Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:00 am  

The fact only 3 years ago our Grand Final side had 0 Australians, just Tommy and 2 french lads and now we are scrambling over quota spots just shows the mismanagement.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:54 am  

NSW wrote:

The fact only 3 years ago our Grand Final side had 0 Australians, just Tommy and 2 french lads and now we are scrambling over quota spots just shows the mismanagement.

Absolutely.

The signing of Field seemed unnecessary at the time and as though it had been done because they expected one of French or Hastings to leave. We now probably do need him but we then sign Leuluai up to a new deal, which just seems bonkers. I like Isa and wanted to sign him back up but if they had planned to keep Leuluai on, you’d have probably understood if they’d have parted ways, especially given how many good young backrowers we have and Farrell and Bateman cover the need for experience. We sign a quota wingman from the Championship, who has no real top flight history down inder. Now I like the looks of the guy and I think he could go really well but getting a homegrown winger would seem easier than getting a homegrown halfback, so again you could live without that signing.

Those three moves have tied our hands. We could only afford to make two of them IMO.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:35 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

They alluded to it at the forum with him selecting multiple players who weren't fit.

Who alluded to it?

The club or supporters.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:39 am  

Ruddy Duck wrote:

Who alluded to it?

The club or supporters.

He picked players that weren't fit. Do you think he listened to his support staff (analysts, physios, coaches etc) when making those selections?

I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, but seeing as he demanded a signing (Sammut) and then didn't pick him I'm pretty confident in my maths skills.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:13 am  

Yeah the idea that Sammut was Lam's choice seems odd, given that, whatever you think about him, the fact is that he wasn't given much of a shot at Wigan.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:12 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

They alluded to it at the forum with him selecting multiple players who weren't fit.

There are two mentions of injuries, are there others you are referring to? What they do not definitely say is that Lam acted against advice, it could simply be a viewpoint in hindsight.

French
What that did do it meant that he came into the season completely underprepared to be brutally honest. He needed a good five or six weeks of more pre-season training and him to get his body right to play. So that’s a reflection of something that I believe we could have done better. I think he was probably selected a little bit early, four or five more weeks, and we might have been in a different position.

Burgess
They only mentioned him turning up overweight, working him too hard in pre-season.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:33 pm  

nathan_rugby wrote:

There are two mentions of injuries, are there others you are referring to? What they do not definitely say is that Lam acted against advice, it could simply be a viewpoint in hindsight.

French
What that did do it meant that he came into the season completely underprepared to be brutally honest. He needed a good five or six weeks of more pre-season training and him to get his body right to play. So that’s a reflection of something that I believe we could have done better. I think he was probably selected a little bit early, four or five more weeks, and we might have been in a different position.

Burgess
They only mentioned him turning up overweight, working him too hard in pre-season.

As I said above, may be me getting 5 from 2+2 but if a player isn't fit and we know he isn't fit then someone somewhere within the coaching setup will have said something.

Re: Our recent (lack of) success vs Player turnover : Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:57 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

He picked players that weren't fit. Do you think he listened to his support staff (analysts, physios, coaches etc) when making those selections?

I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, but seeing as he demanded a signing (Sammut) and then didn't pick him I'm pretty confident in my maths skills.

Seeing that compared to a normal season, the squad was light in numbers with some players on long term injuries and one or more suspended, there may have been times when the odd player or so was carrying a knock and not fully fit.

I seem to recalled that on one occasion, the club could only announce a pre match squad of only nineteen players instead of the normal twenty one.

The fact that twenty five games were completed is a credit to the club and the coaching team headed by Lam even if the results were not good enough.