If the club has any brains.....

[Ray Stehr]

You're wrong. In the late 90's and early 00's and under Graham Murray particularly, we developed a number of young rep players that took us to 3 grand finals in a row - Crocker, Flannery, Heggarty, Wing, Bonetti, Minichello[s], Cusack, Ricketson, Fletcher. You could even add Fitzy, Toops, Cayless (Jason) to that list of developed players.

The problem was that once those developed players began to fade, move on, retire etc, we went back to your and Nicks "quick fix" mentality and purchased a heap of dogs, figuratively and literally! A stupid decision that we are only now recovering from. And all you want to do is swap from buying dogs to buying chip stealers. I don't get it!

Surely someone as supposedly footy savvy as you understands that it's extremely rare that a player brings the attitude, committment and dedication he has to the club that developed them to the club that purchased them?

Chook.

We also had a player called Fittler. Anyone would look good playing with him. He was bought, go figure.

[Guest]

Forget the semantics. By excluding Fittler from his initial statement it is pretty clear Chook is referring to players that were not stars who we developed into stars, rather than spending big dollars on ready-made stars for a "quick-fix" (chooks choice of words).

I do agree with chook that the big dollar purchases of Anasta, Myles, Mason, and Ogre was wrong. I am suggesting though that it is nothing new and was part of the reason for our success between 2002-2004. What we have screwed up with this time around is the selection of players.

I believe we are now at risk of going too far the other way. The only ready made "star" in the squad for 2012 is a dud called Anasta. This has left us with massive gaps throughout the backline with no speed and no creativity. We will not be a premiership threat until this is resolved. We can either accept a few years of mediocrity and hope POS has chosen some bright young players that will develop into stars (and other teams don't poach them!), or we can go to market and fill some of those gaps in the meantime.




Just because they were out of contract does not mean they were not stars. From memory Craig Wing's signing was all over the back pages for weeks such was the significance of the signing.

I can only laugh.

[Guest]

Just because they were out of contract does not mean they were not stars. From memory Craig Wing's signing was all over the back pages for weeks such was the significance of the signing.

Again true, but that was more because of his origin being a "Souffs junior" and his defection to the us after he said something along the lines of "not playing till Souffs allowed back in".

Chook.

[Guest]

We also had a player called Fittler. Anyone would look good playing with him. He was bought, go figure.

That doesn't alter the fact you are wrong.

Chook.

[Guest]

I can only laugh.

Won't take you long to overtake beguurk/d0minati0n/annalyn

[Guest]

Stuwart is a tool

[Ray Stehr]

That doesn't alter the fact you are wrong.

Chook.

Are you saying that without Fittler we would've made 4 gfs in 5 years?

[Guest]

Are you saying that without Fittler we would've made 4 gfs in 5 years?

No, I'm saying that you were wrong when you said this club doesn't develop players...waiting for Harold Holt blah blah blah. And you are wrong about your one and only strategy for making the club successful = buying players. The era of "success" we all enjoyed from 2000-2004 was built on developing players rather than buying them. The crap we've seen from 2004 till now is the direct result of of piss poor player development and the quick fix of trying to buy the culture of the dogs.

Chook.

[Guest]

I don't believe we are good at developing players.

A lot of our success was due to fittler. Take him out and it's a different story. In fact after he retired, our rep players started to look like reserve graders.

We had all 3 grades that made the gf in 2004 but hardly anything to show for that afterwards.

[Guest]

I don't believe we are good at developing players.

A lot of our success was due to fittler. Take him out and it's a different story. In fact after he retired, our rep players started to look like reserve graders.

We had all 3 grades that made the gf in 2004 but hardly anything to show for that afterwards.

If that was the case fred, we should have enjoyed far more success from when Fittler first arrived in the mid 90's, but the fact is we didn't. That period from 2000-2004 was due a lot to Fittler granted. But he had a lot of dedicated, passionate Rooster players around him that came through our ranks rather than the mercenaries he had around him while Gould was at the helm. It was only when Graham Murray started giving our younger guys a shot at first grade and developing them into first graders, rather than run out and buy the "flavour of the month" which is all Gould did, that we started to make it to grand finals. I remember we were known as finals chockers for a long time.

I don't reject buying players. I just reject the idea that's ALL we need to do to be successful as we have a long track record to the contrary. And you cannot argue that the attempt to "buy" the winning culture of the dogs and their players was a miserable and ridiculously stupid decision. One that we are just now begginning to recover from even though we still have one of those useless buys at the club.

The only successful period we've had over the last 3 decades was due to developing younger players into first graders. I agree from 2004 we've gone backwards, but again that's mainly due to the change back to buy, buy, buy rather than develope.

Chook.

[Guest]

Clarification.

Freddy retired from Rep football in 2001 and we started our Grand Final run. Sadly we were lumbered with a retired on the job Fittler in 2003/4 and a horrific dud in Robert Finch's kid so we lost both of them.

[Guest]

If that was the case fred, we should have enjoyed far more success from when Fittler first arrived in the mid 90's, but the fact is we didn't. That period from 2000-2004 was due a lot to Fittler granted. But he had a lot of dedicated, passionate Rooster players around him that came through our ranks rather than the mercenaries he had around him while Gould was at the helm. It was only when Graham Murray started giving our younger guys a shot at first grade and developing them into first graders, rather than run out and buy the "flavour of the month" which is all Gould did, that we started to make it to grand finals. I remember we were known as finals chockers for a long time.

I don't reject buying players. I just reject the idea that's ALL we need to do to be successful as we have a long track record to the contrary. And you cannot argue that the attempt to "buy" the winning culture of the dogs and their players was a miserable and ridiculously stupid decision. One that we are just now begginning to recover from even though we still have one of those useless buys at the club.

The only successful period we've had over the last 3 decades was due to developing younger players into first graders. I agree from 2004 we've gone backwards, but again that's mainly due to the change back to buy, buy, buy rather than develope.

Chook.

But mate we enjoyed success immediately after freddy arrived. We made the semis the first year that fredddy arrived and didnt miss a finals series until after he retired as a player. Consider that with the background that immediately before gus became coach we were basically second last in all 3 grades and it was very rare in the decabe before that for us to have made the semis.

When freddy was in the playing squad, there was a different vibe amongst the players the second he turned up to training. Players would be milling around joking and mucking around but as soon as freddy walked through the gates of the training paddock, the players instantly turned their heads on into 100% focus at training. Thats the way it was.

Gus and freddy turned our club around. Our success in that decade had nothing to do with developing players, it was all about those 2 guys - especially freddy.

[Ray Stehr]

The era of success we had in 2000-2004 was down to one man. The fact that we were hopeless when he retired proves my point. You can crap on all you like about developing players but on the whole we develop very ordinary players. Our great era of success in the 70's was forged on players like Beetson, Coote, Brass, Fairfax and co and they were all bought. Your arguments chook has more holes in it than Parramatta Road.

[Guest]

Gus and freddy turned our club around. Our success in that decade had nothing to do with developing players, it was all about those 2 guys - especially freddy.

And Freddy's return as coach led to a brief return to success. I think what let him down was not having Gus here. Gus kept Freddy's mull and sex and fun attitude in check. When he left us, Freddy reverted to tribe.

[Guest]

And Freddy's return as coach led to a brief return to success. I think what let him down was not having Gus here. Gus kept Freddy's mull and sex and fun attitude in check. When he left us, Freddy reverted to tribe.

I think that is true.

I also expect penrith to have a good few years now whilst we continue to struggle unless the schoolteacher is removed and replaced with someone good.