Anyone still unhappy with the SBW signing???

[Guest]

I was on the fence but wow. No one could have expected him to be this good this early. Making 30+ tackles and 100+ metres last week and backing it up with one of the slickest attacking displays I have ever seen. He is unbelievable and worth every cent

[Guest]

As in awe of SBW I may be, that pass was nothing like Fittler. Freddy would have landed it in the bread basket, not above his head. Great vision but please let's get some perspective here.

4 games back from being out of our game for five years and he's a backrower, mate that pass was world class and one Freddy would have been proud of.

Chook.

[Rooster_Luke]

I'm going to enjoy watching every second of him in a Roosters jumper but I'm already feeling depressed at the thought of him leaving us to go back to union

[Guest]

What annoys me, if that was souffs or tigpies or shtorm, the commentators would have been jizzing all over the perspex screen...but how casual were they even after that SBW pass..it was like they were cut to pieces at how well we played and didn't want to give any recognition of the pure F*Cking Brilliance they were witnessing
either that or they were just finding it difficult to find adequate superlatives to describe our performance

[Guest]

We used SBW really well last night. Forget all the offloads and try assists

Think back to RTS's second try in the first half. SBW ran through as a decoy and attracted two defenders, which allowed the ball to be played out the back and the overlap resulted in a try. His isn't just an asset with the ball in his hands!

[davos]

He is a once in a generation footballer. He has the aura of Lockyer and Johns about him. He just knows when to offload, when to pass, when to just hit the ball up, and a supreme athlete. Worth every penny for sure.

[Vasco]

Terrible signing...

[melon....]

Maybe SBW can teach SKD how to pass.

Or kick...or run....or tackle....or score.....

[Rocky Rhodes]

It's not just the SBW signing that some penners need to eat humble pie over. There are lots on here who didn't want to sign players in general due to the Mason and O'Melley disasters and the youth policy. Lol @ them...

All of the 3 major signing are brilliant, LOD will join them probably during the 2nd half season and his experience will be invaluable during the finals.

[Guest]

It's not just the SBW signing that some penners need to eat humble pie over. There are lots on here who didn't want to sign players in general due to the Mason and O'Melley disasters and the youth policy. Lol @ them...

All of the 3 major signing are brilliant, LOD will join them probably during the 2nd half season and his experience will be invaluable during the finals.

I think you are misconstruing the youth policy argument. To sign omeley and mason we lost shillington, ashley harrison among others. Effectively, we signed 2 past-it players on big contracts that replaced two players who are now internationals in our side. Instead, what we have done is developed our squad from the ground up (our juniors and recruited young players) and now looked at the side and evaluated where gaps remained. We dont have a good young 5/8 coming through therefore we signed maloney; we needed a strike centre and someone with speed to ignite our backline so we signed jennings; we needed some x-factor in our pack and some star power so we signed SBW; and we needed someone to show the young guys the way so we signed LOD.

Completely different. This side is still a product of our youth policy. virtually the entire team has debuted in first grade for our club. What this is evidence of is getting the mix right. No one ever said that you could build a premiership winning team by putting a bunch of 20 year olds on the park and waiting for them to come good. The difference is that instead of signing Tamou, Scott and Gallen and letting go of cordner, Kennedy and JWH; we have put our faith in the talent of our young players where we have depth (like the frontrow) and looked elsewhere to bolster areas in our team that we dont have the depth/quality of talent coming through

[davos]

I think you are misconstruing the youth policy argument. To sign omeley and mason we lost shillington, ashley harrison among others. Effectively, we signed 2 past-it players on big contracts that replaced two players who are now internationals in our side. Instead, what we have done is developed our squad from the ground up (our juniors and recruited young players) and now looked at the side and evaluated where gaps remained. We dont have a good young 5/8 coming through therefore we signed maloney; we needed a strike centre and someone with speed to ignite our backline so we signed jennings; we needed some x-factor in our pack and some star power so we signed SBW; and we needed someone to show the young guys the way so we signed LOD.

Completely different. This side is still a product of our youth policy. virtually the entire team has debuted in first grade for our club. What this is evidence of is getting the mix right. No one ever said that you could build a premiership winning team by putting a bunch of 20 year olds on the park and waiting for them to come good. The difference is that instead of signing Tamou, Scott and Gallen and letting go of cordner, Kennedy and JWH; we have put our faith in the talent of our young players where we have depth (like the frontrow) and looked elsewhere to bolster areas in our team that we dont have the depth/quality of talent coming through

Your exactly right. From our 17 yesterday only SBW, Moa,JWH, Maloney and Jennings have made their debuts for other clubs. JWH and Moa had played a hand full of games in the NRL before coming to us as well. Compare that to the bullduds where 90% of their roster is from somewhere else. I personally think that our Youth policy has worked a treat tbh. JWH is not the same the player he was when he left Manly. He has developed incredibly at our club.

[Rocky Rhodes]

I think you are misconstruing the youth policy argument. To sign omeley and mason we lost shillington, ashley harrison among others. Effectively, we signed 2 past-it players on big contracts that replaced two players who are now internationals in our side. Instead, what we have done is developed our squad from the ground up (our juniors and recruited young players) and now looked at the side and evaluated where gaps remained. We dont have a good young 5/8 coming through therefore we signed maloney; we needed a strike centre and someone with speed to ignite our backline so we signed jennings; we needed some x-factor in our pack and some star power so we signed SBW; and we needed someone to show the young guys the way so we signed LOD.

Completely different. This side is still a product of our youth policy. virtually the entire team has debuted in first grade for our club. What this is evidence of is getting the mix right. No one ever said that you could build a premiership winning team by putting a bunch of 20 year olds on the park and waiting for them to come good. The difference is that instead of signing Tamou, Scott and Gallen and letting go of cordner, Kennedy and JWH; we have put our faith in the talent of our young players where we have depth (like the frontrow) and looked elsewhere to bolster areas in our team that we dont have the depth/quality of talent coming through

The youth policy has given us 6 years of failure (except one flukey yr in 2010), 6 wasted years. Funny that the only successful yr in that i.e. was when we brought experienced players eg. Carney, Ryles, Graham, Conn etc. Now that we are buying again we are successful surprise surprise.

Some Penners were not talking about filling the gaps so your argument is moot. The youth policy was the be all and end all to them.

It was me that suggested we sign Jennings half way thru last year. Other than a handful of penners most didn't want him, he was expensive, lazy, undisciplined, crap, useless in defense etc etc according to them. All the excuses in the world against signing quality players.

All teams develop youth however it was only us who insisted on a youth only policy. Thank fark Noyce and idiot smith are gone..

[Guest]

The youth policy has given us 6 years of failure (except one flukey yr in 2010), 6 wasted years. Funny that the only successful yr in that i.e. was when we brought experienced players eg. Carney, Ryles, Graham, Conn etc. Now that we are buying again we are successful surprise surprise.

Some Penners were not talking about filling the gaps so your argument is moot. The youth policy was the be all and end all to them.

It was me that suggested we sign Jennings half way thru last year. Other than a handful of penners most didn't want him, he was expensive, lazy, undisciplined, crap, useless in defense etc etc according to them. All the excuses in the world against signing quality players.

All teams develop youth however it was only us who insisted on a youth only policy. Thank fark Noyce and idiot smith is gone..

My argument is not moot. The points advanced by those who believed the youth policy was "the be all and end all" are the ones that had it wrong. All Im saying is that the youth policy lives and is in practice. Its your understanding of it that isnt. Even in 2010, those players you named were not signed to force out a young one of our own, they were signed to play roles which we did not have covered at the time. Carney is probably the only exception although like SBW is to our team now, every team needs the one marquee player. The rest of those signings were considered and were to fill holes like our signings are from this year. We are still very much developing this team from scratch. As Davos pointed out, only 6 players of yesterdays 17 debtued at other clubs. That includes mortimer (who was a discard and we have practically recreated into a footballer), Moa (see mortimer) and JWH (who had literally played <10 games for Manly - his development has been done here). Our average age this year wouldnt be much more than 22 or 23 as well (Mini and LOD are our only player over 30 and SBW and maloney are our only players over 25). If this isnt a youth policy, God only knows what is

[Guest]

The youth policy has given us 6 years of failure (except one flukey yr in 2010), 6 wasted years. Funny that the only successful yr in that i.e. was when we brought experienced players eg. Carney, Ryles, Graham, Conn etc. Now that we are buying again we are successful surprise surprise.

Some Penners were not talking about filling the gaps so your argument is moot. The youth policy was the be all and end all to them.

It was me that suggested we sign Jennings half way thru last year. Other than a handful of penners most didn't want him, he was expensive, lazy, undisciplined, crap, useless in defense etc etc according to them. All the excuses in the world against signing quality players.

All teams develop youth however it was only us who insisted on a youth only policy. Thank fark Noyce and idiot smith are gone..

Talking out your arse again. Maloney was signed in 2011 when Smith and Noyce were still firmly in charge, SBW agreed to join us years ago as a Nick project and Jennings was signed cause Pemriff didn't want him.

Our policy of developing players like RTS, Toops, Cordner, JWH, Lui, SKD, etc will reap benefits and only morons can't see that.

Chook.

[Rocky Rhodes]

My argument is not moot. The points advanced by those who believed the youth policy was "the be all and end all" are the ones that had it wrong. All Im saying is that the youth policy lives and is in practice. Its your understanding of it that isnt. Even in 2010, those players you named were not signed to force out a young one of our own, they were signed to play roles which we did not have covered at the time. Carney is probably the only exception although like SBW is to our team now, every team needs the one marquee player. The rest of those signings were considered and were to fill holes like our signings are from this year. We are still very much developing this team from scratch. As Davos pointed out, only 6 players of yesterdays 17 debtued at other clubs. That includes mortimer (who was a discard and we have practically recreated into a footballer), Moa (see mortimer) and JWH (who had literally played <10 games for Manly - his development has been done here). Our average age this year wouldnt be much more than 22 or 23 as well (Mini and LOD are our only player over 30 and SBW and maloney are our only players over 25). If this isnt a youth policy, God only knows what is

Lol...boy are you confused, all you are trying to do is spin your way out of a faulty argument. You don't even now what a youth policy is. Without our 3 major signings we would struggle to made the 8, perhaps we would be bottom 4.

The Jennings case was a fine example. I will bring that thread back to prove my point. Very few wanted him.