Bennett picks Roosters; Smith punted

[Guest]

Junglefowl I totally agree with you. Smithy is an incredible coach and the most underrated because he does not have the titles to show for it. To me, Smithy has by far achieved more than Bennett. Lets hope Smithy can bring home a title for us. I couldn't careless where Bennett goes to. Titles do not show the true picture.

What a ridiculous statement!
Premierships are why people play, coach or watch the game!
Nobody looks back and says ''Oh gee that
Brian Smith fellow took teams from bottom to near top!''
They'll look back and say '' How farrken good was Bennett to win 7 (and counting) comps''.

[ism22]

Dude, you are caught up in the hype. The Qld SOO team, aka broncos, was that a real test of coaching ability?

First year with steelers, Bennett's steelers choked big time. Second year, a mountain of bum refereeing decisions got them into the GF. A Mount Everest of bum refereeing decisions got them over the line against us in the GF.

Let Russell and the fat guy from Newcastle fight it out with their cheque books. He has got nothing.

The Steelers never made the GF???
They got knocked out by the Riff before the finals 1 year (due to a rubbish decision that Harrign actually said "sorry" for and admitted his decision lost the game for te Steelers.)
Next year they lost to the Dragons in the semi-final (or whatever they call it... league finals names are silly.)

Every other season the Steelers were RUBBISH.

The Dragons won last year because tey somehow magically afforded a team purely made up of players who have played some form of rep footy. Not saying they cheated, but I don't think it was all Wayne's coaching. Them signing Gaz mid-season will always be dodgy to me. Also they were fined for being $30,000 over the cap that year (fact.)

[bondi-boy]

The Steelers never made the GF???
They got knocked out by the Riff before the finals 1 year (due to a rubbish decision that Harrign actually said "sorry" for and admitted his decision lost the game for te Steelers.)
Next year they lost to the Dragons in the semi-final (or whatever they call it... league finals names are silly.)

Every other season the Steelers were RUBBISH.

The Dragons won last year because tey somehow magically afforded a team purely made up of players who have played some form of rep footy. Not saying they cheated, but I don't think it was all Wayne's coaching. Them signing Gaz mid-season will always be dodgy to me. Also they were fined for being $30,000 over the cap that year (fact.)

'Dodgy' indeed...they went hundreds of thousands over the cap...'actually'.

But, the Bulldogs were allowed to do it, 2002/3 or something, keep players one year and go 'miles' over the cap 'in reality, then lose a lot of them the next year.

It all should never have been allowed, and not be allowed in future...it's a 'joke'!

Dragons were on their cap, then Gasnier is allowed to just waltz in and get paid a 'pittance', and they put him down in the cap for the pittance...and win a premiership with him.

What a 'joke'!

Yes, the NRL can do whatever it likes.
Complain, and you risk getting booted out of the League.

Clubs have virtually been gagged from criticising referees, and the NRL.

LOOK at the refereeing in the 2010 Grand Final!

LOOK at that Dragon player's foot way over the sideline!, on the ground...try to the Dragons!..."Dragons win...hooray".

More like BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


"It's very hard to win an NRL premiership" - Phil Gould.

[Guest]

What a ridiculous statement!
Premierships are why people play, coach or watch the game!
Nobody looks back and says ''Oh gee that
Brian Smith fellow took teams from bottom to near top!''
They'll look back and say '' How farrken good was Bennett to win 7 (and counting) comps''.

The game and the Roosters (and other teams) mean different things to every NRL supporter. Titles are important to you and others, not to myself and many others. There will be some people that will say Bennett won 6 titles with the QLD SOO team (like myself) and people such as yourself will say he still won 6 titles with the broncos. You are the type of person who is only concerned with winning, fair enough. I am the type of person who sees more than just a trophy, and prefers to see how it is done. There will be people who will look back and say '' How farrken good was Bennett to win 7 " and I will look back and say what about that game when the Chooks played the tigers in amazing game in 2010 equalize the score and then win sending us into the finals, when we had the spoon a year before that. Its like saying, Bellamy took the storm to four GF's winning two of them and say what a legend!, some of us will say wait a minute, his whole team blatantly breached the salary cap. Catch my drift? Smithy took us out of the dog house and into the GF with medals and accolades galore, what a magical year. I don't know of any coach in the modern era to do that. Not even Benny has achieved that, but people will only recall titles. He actually doesn't have the guts to take on a spoon team. I think peoples priorities and perceptions are skewed when they only think of titles. So don't call my statement 'ridiculous' when you are judging it by your own standards. Peace out and Go Easts.

[Guest]

The game and the Roosters (and other teams) mean different things to every NRL supporter. Titles are important to you and others, not to myself and many others.

I doubt you will find "many others". You might find a few but those that do not worry about premierships are those that don't win them. Souths bung on about how many they have one but they would give their left nut to win one now. Ask the players, coaches, management if they want to do well or win the premiership. It is all about winning the comp, that is why we cheer the team on.

[Guest]

For the 35 years I've been a fan of the Roosters (not trying to big note, just been a fan since I was 3) I've seen one Premiership. I've seen them down in the pits (2009 and most of the early 90s) and I've seen them reach several grand finals and lots of finals series, I've enjoyed every moment of it.

We've been through more coaches than most teams.

Arthur Beetson
Bob Fulton
Laurie Freier
Russell Fairfax
Hugh McGahan
Mark Murray
Phil Gould
Graham Murray
Ricky Stuart
Chris Anderson
Brad Fittler
Brian Smith

I've supported every one of them. Until it became untenable.

Brian Smith's position is far, far, far from untenable.

[Guest]

To clear up my statement.....I'm referring to the culture Bennett creates where he is held in such reverence and adoration that nobody seems to question why his teams are allowed to bend the rules, ignore the salary cap etc.
He doesn't do this for the good of the game....he is sly and self serving.
I wouldn't want his reputation associated with my team.......although he gets results from gullible players and media.
To me, he represents the Rugby League Mafia.
ism22...when you say Steelers do you mean St. Merge?

[Guest]

I doubt you will find "many others". You might find a few but those that do not worry about premierships are those that don't win them. Souths bung on about how many they have one but they would give their left nut to win one now. Ask the players, coaches, management if they want to do well or win the premiership. It is all about winning the comp, that is why we cheer the team on.

Maybe you are correct and I am in the minority, I don't conform to the norm. This forum shows that many don't believe Bennett to be that fantastic. But I must correct you, I do want premierships, but it ain't everything for me. Have you heard of some one called 'Kevin Hastings'? Every Rooster supporter has and you would find fans from other teams have also. We all know the guy is a legend. Agreed? How many premierships has he won? 'ZERO', he has actually lost a premiership and Horrie is still well known to this day. He is always talked about. Hell, we even know some one that states that hastings is his favorite player of all time, don't we 'past glory'? lol. Some would say that Hastings status would be higher than beetson and fittler (title winners) If its all about winning the comp, my fellow chook supporter you are going to be very disappointed 95% of the time as we have only won it 12 times in over 100 years and the same goes for all other teams and those stats won't change as we keep including new teams. I cheer the team on for many other reasons. We can agree to disagree chookster, you cheer them on for your reason and I will cheer them on for my reasons.

[Guest]

One of my favorite players growing up was Brendan Hall. He never got within a whore's hair of a premiership but it didn't mean I wasn't a fan of him and the team.

Loyalty means sticking with someone or something through the good and bad times. I didn't walk out on the club in 2009 when there was more defecating in hallways than wins.

Deep down part of me wants the Roosters go like busted arses again so we can weed out the fairweather fans.