Response To Rothfield re Minichiello

[bondi paul]

It stinks and gutless

[stephenj]

sounds about right really?

[SConcierge]

Maybe after seeing the club sign, re-sign and re-sign this player over and over again, despite him obviously not being up to scatch, and to find him still playing fullback with no sign in sight of anyone having the guts to move him has led him to take whatever measures are available to get this message across. I am just a casual Rooster supporter but if I was a fanatic and loved the club and knew as much about footy as the bloke that wrote this email I might have given the club a year or two to act, but after that I'd reckon you'd be entitled to tear your hair out seeing this bloke still wearing the No. 1. I must admit it seems more than strange to me too that he's still playing fullback in the NRL. Surely is what he wrote is totally wrong Rothfield could not possibly use it against the Roosters. One anonymous supporter writes an email to a gibberer like Rothfield and people on this forum have apoplexy. If he's such a champion he and you would just laugh this off.

I say ur the sad prick that wrote this with an agenda, you decided to join this site and goeasts.com on the same day in 2012 and now u decide to post the same first post on both sites to stirr everyone up and create a story for that rag.

[Guest]

So in other words, it's a two step process.

1. Beetroot face is selective in his criticisms
2. An Easts "fan" is tired of the above, and tired of Minichiello, and thus feels as if the only person who can bring down the all powerful media supported fullback (nothing more than a classic assumption) is the one journo that has sweet F all influence on the game.


Absolutely brilliant. It's a deadset cry for attention. Whilst there are some football related points to this verbal assault, the integrity of the piece in general is left hanging due to assumption at best. This is what Beetroot face works off, no factual evidence, just his own general opinion.

Hell it would not surprise me one bit if Rothfield emails himself, he's a classic case of multiple personalities if I've seen one.

[Guest]

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.

spot on, exactly how most objective roosters supporters feel. Now wheres the same email about Friend!

[Guest]

Captain from the wing?

So if we did put RTS as FB and Mini on the wing could mini still affectively captain all the team effectively from the wing or would we make Pearce new captain?

Personally I do not see a captain all they way on the wing as being able to work.

[Guest]

I dont see mini as a good captain, seems to quite

[Chook Norris]

I think it may have been R6?

Warriors Try Number 1 - Mini drops ball that hit him on the chest and Warriors run 90m to score

Warriors Try Number 2 - Mini falls for the dummy and goes the same way as the A marker defender leaving a big gap for Godinet to score

Warriors Try Number 3 - Mini fails to defuse a simple grubber, people will say it took a funny bounce but he had ample time prior to that knock it out of play or ground it.

Watch the replay and tell me I'm lying.

I don't know how people can watch the team and in the back of their mind know that no matter how well we play a dodgey fullback could cost us the game.

I did recognise the similar term "A Marker" being applied

ftr, objectively, he is spot on

[Guest]

Mini is crap.

It's time the rose coloured glasses brigade realises that.

Chook.

[ism22]

WTF!!!!
1) You're feeding a rubbish "journalist"
2) It's all BS... Mini scored us a great try that won us the game. Sure he cocked up later on (nobody ever plays a perfect game) but it was the team's fault that Johnson wasn't tackled.
3) You're a f*cka$$!!!

[melon....]

The try Mini scored proves he's still a top class winger.

The problme though is he is playing as a B Grade fullback.

put him on teh wing, move Sheck to fullback. End of problem.

You cannot challenge without a top 3 fullback. What a waste it would be suring up our outside backs, our halves, our forwards and missing out because we are insisting on running on a mediocre fullback.

Mini is a club legend. He has tried like a legend for years, but unfortunetely hasnt delivered like one.

If people dont like the facts, then i cant help them. It breaks my heart too...but the team comes first.

[Guest]

It is Fitzy using a multiple ID

lol

You are paranoid and an idiot.

[Andrew Walker]

lol

You are paranoid and an idiot.

Its right up your alley you twisted cretin

[Guest]

Its right up your alley you twisted cretin

lol

I haven't posted anything unreasonable, the problem is the truth hurts.

There is no Santa Clause and Mini is done.

That is fact deal with it.

[Andrew Walker]

lol

I haven't posted anything unreasonable, the problem is the truth hurts.

There is no Santa Clause and Mini is done.

That is fact deal with it.

What you need to deal with is that he will continue to be playing 1st grade this season and more than likely it will be at Fullback It doesnt matter what rhetoric or agenda or whom you write or how many people you call idiots

Live with it or **** off and support another club or code This club doesnt need your type supporting it