The gap between NRL teams.

[MuzztheEagle]

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.
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.

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.

Well put. Slater and a number of other Melbourne players have undoubtedly been great players but stats and accolades aren't everything. I for one will look back on Slater and his grub tactics and think he was definitely NOT one of the greats. The truly great players have brought something to the game that somehow made bigger and better and you felt that when you watched those players (and I include Snake in this list). Bellamy and his team have only made the game lesser to watch.

 

[HoldenV8]

Well put. Slater and a number of other Melbourne players have undoubtedly been great players but stats and accolades aren't everything. I for one will look back on Slater and his grub tactics and think he was definitely NOT one of the greats. The truly great players have brought something to the game that somehow made bigger and better and you felt that when you watched those players (and I include Snake in this list). Bellamy and his team have only made the game lesser to watch.

The only thing I will disagree with is that I do think that Slater is one of the greats (though again, I believe Snake was better and if not for his injuries or NSW being so crap at the time, he would be the one people talk about as the best ever). But everything else I 100% agree with. He was and is an A-Class Grub and Melbourne have definitely made the game harder to watch with their tactics that the NRL have let them get away with for the past 15 years.

 

[HoldenV8]

The sad part about Snake having to pull out of the 2011 Four Nations selection was that had he toured with the Kangaroos, with Slater's injury after his shoulder charge on Ryan Hall went wrong, it could have opened the door for Snake to regain the test fullback spot. But again, it was injury that stopped him being there so the job ended up going to Darius Boyd.

I think another thing that went against him with international selection after he came back in 2011 was that he really was a specialist fullback while Slater, 1nglis and Boyd could all play anywhere in the three-quarters. He often said that he would be happy to play on the wing for Australia, but with Qld dominating Origin, Boyd, 1nglis and Brent Tate were always there and fullback was the only spot left, which Slater had a firm grip on by that stage.

If Snake had been a bit more versatile position wise (something that I believe will help Tommy with his test aspirations because he can also play wing and centre), even with Qld dominating selection because of their Origin dominance and even after he came back from injury, he could easily have been mainstay of the Kangaroos playing fullback, wing or centre. Its just that injury and the fact that the Kangaroos had the one position he played fully covered went against him.

 

[Blake A]

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.

I'm a fan of Stewart, but being a diabetic has nothing to do with measuring who was a better player.

 

[midsteyne]

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

Wombat would have knocked him into next week if the grub had tried a shoulder charge on him,I rate Eadie number 1

 

[conanu]

Interesting debate for sure.... I think you could argue that even since the salary cap he has achieved a pretty good record. Since 2012, the Storm have been in 4 grand finals. They have won 2 and may win a 3rd on Sunday. In my opinion their roster is in no way stacked, yet they continue to succeed.

Bellamy and his cheating allowed the club to keep the big 3 players together when they had the other huge names on the books, other clubs didn't have that luxury of keeping the gun young players from leaving whilst they paid stars to train them up. They are the exact opposite to what kids are taught "Cheaters Never Prosper" well except if you are in the NRL and you are the Storm. They have pushed every rule to the limit, robbed other clubs of legit premierships, broke spines in tackles, Karate kicked heads, two foot studs up & shoulder charged to stop tries and illegally shoulder charged the head of Brett Stewart in 07 GF to take him out. They brought the scourge of the wrestle to the game and when that didn't work Cam Smith elbowed Matt Ballin in the face multiple times and guess what? Nothing happened, no penalty, no charge , .

The thing that made these guys look better than they were was a nearly perfect injury toll. They just never got injured or missed games. But funnily enough they never were talked about when the Peptide scandal broke, yet they seemed to be invincible up to that point. Now with age they are seeing a few bumps here and there but nothing really compared to the average player. They have super-human ability to avoid injury, and even returned from injury months early, how amazing!

Don't be sucked in by the media narrative behind these guys, they are grubs and cheats and should always be remembered that way. Their un-sportsman like conduct throughout the years has ruined the NRL and they represent all that is wrong with the game today. The fact they are held in such high regard disgusts me.

Add to all that, they are now (thanks to a ridiculous TPA system) still cheating by a million a year, but now it is made legal by the NRL. They spend more money above other clubs than they were in their hey day. But the NRL will wait till Scam and Billy retire before they make TPA's public knowledge.

Cant wait for Smith to retire and the massive decline will begin.

 

[SeaEagle21]

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

All i asked myself was would i have swapped Billy for Brett, simple answer (for me anyway) is no. Bias as it might seem to others we as Manly fans saw and most importantly appreciated how good Brett was as a FB.

Like with all things, especially in RL is it's one opinion against others. Of course I am only speaking of comparing players here, not if Billy did a shoulder charge or not that was as clear as day except to Fox, Nein and the NRL where the show must go on.

 

[Fluffy]

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

deeper pockets, lawyers don't come cheap

 

[Fluffy]

I'm a fan of Stewart, but being a diabetic has nothing to do with measuring who was a better player.

It does as it extended his injury time on the sideline. Always took a lot longer to heal than the average player.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

I don’t care for comparisons. Brett Stewart brought me a lot of joy and was a freak. He and Wombat are my favourite two full backs. Don’t care how good any full back from other clubs was. Quite frankly who gives a ****!

 

[Pittwater Legend]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Melbourne make a grand final and almost win it (2016) after Slater had been ruled out for most of the season with a season ending shoulder injury? All Chambers had to do was pass inside to Cronk in the final minutes of that grand final to win it. For us, we looked like shot ducks whenever Stewart was out for large chunks and that occured even when Des Hasler had his mojo. It's a clear points victory for Slater if we're talking about durability and kick returns but in every other facet, Brett Stewart had him beat.

2009 could have seen us go back to back against Slater if Stewart wasn't injured and Orford didn't have a remarkable drop in form.

 

[Blake A]

It does as it extended his injury time on the sideline. Always took a lot longer to heal than the average player.

Such a dumb argument.... It’s like saying ‘Joe Bloggs would have been better than Billy Slater if he didn’t have a missing arm’. Billy Slater’s greatness as the better fullback is in no way clouded by the fact that one of his competitors had diabetes. The reality is Stewart did have diabetes which contributed to him not being the better player. Too many one eyed, ignorant supporters on this website (not aimed at you in particular). I’ll call it as I see it. Like I said yesterday, any neutral vote would give 90% of the vote to Slater... I wonder why that would be.....

 

[Jerry1]

Prior to the rape allegations Stewart was the Australian fullback & the face of the league. After the allegations, subsequent suspension & directly afterward the knee injuries he was never the same. In his early days he was better than Slater.

 

[conanu]

Such a dumb argument.... It’s like saying ‘Joe Bloggs would have been better than Billy Slater if he didn’t have a missing arm’. Billy Slater’s greatness as the better fullback is in no way clouded by the fact that one of his competitors had diabetes. The reality is Stewart did have diabetes which contributed to him not being the better player. Too many one eyed, ignorant supporters on this website (not aimed at you in particular). I’ll call it as I see it. Like I said yesterday, any neutral vote would give 90% of the vote to Slater... I wonder why that would be.....

Blake, Im going to say this once. If you really love Melbourne as much as you do, then you are clearly supporting the wrong club. Its hard enough to listen to the media pull themselves off over these cheats without having to listen to “so called” Manly fans arguing the point on silvertails that Melbourne are better than us. If you want that then join the Melbourne forum and go pump up their tyres. I come here to seek sanctuary and escape the idiot sheep but clearly someone left the farm gate open. Thank god for the block option.

 

[mickqld]

Here's an interesting fact if anyone thinks the drizzle are worth anything more than sht.
Storm draws on average 0.33% of the Melbourne city population to their home games.
Manly draws 3.3% of the Northern Sydney population.
The Donkeys draw 1.45% of the Brisbane city population.
Maybe these media drongos might like to look at relative facts when they try to put the boot into Manly.

 

[Peter C]

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.

We really only saw the very best of Brett Stewart from 2006-2008, once he did his knees in 2009 and again in 2010, he was never the same player again, however in that three year period, he was the equal , if not better than Slater and if uninjured would have probably broken Ken Irvine's try scoring record.

 

[Blake A]

Blake, Im going to say this once. If you really love Melbourne as much as you do, then you are clearly supporting the wrong club. Its hard enough to listen to the media pull themselves off over these cheats without having to listen to “so called” Manly fans arguing the point on silvertails that Melbourne are better than us. If you want that then join the Melbourne forum and go pump up their tyres. I come here to seek sanctuary and escape the idiot sheep but clearly someone left the farm gate open. Thank god for the block option.

Well said... I’m Manly through and through... I just get sick of our supporters playing the victim card on here. The world isn’t out to get Manly. The mess we are in as a club is our own fault.... nobody else’s. At a time where we should be taking ownership of our errors, all we do is blame someone else. But like I said, I hear what you’re saying.

 

[sheridanstand78]

The game has always been about haves and have nots, In the 70's and 80's we had the power, we had the best administrator in the land and we were backed by the likes of the Packer empire. Brookvale oval back then was the envy of the suburban Sydney grounds.

The reality of today is that our club has fallen behind, due mostly to our own dysfunction and planning. We have a dilapidated home ground which needs urgent repair, we have seen a record player turnover and our recruitment decisions have left many of us questioning what the hell is going on?

It hurts to say that but we are miles behind our main rivals at the moment in every facet. The clock is ticking to make the changes necessary to make us competitive on and off the field and the owners have to accept that we are now labelled as salary cap cheats under their watch!!

What need to happen now is the culprits behind this mess, have to be removed and we need strong governance and leadership to put the club back together. The owners have to stop this divide and conquer style and get everyone on board!

 

[mickqld]

The game has always been about haves and have nots, In the 70's and 80's we had the power, we had the best administrator in the land and we were backed by the likes of the Packer empire. Brookvale oval back then was the envy of the suburban Sydney grounds.

The reality of today is that our club has fallen behind, due mostly to our own dysfunction and planning. We have a dilapidated home ground which needs urgent repair, we have seen a record player turnover and our recruitment decisions have left many of us questioning what the hell is going on?

It hurts to say that but we are miles behind our main rivals at the moment in every facet. The clock is ticking to make the changes necessary to make us competitive on and off the field and the owners have to accept that we are now labelled as salary cap cheats under their watch!!

What need to happen now is the culprits behind this mess, have to be removed and we need strong governance and leadership to put the club back together. The owners have to stop this divide and conquer style and get everyone on board!

How is the state of Brookvale oval our fault. Since the 80s there's been Parra stadium and now rebuilt, Kogarah oval major upgrades and Woolongong, Newcastle new stadium, Campbelltown and Shark park new grandstands, Penrith major upgrade, Anz and Allianze stadiums, even Belmore had grandstand upgrade. Council and state govt have done nothing to help our cause.

 

[sheridanstand78]

How is the state of Brookvale oval our fault. Since the 80s there's been Parra stadium and now rebuilt, Kogarah oval major upgrades and Woolongong, Newcastle new stadium, Campbelltown and Shark park new grandstands, Penrith major upgrade, Anz and Allianze stadiums, even Belmore had grandstand upgrade. Council and state govt have done nothing to help our cause.

The great failure is the talkfest has come to zilch. All we got is an extension to the Jane try stand and lighting. We've had prime minister and premiers as local members and nothing has changed. We are going to be forced out if something doesn't change soon.