Forward Depth

[Mickie Lane]

I agree SST would have been massive
starting for manly this week in front of other good front rowers would have been a cheap 1 year deal so a missed opportunity there

Even Lodge the big dopey carnt, why didnt we get him back on a $1500 a week deal like Manly have.

[SamKerrSimp]

Fark me we have people talking up SST in 2025 now this can't be real. He was past it the last time he played with us and he hardly played at all last year in the UK through injury signing him would do nothing for the club when you're trying to develop youngsters.

[SamKerrSimp]

Even Lodge the big dopey carnt, why didnt we get him back on a $1500 a week deal like Manly have.

We didn't get him because he is shit did you even watch him play when he was here?

[Mickie Lane]

We didn't get him because he is shit did you even watch him play when he was here?

Okay Sam what ever you say.

[Bates]

SST wanted 500k - Been very injury prone these past few years before being punted by his ESL club - On a min deal at Manly - Failed the Dogs medical prior to the 2024 season when they were wanting to sign him.

Just unfortunate that the Va'a Brothers are unavailable along with Nat and Egan Butcher , Spencer Lenui and Brandon Smith.

Spencer is the only one due back which is in round 3 after serving his 2 game suspension.

$500k or minimum deal, which one is it as there's a huge difference?

[King Salvo]

Even Lodge the big dopey carnt, why didnt we get him back on a $1500 a week deal like Manly have.

Once Bitten Twice Shy one has to say

Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson - Once Bitten Twice Shy 1975 promo STEREO SOUND

[Chook2]

He ended up at manly originally on a train and trial - why couldn't we have offered that?

Exactly why didn’t we sign him in a min deal? He would have come back to us first

[Chook2]

Fark me we have people talking up SST in 2025 now this can't be real. He was past it the last time he played with us and he hardly played at all last year in the UK through injury signing him would do nothing for the club when you're trying to develop youngsters.

When you have a bench with 2 debuts, no front rowers and little experience outside a total of 3 front rowers maybe someone who has been in the top 5 props in the game would be handy
and for little money with the cap space we have would all help

[King Salvo]

When you have a bench with 2 debuts, no front rowers and little experience outside a total of 3 front rowers maybe someone who has been in the top 5 props in the game would be handy
and for little money with the cap space we have would all help

I assume that Coach Robinson didn't have a crystal ball to know that the Va'a Brothers . Spencer Lenui and Nat Butcher for an example would be unavailable for round 1 though.

SST failed a medical at the Dogs for the 2024 season as they were interested in signing him - He wanted 500k a season after being punted by his ESL Club and no clubs were interested at that price - signed a train and trial deal with Manly and later elevated to the top 30 on a min deal contract.

Played only 22 minutes vs Cowboys

[MKCS]

Fark me we have people talking up SST in 2025 now this can't be real. He was past it the last time he played with us and he hardly played at all last year in the UK through injury signing him would do nothing for the club when you're trying to develop youngsters.

Very common in sport including the NRL to have older players in mentor roles which is likely what SST is doing at Manly. If we had signed him as depth on minimal money then he obviously wouldn't be in our strongest 17 but we'd have an older veteran player who has won grand finals, captained his country, can play 25-30 minutes of first grade if need be and can play a role in our NSW Cup side.

He played 22 minutes for 84 metres and 6 completed tackles. We could've used that on Thursday night.

[Chook2]

I assume that Coach Robinson didn't have a crystal ball to know that the Va'a Brothers . Spencer Lenui and Nat Butcher for an example would be unavailable for round 1 though.

SST failed a medical at the Dogs for the 2024 season as they were interested in signing him - He wanted 500k a season after being punted by his ESL Club and no clubs were interested at that price - signed a train and trial deal with Manly and later elevated to the top 30 on a min deal contract.

Played only 22 minutes vs Cowboys

Nat isn’t a front rowers
and the Vaa bros are rookies
we Are short front rowers in our 30 man squad and our best 17 only have one bench front rower
why Didn’t we sign him on a min deal? He is starting for manly

[Chook2]

Very common in sport including the NRL to have older players in mentor roles which is likely what SST is doing at Manly. If we had signed him as depth on minimal money then he obviously wouldn't be in our strongest 17 but we'd have an older veteran player who has won grand finals, captained his country, can play 25-30 minutes of first grade if need be and can play a role in our NSW Cup side.

He played 22 minutes for 84 metres and 6 completed tackles. We could've used that on Thursday night.

I think he would be in our best 17
we only have 3 props atm

[caz]

i reckon lindsay, spence, whyte and dlsv is a pretty good rotation. throw in cheese and we're sold in the middle. lindsay needs some work on taking the first hit up on the kick off but he's got a lot to offer. i've only seen dlsv play once but he looks the goods.
otherwise, butch is handy, the two new blokes last week looked good and i'm keen to see how steep and the other va develop

[Hawkeye]

SST also wasn't a bad backup goal kicker ...would be better than what we have atm

[Danish]

I'm just not sure David Klemmer is that guy, I believe I'm correct in saying that Klemmer being released by the Tigers will be the 3rd time in his career he's been released out of his contract early by a bottom 8 club.

Losing Radley, Leniu & NButch plus Watson having to play at dummy half this early in the season is rough. I think as those guys come back in they will stabilise the pack rotation.

Our starting pack at full strength seems like it will be;

8 Collins
10 Leniu
11 Crichton
12 Radley
13 Watson

14 N Butcher
15 Whyte
16 E Butcher/Wong/Steep/Foketi/McCathie/Va'a X/Va'a D/Losalu

I don't think our forward depth is actually that concerning, it's obviously very young and I'm under no illusions that they're all pretty much NRL unproven but I think it feels worse than it actually is because they're being exposed quite dramatically at the moment due to injuries/suspensions.

If the more "normal" occurrence of one or two being out at a time were to occur I think it wouldn't feel as bad as it does now.

we had only 1 person missing from that starting forward roatstion you listed, and we got absolutely ****ing lapped he a middle of the table side.

given what you’ve laid out, we are well and truly ****ed this season given we need to play a MINIMUM of 2 NSW cup level plodders every week just to field a forward pack