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Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:19 pm
by Storm Spirit
bula wrote:Mattpoet wrote:So looking through the lower grades, I see the following halves named for various teams, I do not know their contractual status'.
Aaron Groom (Asquith) - he played for Fiji at the World Cup and did a decent job.
Liam Foran (Wentworthville) - he is capable of doing a job, though personally I wouldn't go down this path.
Matt Keating (Burleigh) - has a bit of fg experience.
Grant Giess (Easts Tigers) - a few of you have said that he goes all right.
Tom Humble (Penrith) - has done some good things the couple of times I've seen him play.
Sam Williams (Illawarra) - on the outer now that Benji has signed.
Matt Minto (Newcastle) - I saw him play some good games in Q Cup last year.
Carlos Tuimavave (Warriors) - erratic but, can be a match winner.
Arana Taumata (Newtown) - as above, also has some well documented discipline issues.
Luke Kelly (Wentworthville) - can play to a structure.
Penani Manumalealii (Cronulla) - improving but raw.
If we want to sign a half before June 30 then I guess those look like the best options.
Well Taumata and Foran have played with us before so doubt we'd go there and Foran usually plays Hooker.
I like Sam Williams and Tom Humble from that list.
Wasn't Tom Humble absolutely ripping it up 18 months - 2 years ago and was touted as THE next big thing ?
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:16 pm
by Mattpoet
Does anybody know what Samisoni Langi's contract situation is, wouldn't mind seeing him in purple.
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:04 pm
by Michael :P
Ffs Bellamy just go with Hampton and Walker.
Any other options are safe and conservative and will see us miss the finals. We may do so anyway but we'll have some fun along the way.
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:37 pm
by bula
Well now with Walker leaving Bellamy will probably leave him out of first grade .
Hampton back is a plus and remember Hampton and Roberts were our halves in round 1 when Cronk was missing.
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:18 am
by Chip
Michael :P wrote:Ffs Bellamy just go with Hampton and Walker.
Any other options are safe and conservative and will see us miss the finals. We may do so anyway but we'll have some fun along the way.
We both know they let our best future half prospect go instead of backing the guy to be Cronk's first understudy. Intelligent, a natural organizer and leader, great timing, passing and kicking skills, all-round nice guy with great potential,,,
Get
Matt McGahan back here pronto! Whatever it takes imo
Re: Looking for a half to finish the years
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 10:32 am
by Kya
And where the coaching staff meant to hold McGahan's passport and detain him so he would play for the club
He went home to NZ to play Rugby, following in his fathers footsteps.
Seriously is it really so hard to accept that not every player who comes to this club wants to stay, instead of rewriting history and blaming the club.
The fact is that the guy CHOSE to pursue rugby not that he was pushed out.
The club is like any other nrl club, they make some good decisions and some poor decisions but don't attribute blame where there is none.
As we have seen from Rose and Walker, some players cannot deal with the move away from home and just as we saw Will Chambers leave to pursue rugby, there will always be nrl players who make that choice to pursue the other code they also grew up playing (thankfully Chambers came back much to his own benefit).
Re: Looking for a half to finish the years
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:26 am
by Chip
Kya wrote:And where the coaching staff meant to hold McGahan's passport and detain him so he would play for the club
He went home to NZ to play Rugby, following in his fathers footsteps.
Seriously is it really so hard to accept that
not every player who comes to this club wants to stay, instead of rewriting history and blaming the club.
The fact is that the guy CHOSE to pursue rugby not that he was pushed out.
The club is like any other nrl club, they make some good decisions and some poor decisions but don't attribute blame where there is none.
As we have seen from Rose and Walker, some players cannot deal with the move away from home and just as we saw Will Chambers leave to pursue rugby, there will always be nrl players who make that choice to pursue the other code they also grew up playing (thankfully Chambers came back much to his own benefit).
Not my mail for Matt McGahan. He CHOSE to go back to rugby because he wasn't given any reason to think Storm rated him enough to have a place for him in the short & medium terms. I think he would've stayed had he got that from the Club. I don't 'blame' the club.
Yes, he went back to play rugby - but I don't believe Storm tried hard enough to keep him either, well, some at the Storm maybe? Young man of good character (no off-field issues like some) and had he been nurtured right could've been Cronk's long-term replacement imo.
Regardless, he would be as good as some of the others being bandied about, potentially better so could be worth a shot to get back (like Will).
But that's just my opinion, something we're all allowed to have, yes?
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:54 am
by sallymay
I'd love to see Matt back but I think his having too much fun playing union now
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:59 am
by Kya
Yes you are Chip, but every time a player leaves, the standard supporter response seems to automatically state it is the clubs fault.
I have heard Matt was thinking of leaving for rugby as of early 2013 and since Widdop was occupying the 5/8 spot at the time, I'm not sure when he thought his opportunity was going to be in that immediate term. (Was always long term).
As to whether or not the club fought hard enough for him, I can only imagine that they didn't think it was worth it if he wasn't interested.
He appears to be of good character but he was always drawn back to rugby due to family history and of course going back home.
I'm not against club trying to get him back if they thought it was a good idea but the assumption that the club "didn't try hard enough" to keep him in the first place seems to be the standard response from supporters when players leave is becoming tiresome.
There are a number of factors why players leave and why clubs let players go and I, like you am sharing my opinion...
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:09 pm
by blazza18
I wonder if the Storm have undervalued depth at certain positions over the years because of the big 3 ?
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:36 pm
by nacho
Of course we have blazza. Think of all the stars we had in the wings waiting to fill in but never got the shot. Im talking about Aubusson, Friend and Maloney.
Its hard to recruit first graders to wait in line behind the big 3 untill one of them is injured. Storm are left with blooding youngsters which will be a 2 season project till players like Hampton are confident and he can get the reigns.
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:10 am
by Mattpoet
Josh McCrone is officially off the radar, re-signed with Canberra for 2 more years
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:24 pm
by Mattpoet
mortimer is out too, he's just transferred to the titans for the rest of the year
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:12 pm
by glennb
Mortimer to the Titans. I was watching the Roosters game on Saturday where he played well and was told that his manager had said he was happy at the Roosters and not going anywhere, but he is. Why do players not want to come to us. Did we talk to him or was it a rumor.
Re: Looking for a half to finish the year
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:11 pm
by sallymay
My friend just told me his Partners work transferred her up to Brisbane 3 months ago so that proberly part of the reason