Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:30 pm  

100% Warrior wrote:

Got a “meh” type feeling over this one. There’s a reason he’s 1 NRL game and it sure as hell isn’t business reasons. If he was good enough, he’d be playing or will have played regularly. I just find that excuse utter nonsense and a soft excuse. He may be a full PNG international and captain of Burleigh Bears but with 1 NRL game it says “not good enough”.

If he couldn’t play NRL because of business reasons my question is what’s changed? He’d get paid more in the NRL than he does here - why lose money? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

If he does sign of course I’ll give him my backing and hope he does well but from what I’ve heard and saw (even on YouTube) I’m hardly impressed.

I get the point and I may well have imagined the work thing.

I remember there was a real buzz about him 5 or 6 years ago after he played for the Queensland Residents side and questions about how come he hadn’t been picked up by an NRL team after a dominant display, and I’m sure that was a reason floated about at the time.

Robust experienced Prop who has a good engine, strong carry and plays big minutes.

I think there was similar feelings of apathy when we signed Singleton. Not good enough for Leeds etc etc.

I’m not going to say he is up there with Shane Webke but I feel he could be a real asset should he sign mainly because of his ability to generate a quick PTB and get the team rolling forward and he offers a different style of play to any Props we currently have on the books.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:30 pm  

jonh wrote:

It’s an opinion that I believe they wouldn’t finish bottom of SL the standard in that league is very high.

getting a semi pro player upto pace might take some time, took Bullock a while and hes younger as the training will be harder to start with

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:31 pm  

jonh wrote:

I get the point and I may well have imagined the work thing.

I remember there was a real buzz about him 5 or 6 years ago after he played for the Queensland Residents side and questions about how come he hadn’t been picked up by an NRL team after a dominant display, and I’m sure that was a reason floated about at the time.

Robust experienced Prop who has a good engine, strong carry and plays big minutes.

I think there was similar feelings of apathy when we signed Singleton. Not good enough for Leeds etc etc.

I’m not going to say he is up there with Shane Webke but I feel he could be a real asset should he sign.

I just dont get it, hes been signed by loads of clubs just never plays for them, maybe an attitude issue (total guess with no substance)

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:52 pm  

I don’t know anything about the guy but I wouldn’t write him off totally on his lack of NRL appearances. It’s such a big sport Down Under that some guys don’t seem to get the breaks and Lammy may well have thought this guy was good enough to warrant one for years. I had a look at the Burleigh Bears website and noticed a piece about Jamal Fogerty. He has been playing Queensland cup for years and got picked up by Gold Coast and Justin Holbrook at 26 years of age last season. He went on to have a very good season and now at 27 has signed for two more years.

It seems a huge jump to go from that comp to Superleague for us but I’d probably look at somebody like Joe Bullock and take comfort from his signing when it comes to somebody like this. I would guess it’s a better level in the Queensland Cup than the third tier here and it sounds like this guy is one of the better players. Players circumstances and just a lack of a lucky break hold them back from playing at a higher level earlier sometimes.

Nothing to lose IMO.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:00 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I don’t know anything about the guy but I wouldn’t write him off totally on his lack of NRL appearances. It’s such a big sport Down Under that some guys don’t seem to get the breaks and Lammy may well have thought this guy was good enough to warrant one for years. I had a look at the Burleigh Bears website and noticed a piece about Jamal Fogerty. He has been playing Queensland cup for years and got picked up by Gold Coast and Justin Holbrook at 26 years of age last season. He went on to have a very good season and now at 27 has signed for two more years.

It seems a huge jump to go from that comp to Superleague for us but I’d probably look at somebody like Joe Bullock and take comfort from his signing when it comes to somebody like this. I would guess it’s a better level in the Queensland Cup than the third tier here and it sounds like this guy is one of the better players. Players circumstances and just a lack of a lucky break hold them back from playing at a higher level earlier sometimes.

Nothing to lose IMO.

It's the age combined with the lack of apps that puts me off. If he was 25 I'd be a lot more interested.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:09 pm  

Grimmy wrote:

It's the age combined with the lack of apps that puts me off. If he was 25 I'd be a lot more interested.

But he is a Prop and 28-32 is probably your peak.

If we were signing a relative unknown Prop who is 25 I’d be far more concerned than I am with us looking at someone in their prime for their position given the balance of the Props we have.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:42 am  

jonh wrote:

But he is a Prop and 28-32 is probably your peak.

If we were signing a relative unknown Prop who is 25 I’d be far more concerned than I am with us looking at someone in their prime for their position given the balance of the Props we have.

First sentence is kind of my point. At/past his peak and he still hasn't broken through. With a younger player you would hope there's still more development in them. This feels to me like the opposite of what has made us successful over the last decade or so. Giving an old antipodean a game instead of putting faith in the lads in our system.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:55 am  

Grimmy wrote:

First sentence is kind of my point. At/past his peak and he still hasn't broken through. With a younger player you would hope there's still more development in them. This feels to me like the opposite of what has made us successful over the last decade or so. Giving an old antipodean a game instead of putting faith in the lads in our system.

We have on our books at the moment 2 seasoned props.

1 of those is Clubb.

We don’t need a 25 year old.

Time will tell, if he signs, but I’m personally ok with this because of what he brings.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:05 am  

jonh wrote:

We have on our books at the moment 2 seasoned props.

1 of those is Clubb.

We don’t need a 25 year old.

Time will tell, if he signs, but I’m personally ok with this because of what he brings.

Which of Singleton and Bullock are you not counting as seasoned? Plus obviously Isa who does pretty much the same job even if he may be named at LF. I'll ignore Clark as I'm guessing he'll go (although he's pictured training still).

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:22 am  

Grimmy wrote:

Which of Singleton and Bullock are you not counting as seasoned? Plus obviously Isa who does pretty much the same job even if he may be named at LF. I'll ignore Clark as I'm guessing he'll go (although he's pictured training still).

Clearly Bullock.

It’s not rocket science is it?

Isa isn’t a prop, Isa is a workhorse second row. A very good one in my opinion.

For me he isn’t a middle either and as far as I am aware he hasn’t played in that role except maybe when injuries during games have required it.

I appreciate you have a tendency to name players in strange positions but if you were hoping for our Props next year to be Bullock, Singleton, Isa and Harvard supported by a bunch of kids then I’d like a pint of what you are on.

I’ve seen a few posts on here saying they are not impressed with the link to Page, because he hasn’t been an NRL regular.

I’m of the opinion his style will suit SL very well particularly under the new rules and if he does sign I trust Lam who will know him very well and my own judgement of his positive attributes over those who are not impressed because they have never heard of him.

If he signs time will tell who is right.