Sea Eagles' Feet of Clay

[Rocky]

"They also need a recruitment process that doesn't allow the outstanding young talent they have to slip through their fingers"

This is an interesting comment because I don't feel like we have had many instances of young talent slipping through our fingers.

The best of them in recent years seem to be the likes of Weekes, Humphries and Sam Fainu - they are all good up and comers but they project as no better than "good" first graders.

So does this mean we aren't producing star enough talent internally? In my eyes we have retained the better ones like Haumole, Lehi and Koula but thats only a few names.

 

[KNUCKLES]

Reading the dreaded Weidler this morning I was struck by this quote from Frank Ponissi about Max King:

“It’s so great to see his success now, and he is so deserving of his Blues position. I just wish we got him going at Melbourne. He is our style of player and person.”

Of course he is. We know what a Storm player is like. We have no such thing at Manly. We don't have a Manly style of player and person.

Yep. Culture. You're right Wombat, it's exactly where we need to start again.

Sure we do, cherry has demonstrated our culture for over 10 years now. Spoilt is our type of players.

 

[LeonardCohen]

I think trying to take 10 years of failure and hinge it on a couple of issues is misguided. There have been so many variables in that time that have contributed to missing the mark and/or abject failure.

2015 - Toovey happened to be coaching at time when a number of our premiership stars were coming to the end of their careers. He had Des’ cap nightmare limiting the quality of our roster as well. DCE and Foran’s contracts and ego got in the way too.

2016-2018 - we had outdoor furniture…wait…we backed a terrible rookie coach that turned out to be a dud.

2019-2022 - we actually started to get close to something sustainable and premiership credentialed. Then, Fainu stabbed someone, AFB decided he needed a fresh start if he was ever going to grow up and we kicked an own goal with the Pride jersey.

2023 - 2025 - Tom’s injuries catch up with him, Jake nears retirement and neither play to a standard befitting their huge salaries. DCE walks out on the club. Seibs recruits old forwards in an increasingly fast game, because of a cap squeeze.

Each little mini-era has had its own share of drama and it just hasn’t worked for us. If we are going to get out of this, someone is going to have to prioritise junior development and long term success. The current strategy employed by the club to buy Tigers rejects on the cheap and train and trial deals for old washed up forwards, is not the way out.

 

[nightster]

this constant blaming of the owners feels misplaced. They aren’t involved like Politis and I’m not sure we want them to be. Salaried staff run the joint. It’s fair to say we were always a factional mess until the Fulton influence was finally removed but surely the back office is now cohesive. The DCE saga aside, it feels less chaotic. Manly’s challenge is the lack of pathways compounded by some shocking retention and recruitment. We keep some players too long, let talent leave and pay far too much for a certain few, guaranteeing an unbalanced squad. The sharks, raiders, warriors, dogs all have their valued spread. But all base their squad on young strong forwards. Manly bizarrely believe a small but fast backline can overcome our average pack. Siebold didn’t build this squad but he’s done f’all to improve it. More aging forwards and typical inconsistency. We need a serious review of the team we want to be and the players we want to chase. No more weapons please. Sign some workers, scrappers, players with grit. It’s a long way back with this squad

and promote our talented young players sooner rather than later, or worse, never

 

[Stewbojevic]

Just give the young guys a run. It's working for Parra now, did you see the passion they had. Its working for most teams that do it. F#ck me we are a pack of dinosaurs. Lodge and Brown absolutely zero impact off the bench. Anyone can run off the back fence, but it means nothing if thats all they do.

I would agree except… who are the young guys?

The Roosters have debuted about 5 young forwards this year. We don’t even have that many in our squad!

Navale… maybe Patolo? Do we have anyone else?

 

[lsz]

this constant blaming of the owners feels misplaced. They aren’t involved like Politis and I’m not sure we want them to be. Salaried staff run the joint. It’s fair to say we were always a factional mess until the Fulton influence was finally removed but surely the back office is now cohesive. The DCE saga aside, it feels less chaotic. Manly’s challenge is the lack of pathways compounded by some shocking retention and recruitment. We keep some players too long, let talent leave and pay far too much for a certain few, guaranteeing an unbalanced squad. The sharks, raiders, warriors, dogs all have their valued spread. But all base their squad on young strong forwards. Manly bizarrely believe a small but fast backline can overcome our average pack. Siebold didn’t build this squad but he’s done f’all to improve it. More aging forwards and typical inconsistency. We need a serious review of the team we want to be and the players we want to chase. No more weapons please. Sign some workers, scrappers, players with grit. It’s a long way back with this squad

Who decides what the salaried positions are?

Who decides how much of a budget to allocate to the pathways for the salaried staff to then execute? Removing the factions is certainly an element for things to be running smoother however if you believe that the current ownership looks at the lub as anything other than investment you are dreaming.

Now that is their right. They went through the phase where they had to put their money in (before the NRL grant covered so much etc) and are now, as business owners, getting the benefits.

But to say that blaming the owners is misplaced for me is a million miles off. Lets put it this way if the best credentialed but expensive coach was off contract do you honestly think we would be in the running for him?

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Lets put it this way if the best credentialed but expensive coach was off contract do you honestly think we would be in the running for him?

[thinking...]
No!

 

[master blaster]

Yep, come on boys, we are 3 points from the bottom, you better pull your finger out and quick

 

[Frogz]

I would agree except… who are the young guys?

The Roosters have debuted about 5 young forwards this year. We don’t even have that many in our squad!

Navale… maybe Patolo? Do we have anyone else?

Agree, but whoever we have... no worst than what was trotted out the other night. That was just pathetic. 3 points off last.