Official - Luke Keary Signs With Roosters

[Guest]

Braith Anasta's Wallet believes that the club has made a very big mistake by not sticking to their guns in supporting Jackson Hastings and for letting James Maloney leave. To sign a half as young as Luke Keary suggests to me that even the club are not convinced that he is the right player. Unless Mitchell Pearce is the player to leave then it makes no sense to discard the player that you backed only 6 months later.

[The distributor]

The cull before 2017 will be bad.

I expect the only ones to remain will be SKD, JWH, Fergo, Cordner, Napa, Aubo, Matterson,Evans, Mitchell, Moa and Liu.

[Thirteen]

I don't watch Souths so I don't know his game well. The fact that Bellamy was interested leads me to believe he must go ok. Anyway, when he is wearing our colours I'll be supporting him.

Can he kick in general play? Does he have a decent short kicking game?

[Thirteen]

The cull before 2017 will be bad.

I expect the only ones to remain will be SKD, JWH, Fergo, Cordner, Napa, Aubo, Matterson,Evans, Mitchell, Moa and Liu.

Not so sure about Moa. Off contract and approaching an age where he will most likely want to sign his final deal and this will more than likely be with the highest bidder. I doubt that will be us.

[TDK]

Braith Anasta's Wallet believes that the club has made a very big mistake by not sticking to their guns in supporting Jackson Hastings and for letting James Maloney leave. To sign a half as young as Luke Keary suggests to me that even the club are not convinced that he is the right player. Unless Mitchell Pearce is the player to leave then it makes no sense to discard the player that you backed only 6 months later.

Keary is a great running halve, very quick and instinctive. But he ain't no Maloney. He can't kick in general play, he's not a good defender and doesn't have good organizing skills. I think he and Pearce are very much alike, except Pearce is a strong defender. I thought we needed a player to get us around the field with the maturity and poise to do it for 80 minutes.

[John Corey]

I haven't watched many vermin games so can't decide if this is a good signing or not.
I dunno, but to me it's almost like an admission that the club got it wrong when they let Jimmy walk.

Eddie I am pretty sure the Club knows they got it wrong with Jimmy. They are trying to do something about it.

[John Corey]

Braith Anasta's Wallet believes that the club has made a very big mistake by not sticking to their guns in supporting Jackson Hastings and for letting James Maloney leave. To sign a half as young as Luke Keary suggests to me that even the club are not convinced that he is the right player. Unless Mitchell Pearce is the player to leave then it makes no sense to discard the player that you backed only 6 months later.

You can't have a partnership of Hastings and Pearce. They are both half backs, which I believe the Club now recognises. The experiment of Hastings as a 5/8 does not work.

So if we keep Hastings then we should get rid of Pearce. Either way, one of them is surplus.

[Guest]

Uninjured he should be a vast improvement on our current lot.

[stringaz]

You can't have a partnership of Hastings and Pearce. They are both half backs, which I believe the Club now recognises. The experiment of Hastings as a 5/8 does not work.

So if we keep Hastings then we should get rid of Pearce. Either way, one of them is surplus.

Man, I never laced up a boot but could see this right away, I reckon the salary cap caused this debacle or someone at the club is "off their head".

[Mad_Rooster_in_GraceLand]

Man, I never laced up a boot but could see this right away, I reckon the salary cap caused this debacle or someone at the club is "off their head".

I think it was the latter.

[eddie]

I think Keary will do well for us. He has been playing for a coach that is a hard ass and apparently not flexible at all with the game plan or structure. It's well documented a lot of South's players don't like their coaches suffocating style.

Keary is a running 5/8. Something we do not currently have. Despite his size he is not in the least scared about taking the line on. I think we can all appreciate that.

I think everyone should disregard what you have seen of him in 2015,2016 under McGuire. Make your judgement based on his play in a full strength Roosters side under a respected , easier going Coach.

Sounds like good advice.
Well he's signed now so we should reserve judgement.

We still have Pearce, Hastings, Nikorima, Matterson and Watson. Pearce could be reaching the stage (after 200 games) where he's gonna become more injury prone, and Hastings is the only other genuine half..............
I'd like to see Hastings finish his contract just to spite Friend (if the rumours are true)

And who is our backup rake?

[John Corey]

Man, I never laced up a boot but could see this right away, I reckon the salary cap caused this debacle or someone at the club is "off their head".

It simply came down to whether a young Hastings could take the place of Maloney, who was getting older and wanted 3yrs.

Remember that the Chooks made this decision mostly based on what Hastings did when Pearce went down injured last year. The vast majority of the ppl on this forum were singing Hastings praises, and even in the last game of our season, believed we should not have brought Pearce back in, but instead stuck with Hastings.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Everyone on this forum, including me, has an Advanced Diploma in hindsight. The Club does not. They made a decision based on the long term future of the Club. Backing a young guy who would have been our half for the next 10-12 yrs, over a true 5/8, albeit an ageing one.

I have no doubt the Club now knows they got that decision wrong. In saying that, and I know I have harped on this before, if the Club chose to sack Pearce and play Hastings as our half back, I think he would be a success. That is his proper position imo. Team Hastings up with a true 5/8 and then I think we could have our No. 7 for the next decade. But it seems we are backing Pearce as 7, thus Hastings may be surplus.

[The Axe]

I'm starting to question if Pearce is injured or if it is a statement

[Guest]

James Maloney signed with Cronulla-Sutherland long before Mitchell Pearce was injured.

[John Corey]

James Maloney signed with Cronulla-Sutherland long before Mitchell Pearce was injured.

Copy that.

But my point is the same. The attitude of fans toward Hastings at the back end of last yr , is a lot different than it is now. Whilst most were disappointed we lost Maloney, the general consensus was we had found a good replacement in Hastings. That was obviously the Clubs opinion as well.

As I said, Hindsight is a wonderful thing.