Shafted once again

[Brookie1973]

Should have been smart after the 2008 grand final and burnt Brookie down.
Worked for Parramatta back in the 80's, nice new stadium built as a replacement.

I will never see a new stadium at Brookie in my life time, I doubt my unborn grandkids will either.

I actually like brookie just the way it is. It has the right balance of modern and old school, and when packed for a night match, there is no better sight in rugby league. No bias of course.

 

[Frogz]

Agree. Although not a hell of a lot happened even when we had a decent local member.

Yes state and federal

 

[Rafferty]

And yet no one can come up with a credible alternative. I agree it does throw a spanner in the season but it is the most lucrative money spinner for the NRL and it’s a massive point of difference for the sport. So it’s not going anywhere. And all other alternatives have serious issues.

Here’s the alternative, play it at the end of the season, most footy fans hate the season ending, the commercial value drys up, it’s over for another year, so use SOO to extend the season, extend the money grab and leave the NRL competition to be just that.

In the good old days we had the Kangaroo tour to look forward too, these days the end of year crap they come up with now is dreadful, I get the expansion exercise and all that goes with it.

Play a 3 game series 2 weeks after the GF simples, keep it midweek, played at night, places no disadvantages to any sides during the regular season, no risk of injury loss to the rep players for the clubs, just seems the best and fairest answer, it wouldn’t lose a thing in overall terms.

 

[Disco]

The point is, we probably could if both sides had their best teams. As it stands, Cleary will play halfback so Moses will be there to guide the Eels with pretty much a full strength team. We’ll probably have Talau at 5/8 😂

Personally think it will be Moses and Cleary in the halves

 

[Disco]

Here’s the alternative, play it at the end of the season, most footy fans hate the season ending, the commercial value drys up, it’s over for another year, so use SOO to extend the season, extend the money grab and leave the NRL competition to be just that.

In the good old days we had the Kangaroo tour to look forward too, these days the end of year crap they come up with now is dreadful, I get the expansion exercise and all that goes with it.

Play a 3 game series 2 weeks after the GF simples, keep it midweek, played at night, places no disadvantages to any sides during the regular season, no risk of injury loss to the rep players for the clubs, just seems the best and fairest answer, it wouldn’t lose a thing in overall terms.

I personally loathed SOO at the end of the year,

Hope that never happens.

I'm all for a mid season break.

Origin 3 straight Wednesdays.

Half the teams have the bye prior to game one, the other half post game 3, Origing 3 players cant backup.

Womens SOO, Under 19s SOO NZ/Tonga/Samoa/Fiji/Cook Islands/PNG tests on the rwo weekends in between.

Yes yes the NRL stops for 2 weekends and teams have a 3 week break but that allows a reset, get some injured players back etc.

A real festival of rep footy then back to the NRL with minimal disruption.

 

[Rafferty]

I personally loathed SOO at the end of the year,

Hope that never happens.

I'm all for a mid season break.

Origin 3 straight Wednesdays.

Half the teams have the bye prior to game one, the other half post game 3, Origing 3 players cant backup.

Womens SOO, Under 19s SOO NZ/Tonga/Samoa/Fiji/Cook Islands/PNG tests on the rwo weekends in between.

Yes yes the NRL stops for 2 weekends and teams have a 3 week break but that allows a reset, get some injured players back etc.

A real festival of rep footy then back to the NRL with minimal disruption.

I don’t mind that idea, but it still doesn’t remove the associated disadvantages, re injured players, the use of rep players over the 3 straight weeks, while the rest get a 2 week brake.

SOO creates an unfair impact on the sides with player representation, it seems ridiculous to run a mid season spectacle in the middle of a serious competition, the real aim of any NRL side is or should be to win a premiership.

Take Daly as just one example, this year, he wants to play origin and probably will, does that help us, no, because he struggled to come up after last years series, his a year older now, his moving on in any case, it could be said he cares more about another SOO series campaign than us and that wouldn’t matter if the series was played after the GF.

It’s not about what I’d like, just mentioned end of season as an alternative to take away any perceived disadvantages, in saying that the comp overall is so far out of whack, with 17 teams and an unbalanced draw.

So I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway. I also can’t see the NRL changing the process in any case, just thought playing at seasons end was an option to remove the associated disadvantages to sides with players involved.

 

[silvereagle]

I think the entire NRL is screwed at SOO time. It’s the biggest own goal to run a competition with such a glaring lack of equity, smack bang in the middle of the season. It disrupts the competition for almost two months and some players come back so fatigued, they drop in form and/or in Turbo’s case, get injured and derail our season.

It’s not about making excuses, it’s the principle of a competition with a big asterisk next to its validity.

Yes it's a dead set Handicap system. The NRL equivalent of the Stawell Gift. Crazy. You would think the bleeding obvious would be to showcase the SOO at the END of the Premiership. But then again I am sure that's way too simple a solution!!!

 

[sheridanstand78]

I personally loathed SOO at the end of the year,

Hope that never happens.

I'm all for a mid season break.

Origin 3 straight Wednesdays.

Half the teams have the bye prior to game one, the other half post game 3, Origing 3 players cant backup.

Womens SOO, Under 19s SOO NZ/Tonga/Samoa/Fiji/Cook Islands/PNG tests on the rwo weekends in between.

Yes yes the NRL stops for 2 weekends and teams have a 3 week break but that allows a reset, get some injured players back etc.

A real festival of rep footy then back to the NRL with minimal disruption.

I think a 3 week pause in June is ideal for Origin to be played on back to back weekends and allow the Pasifikas to have their derbies as well.

The competition is so compromised and unfair in that some teams get byes during it while others are playing weakened teams. I despise the unfairness of that!

 

[Disco]

I don’t mind that idea, but it still doesn’t remove the associated disadvantages, re injured players, the use of rep players over the 3 straight weeks, while the rest get a 2 week brake.

SOO creates an unfair impact on the sides with player representation, it seems ridiculous to run a mid season spectacle in the middle of a serious competition, the real aim of any NRL side is or should be to win a premiership.

Take Daly as just one example, this year, he wants to play origin and probably will, does that help us, no, because he struggled to come up after last years series, his a year older now, his moving on in any case, it could be said he cares more about another SOO series campaign than us and that wouldn’t matter if the series was played after the GF.

It’s not about what I’d like, just mentioned end of season as an alternative to take away any perceived disadvantages, in saying that the comp overall is so far out of whack, with 17 teams and an unbalanced draw.

So I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway. I also can’t see the NRL changing the process in any case, just thought playing at seasons end was an option to remove the associated disadvantages to sides with players involved.

For mine, all the unfairness talk aside, I think for most seasons the best teams finish towards the top of the table and generally the best team wins it.

I think you'll also see a strong correlation between the teams with the most rep players generally performing the best.

And we are not alone.

Look at football, top Premier league, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A clubs lose majority of squads to international breaks where players can fly half way across the world. Top clubs could also find themselves playing deep in 4 competions sometimes and extra 20 odd games.

All in all mountain out of a molehill IMO.

Sure I think there is a better way but I think we define our season, not a SOO draw

 

[Brookie1973]

For mine, all the unfairness talk aside, I think for most seasons the best teams finish towards the top of the table and generally the best team wins it.

I think you'll also see a strong correlation between the teams with the most rep players generally performing the best.

And we are not alone.

Look at football, top Premier league, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A clubs lose majority of squads to international breaks where players can fly half way across the world. Top clubs could also find themselves playing deep in 4 competions sometimes and extra 20 odd games.

All in all mountain out of a molehill IMO.

Sure I think there is a better way but I think we define our season, not a SOO draw

I think SOO creates unique issues for Manly, as our squad is too heavily reliant on a couple of stars who usually aren’t available during SOO. Most other teams have better balanced squads to better manage SOO. Hopefully we are now going down the path to address those imbalances.

 

[LeonardCohen]

Can’t stand origin and barely watch it these days. Never really been a fan tbh.

I can cop the origin period but every team should see at least one bye pre an origin match. The fact we are playing three games without players is a bit rubbish this year. Especially when Broncs, Storm, Penrith, eels, Tigers, Titans and Warriors play one game without players.

Fingers crossed we don’t lose players. But you just know we’ll lose three (dce, tom and Haumole)

Yeah and then we’d get calls to sack everyone if we didn’t make the eight, but without Origin, we might have.

It can directly impact a team’s success, or lack of.

 

[LeonardCohen]

And yet no one can come up with a credible alternative. I agree it does throw a spanner in the season but it is the most lucrative money spinner for the NRL and it’s a massive point of difference for the sport. So it’s not going anywhere. And all other alternatives have serious issues.

I don’t think the end of season has issues, outside of money for the NRL that are already loaded.

 

[Rafferty]

For mine, all the unfairness talk aside, I think for most seasons the best teams finish towards the top of the table and generally the best team wins it.

You realise I’m not just talking about Manly and or from our perspective.

I agree, the best teams finish towards the top and that the best teams wins.

That doesn’t really reflect what I was pointing out or trying to.

I think you'll also see a strong correlation between the teams with the most rep players generally performing the best.

Probably right again, but look at our 23 season, I wouldn’t say it was the reason we finished 12th, but if Tom wasn’t hurt, who knows, I’d rather he played out that season with us than finish his season in SOO game 2 and that’s a one off example.

And we are not alone.

Obviously I agree, which just means there’s an imbalance for any side with representation.

Look at football, top Premier league, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A clubs lose majority of squads to international breaks where players can fly half way across the world. Top clubs could also find themselves playing deep in 4 competions sometimes and extra 20 odd games.

Not relevant to me.

All in all mountain out of a molehill IMO.

I’m not making a big deal about it, just don’t think it works in the best interest of winning a premiership and certainly can’t see the equity in it across the board.

Sure I think there is a better way but I think we define our season, not a SOO draw

Again season 23 might of been defined by SOO for us that year and I’m sure it impacts on all the clubs represented as well as those that aren’t, it honestly doesn’t bother me either way, but to think it’s a fair and equitable system, to place in the middle of a premiership season, seems off the mark to me.