that shows defenders Corey Norman will put up a bomb 92% of the time he goes right on the fifth tackle inside 20 metres (and that the kick will go out on the full . . . jokes).

The sooner teams are run by smart people, the better.

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun

Can we just do the end of the season instead?

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun

Well, in 2015:
– Canberra were 2 wins out of the top 4
– Parramatta were 2 wins out from finishing 7th
– And Newcastle – despite winning the wooden spoon – were 2 wins out of the 8 (and looking at their roster, it wasn’t completely horrible!)

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun

*whispering: it’s not that great of a side, is it?!

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun

Totally agree. there does need to be market correction with Milford, Hunt, Johnson, etc, are getting that type of money.

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun

Happy birthday Snorky!

Hey NRL, where did all the talent go?

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Jun
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