Phil Graham not coming?

[Guest]

I dont see why we would want him, its not like hes an asset to the roosters. He is shite.

[Guest]

He would have added much needed speed to the backline but it might open up the opportunity for a younger player like Kane Linnett or Ryan Williamson to cement a spot in first grade next year.

[BUDDY]

You maybe right but it is also possible that we have other signings up our sleeve that have not been announced yet for one reason or another (some players don't like these things announced until current commitments are over). Also it is possible that other players are close to signing which have been taken into account and therefore there is no money left for Graham. I'd be surprised if we don't sign at least 3 more players with NRL experience by the time our 2010 squad is finalised.

Agreed rcptn. I'd be pissed off if who we have signed up to now is our final 25. Rapped to get Carney and Hargreaves. But look at who we have released the last two year: Toups, Amos, Pillow, Shack, Fitzy, Soli, Ogre, Tansey plus Mini would be on a lot less next year.

Sure we had to upgrade some of our younger players and Mase is on his final year of a backended contract but surely the cap isn't fully absorbed. SURELY!!!!

[Cockadoodledoo]

I dont see why we would want him, its not like hes an asset to the roosters. He is shite.

why would we want him when we could have Sean Kenny-Dowall or Setaimata sa setting things alight out wide.

[Kingbilly]

its not only the money that Lote's been chasing and thats the problem

[Guest]

Mason and O'Meley's signings have cost us an entirely good backrow.

The signing of Mason in the 2007/2008 offseason led to Harrison being released.

The first year backending of both Mason and O'Meley's contracts led to Tupou being released.

The continued backending of Mason's contract along with the signing of Carney are what have cost us Fitzgibbon.

We could have had Tupou/Fitzgibbon/Harrison.

We ended up with Mason/Conn/Kouparitsas.

[Guest]

we should have never let tupou go! or amos roberts
mason is ok, see how conn goes next year
we shouldntve signed koups, useless.....

[Guest]

Anthony Tupou was a MASSIVE loss. His running game on the edges has clearly been missed this year.

On Kouparitsis, I don't think he is too bad a player. Maybe I have not seen him enough but I just don't think he is that bad. I like him in the hooking role but probably not in the backrow. He looked pretty comfortable to me against the Dragons at hooker and I thought maybe if he learnt the ins and outs of that position, he can be an ok first grader.

[Guest]

He is a lock / second row / five-eighth, he was only a makeshift hooker. His service was pretty average.

But the Tupou / Fitzy / Harrison backrow was the best we could have. An explosive, hard-running offloader, an experienced and evergreen go-forward workhorse, and a skillful yet hard-nosed tackling lock.

Before Tupou and Harrison, we had Fletcher / Fitzy / Ricketson.

But the reason for Harrison's lack of form is accounted much to Fitzgibbon and Tupou being used as props in the time Harrison was here, with Stuart's small packs blunting his effectiveness.

Mason's signing meant that Harrison was cut, and Tupou shifting to lock gave us an unbalanced pack. This season, with Tupou gone, we have played Soliola and Sa a fair bit in the backrow, where both don't have the workrate to be regular starting forwards with someone explosive like Mason already there.

I think we need to start fresh, clear out Mason and replace him with Cherrington, and then begin to fast-track Boyd Cordner and Ethan Lowe, who in my opinion can be the next generation Fitzgibbon / Ricketson.

[Guest]

He has scored 2 tryes so far and the game still has 40 to go. **** Sa off and get this blokes signiture asap.