The gap between NRL teams.

[nightster]

imho a huge part of the reason for Bellyaches success is that he had Smith, Slater & Cronk together for most of his tenure..... and as for the private jet issue The Storm for all their faults ... fight hard to clear their players unlike Manly who don't even appeal most of the time

 

[MadMarcus]

Stewart had the ability to be as good/better than Slater but his body had other ideas. Stewart had him covered before his body gave in. Slater has had a far greater career, there’s no denying it, and he’s still elite at 35.

At the peak of their powers I would have taken Snake over Slater, but Slater has him for longevity and also has the runs in the board in rep games (Snake’s rep career was impeded by injury and politics, and should have been much greater than what it was), so taking their whole careers into account, as much as I loved Snake and hate Slater, you can’t really logically argue that Snake was a better player than Slater.

 

[Harvies elbow]

I think this photo says it all really.

View attachment 9698

It's actually a shot from greenturds rectum.
There's a whole bunch more in there too...

 

[Woodsie]

imho a huge part of the reason for Bellyaches success is that he had Smith, Slater & Cronk together for most of his tenure..... and as for the private jet issue The Storm for all their faults ... fight hard to clear their players unlike Manly who don't even appeal most of the time

Agree ... an argument could be given that in fact that having Scam, Cronk and Studs up in the spine for almost 16 years (given how driven each one is) is not only a huge reason for his success .... but those 3 actually taught him how to coach ... and were instrumental in making each new player into the squad toe the line .....

I would hazard a guess that Bellamy would have still been a good coach ..... but I doubt he would have had a quarter of his success without those 3 and the support of Murdock .....

 

[IQofalimabean]

If brett stewart had played his career at the storm and for qld and slater at manly/nsw. I think brett stewart would easily be regarded the better player. never seen slater play in a garbage nsw team or a manly side in the bottom 8.

 

[globaleagle]

Roosters not so glamorous: Keary

There's a perception in the public that the Roosters, because of the wealth of talent in their roster, have the best of the best in every department.

Luke Keary certainly thought so when he signed to join the club in 2017. But he quickly learnt that perception didn't match reality.

"They didn't take me on a tour of the facilities. I wouldn't have signed if they showed me," Keary joked

"I honestly thought it was this big glamorous and glitzy club with the maddest facilities. But it's the total opposite. It's only a tiny group down there.

"Everyone is in together in this little building with this little gym and a couple of lockers. I wouldn't say it's the bare minimum but it's not as glamorous as everyone thinks."


make of that what you will.

me: nuttin

er.. nrl. com

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

If Billy Slater was a Manly player, and Brett Stewart was from the Storm, you wouldn't even remotely consider Brett Stewart on a par with Billy Slater.
Billy is better in every facet of the game except support play, which led to Stewart's higher try scoring rate.
Let alone the fact that Slater is 35 and still at the top of his game, and Stewart is 33 and 2 years retired. I'm a Manly fan (and a Stewart fan) through and through, but I'll call things for what they are, not through some Manly tinted glasses.
Have a poll on any neutral based Rugby League forum, and Billy would get 90% of the vote.

Stewart was 5 years ahead of Slater as a ball player setting up his teammates. Not sure if there is a stat available, but even playing a mile less games than Slater I wouldn't be surprised if Stewart had more try assists and line break assists than him

In 2008, Stewart was ahead of Slater and would have been the Australian fullback,that was the point injuries took hold of him and robbed him of the few years he would have needed to be an all time great

 

[mave]

That cant be right.
I thought you needed the top line, brand new demountables to be able to compete in this comp.

 

[globaleagle]

Melb storm players car park:

 

[maxta]

Both Champion fullbacks
Brett better tackler by a way with copybook tackles, not with his studs
Brett faster yet Slater more elusive
Both exceptional positionally.
I think Brett was part of a physical team and played a little tougher, not calling Slater weak, but he can be ragdolled far easier than Stewart.
Slater makes 100 extra plays off the ball every week and 99/100 times does not get the ball....but it’s the constant threat, how he makes the effort and has the energy to get around the ball all day.
Brett’s freak plays included his team mates on many occasions, where Slater is more a solo act apart from supporting to finish a move, though ball plays at times with a drift across field using his acceleration on a second man play.
All round pretty even, but both at their peak I take Stewart as the overall better player.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

But their T P A :s amount to some 850 k according to the ' official " reporting . far exceeding most clubs . Not a bad advantage to have in any given year irrespective of Bellamy "s coaching rating .

$850k on the books

$$$$$$$$$$ off the books I’d suggest!!

 

[Jethro]

"the salary cap is working perfectly" - Todd Greenberg.


PS The sooner the above is removed from the game and the commission is scrapped the sooner the game will have a chance to improve.

Which? The salary cap or Todd Greenburg or both?

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Both Champion fullbacks
Brett better tackler by a way with copybook tackles, not with his studs
Brett faster yet Slater more elusive
Both exceptional positionally.
I think Brett was part of a physical team and played a little tougher, not calling Slater weak, but he can be ragdolled far easier than Stewart.
Slater makes 100 extra plays off the ball every week and 99/100 times does not get the ball....but it’s the constant threat, how he makes the effort and has the energy to get around the ball all day.
Brett’s freak plays included his team mates on many occasions, where Slater is more a solo act apart from supporting to finish a move, though ball plays at times with a drift across field using his acceleration on a second man play.
All round pretty even, but both at their peak I take Stewart as the overall better player.

The best way to sum them up for me, is Brett made the outstanding play look average, while Billy makes the average play look outstanding

 

[MadMarcus]

Roosters not so glamorous: Keary

There's a perception in the public that the Roosters, because of the wealth of talent in their roster, have the best of the best in every department.

Luke Keary certainly thought so when he signed to join the club in 2017. But he quickly learnt that perception didn't match reality.

"They didn't take me on a tour of the facilities. I wouldn't have signed if they showed me," Keary joked

"I honestly thought it was this big glamorous and glitzy club with the maddest facilities. But it's the total opposite. It's only a tiny group down there.

"Everyone is in together in this little building with this little gym and a couple of lockers. I wouldn't say it's the bare minimum but it's not as glamorous as everyone thinks."


make of that what you will.

me: nuttin

er.. nrl. com

My take away - we don’t have to worry about the Chooks poaching Barrett

 

[Sue]

Both great players.Both could do the unbelievable. Billy gets the nod for mine because of his longevity and his kick returns were in another league to Brett’s.

That was Stewart’s only real fault. He brought the ball back too meekly and surrendered easily, especially in the second half of his career when positive kick returns, fast play the balls and big wingers taking the first two rucks was getting more important.Billy was and is a constant danger on kick returns.

Doesn’t mitigate the fact that Slater is a grade A Grub

 

[Jerry1]

If Billy Slater was a Manly player, and Brett Stewart was from the Storm, you wouldn't even remotely consider Brett Stewart on a par with Billy Slater.
Billy is better in every facet of the game except support play, which led to Stewart's higher try scoring rate.
Let alone the fact that Slater is 35 and still at the top of his game, and Stewart is 33 and 2 years retired. I'm a Manly fan (and a Stewart fan) through and through, but I'll call things for what they are, not through some Manly tinted glasses.
Have a poll on any neutral based Rugby League forum, and Billy would get 90% of the vote.

What you have to consider is that Stewart was a diabetic. He had much more to cope with his health issues not to mention being shat on by the league & some mental ****bag accusing him of fiddling. Never once did I see snake employ grubby tactics. For me studs up is a grubby **** & snake is a legend.

 

[redlineg]

Melb storm players car park:

Funny how the above picture is labelled as Melbourne Storm Players Car Park.
The fact is that at KSA there is a similar picture for Roosters Players Car park.
The Storm have simply learned from their salary cap dramas between 2007-2010 and have simply hid it better/
The same can be said for the rorters!
There can be absolutely now way both clubs are Salary Cap and TPA compliant!

 

[ManEagle]

I will never admit publicly that some storm scum grub f@cker like Billy the slither duck face Slater is better than any Manly Fullback over the past 71 years.
Even if it is true

 

[HoldenV8]

I don't care if I get 500 disagrees, but there is no way that Brett Stewart is a better player than Billy Slater.

Snake was a better attacking player and a better defender than Slater ever was. Not saying for a minute that Slater isn't a great player because he is, no doubt about it. Take away his grub acts and he really is a great player. But nothing will convince me that he was better at his trade than Brett Stewart.

The main reasons Slater gets the accolades are because of his better representative record. It helped that Qld were totally dominant over NSW during that period. Slater played for strong Melbourne and Qld teams while Snake only played for strong Manly teams because NSW certainly weren't. It also helped that at the times when Snake was regarded as the #1 fullback, he generally got injured. He was selected as the #1 fullback for the 2008 World Cup, but then had to withdraw with a shoulder injury before it started. Then came 2009 and 2010 and by the time he came back in 2011, Slater was firmly entrenched as the Kangaroos fullback and with Qld dominating NSW, Snake was up against it to get back into the test squad (Edit: especially since the Kangaroos also had Boyd and 1nglis, themselves top class fullbacks). He even had to pull out of selection for the 2011 Four Nations because of niggling injuries.

Look, the reality is that both were great fullbacks, easily the best of their era and two of the best ever. They both made the sides they played in that much better just by them being there. But Manly bias or not (and I'll fully admit I have that), I do believe Snake was an all-round better player. Its just that history will generally regard Slater as better because of the better record his teams, both club and representative, had.

But its just my opinion. I only speak for myself there.

 

[HoldenV8]

I could never agree that bellamy is a super anything apart from super scumbag, he with his dirty tactics has had a massively negative impact on rugby league. He introduced the dirty wrestling stuff into the game and we are all poorer for it. He should have been run out of the game years ago

Bellamy is a great coach, but his legacy will be forever tarnished in the eyes of all but Melbourne fans for that fact that he is the one who brought in the use of Saturday night wrestling tactics into rugby league.

The really sad part about it is that the teams he has had in Melbourne have been good enough and didn't need to bring in that crap. But the NRL in their infinite wisdom have done virtually nothing about it and now these days you really are up against it if you don't use those same wrestling tactics in tackles.

Bellamy is to blame for bringing wrestling into rugby league, but the NRL is equally guilty for their almost total lack of action to stop it.