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Came across this email sent to Phil Rothfield today. Makes interesting reading.
Dear Phil
I read with interest your short piece in today's paper on Matt Cooper and that in your opinion he is one veteran player who has played one season too many in the NRL. Firstly, it is very difficult to argue with your assessment I would add that his form in 2012 was so poor that a 2011 retirement would have been highly appropriate.
However, I continue to be astounded that you and many others in the rugby league media can see, and write without conviction, that a player like Cooper has played beyond his used by date, but fail to see, or more alarmingly, see but refuse to write about, other veteran players who, like Cooper, should also have retired before this season commences also.
The one obvious such player is Sydney Rooster fullback Anthony Minichiello. With the Roosters leading 16-0 well into the second half on Saturday and seemingly set for a significant and rare victory in Auckland, Minichiello found yet another way to drop the simplest of passes with the Roosters deep on attack. This led to a Shaun Johnson runaway try and a massive momentum shift in the game. The second Warriors try could certainly be blamed on James Maloney who was the dummy half, but why on earth would Minichello fall for the same dummy and head in the same direction as the A-Marker when the Roosters were defending their own line, leaving that line wide open for Godinet to score. Then of course, the third and final try when, for the umpteenth time in the past four years, a grubber kick into the in-goal area was not cleaned up successfully by Minichiello and a simple ball punch over the dead ball line turned into an air swing and a third and possible game defining third try to the Warriors. Only poor goal kicking enabled the Roosters to escape what could have been a disastrous loss, when a large win seemed inevitable.
These performances from Minichiello are common place and obvious to anyone who objectively watches the Roosters and can see just how far below he is of the standard required to be a first grade full back these days. It is no coincidence that the likes of Melbourne, Canterbury, Souths and Manly fought out last years competition when Slater, Barba, Inglis and Stewart were the best full backs in the NRL. The Roosters on the other hand finished 11th and 13th in the past few years as they have struggled to compete without a fullback of NRL standard.
It has been argued from within the Roosters that, whist acknowledging Minichiello's inadequacies, they have been reluctant to shift him until they had a suitable replacement. However, that now seems to have been used to keep his many critics within the club quiet rather than the real reason for his continual selection in the position many now consider the most important in the game, given they now have on the wing the player many believe will become the greatest ever New Zealand fullback (Roger Tuivasa-Sheck). We are all aware of the very powerful friends Minichiello has in the media and the role they play in ignoring the many faults in his game whilst highlighted only his undoubted prowess under the high ball, but I would not have thought that a man with your journalistic integrity would be a party to this continuing protection racket. Whilst the Roosters seem more concerned with not upsetting a player, who is now 8 years away from his valued 2005 form, and his media friends, than competing for premierships, that bizarre priority determination should not prevent you and others in the media from subjecting Minichiello to the some level of criticism that has been directed at Matt Cooper today.
I trust you will view (if you already haven't) the eagle cam vision of his past 99 Rooster matches (those played since his return from his 2006 injury) and assess Anthony Minichiello, like you have Matt Cooper, on not what he achieved prior to that injury and not on whether he is a good bloke with nice and powerful friends. He should be continually judged only on his contribution to the football team club that has been paid him so handsomely for so long, whilst waiting patiently for him to recapture even some of that 2005 form. Maybe then we will see somebody from the rugby league media with the intestinal fortitude to fairly report on just what a liability Anthony Minichiello is to the team he plays for each week in the NRL, and as a result, release Rooster management from the hold Minichiello's media stature obviously has on them. Ultimately this would spare all Rooster supporters the inextricable pain they go through each week knowing that they can never compete seriously in the NRL whilst he remains their fullback, and allow this once proud foundation club the opportunity to once again challenge for a premiership title.
Dear Phil
I read with interest your short piece in today's paper on Matt Cooper and that in your opinion he is one veteran player who has played one season too many in the NRL. Firstly, it is very difficult to argue with your assessment I would add that his form in 2012 was so poor that a 2011 retirement would have been highly appropriate.
However, I continue to be astounded that you and many others in the rugby league media can see, and write without conviction, that a player like Cooper has played beyond his used by date, but fail to see, or more alarmingly, see but refuse to write about, other veteran players who, like Cooper, should also have retired before this season commences also.
The one obvious such player is Sydney Rooster fullback Anthony Minichiello. With the Roosters leading 16-0 well into the second half on Saturday and seemingly set for a significant and rare victory in Auckland, Minichiello found yet another way to drop the simplest of passes with the Roosters deep on attack. This led to a Shaun Johnson runaway try and a massive momentum shift in the game. The second Warriors try could certainly be blamed on James Maloney who was the dummy half, but why on earth would Minichello fall for the same dummy and head in the same direction as the A-Marker when the Roosters were defending their own line, leaving that line wide open for Godinet to score. Then of course, the third and final try when, for the umpteenth time in the past four years, a grubber kick into the in-goal area was not cleaned up successfully by Minichiello and a simple ball punch over the dead ball line turned into an air swing and a third and possible game defining third try to the Warriors. Only poor goal kicking enabled the Roosters to escape what could have been a disastrous loss, when a large win seemed inevitable.
These performances from Minichiello are common place and obvious to anyone who objectively watches the Roosters and can see just how far below he is of the standard required to be a first grade full back these days. It is no coincidence that the likes of Melbourne, Canterbury, Souths and Manly fought out last years competition when Slater, Barba, Inglis and Stewart were the best full backs in the NRL. The Roosters on the other hand finished 11th and 13th in the past few years as they have struggled to compete without a fullback of NRL standard.
It has been argued from within the Roosters that, whist acknowledging Minichiello's inadequacies, they have been reluctant to shift him until they had a suitable replacement. However, that now seems to have been used to keep his many critics within the club quiet rather than the real reason for his continual selection in the position many now consider the most important in the game, given they now have on the wing the player many believe will become the greatest ever New Zealand fullback (Roger Tuivasa-Sheck). We are all aware of the very powerful friends Minichiello has in the media and the role they play in ignoring the many faults in his game whilst highlighted only his undoubted prowess under the high ball, but I would not have thought that a man with your journalistic integrity would be a party to this continuing protection racket. Whilst the Roosters seem more concerned with not upsetting a player, who is now 8 years away from his valued 2005 form, and his media friends, than competing for premierships, that bizarre priority determination should not prevent you and others in the media from subjecting Minichiello to the some level of criticism that has been directed at Matt Cooper today.
I trust you will view (if you already haven't) the eagle cam vision of his past 99 Rooster matches (those played since his return from his 2006 injury) and assess Anthony Minichiello, like you have Matt Cooper, on not what he achieved prior to that injury and not on whether he is a good bloke with nice and powerful friends. He should be continually judged only on his contribution to the football team club that has been paid him so handsomely for so long, whilst waiting patiently for him to recapture even some of that 2005 form. Maybe then we will see somebody from the rugby league media with the intestinal fortitude to fairly report on just what a liability Anthony Minichiello is to the team he plays for each week in the NRL, and as a result, release Rooster management from the hold Minichiello's media stature obviously has on them. Ultimately this would spare all Rooster supporters the inextricable pain they go through each week knowing that they can never compete seriously in the NRL whilst he remains their fullback, and allow this once proud foundation club the opportunity to once again challenge for a premiership title.
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