EXCLUSIVE: Why 2022 grand finalists will likely miss finals after 'fiasco' and suspensions, writes Paul Gallen
By Paul Gallen
With six rounds remaining in the NRL season it's now or never for some teams to make a charge towards the top eight.
Penrith, Brisbane, and the Warriors are all going well, while Melbourne and Canberra can be considered locks for finals, too.
The Sharks, Cowboys, and Eels all have tough runs home and will have their work cut out to stay inside the top eight and make the post-season.
Of the sides currently outside the eight, South Sydney looks the most likely to sneak into finals, for minThe Rabbitohs have an easier run home than some others - they face the Tigers, Sharks, Dragons, Knights and Roosters, as well as having a bye.
On the flip side the Eels have to play the Storm, Broncos, and Panthers on the way home, all teams who would expect to beat Parramatta late in the season.
To make matters worse they have to try to win games without three of their most important players - Dylan Brown who is stood down, and Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Maika Sivo, who are suspended for a few weeks.
The Eels will be criticised if they miss finals a year after playing in a grand final, but the club had a big turnover of players. Their bench this season hasn't been as strong as it was previously.
They had to deal with the Ryan Matterson fiasco at the start of the season, which hurt the team, and now the suspensions of Brown, RCG and Sivo will really test their depth, which I don't think is very strong.
There will be more articles next week writing us off if we lose to the Storm on the weekend. Nothing beats a Parra story for headlines
Replies
It's a real possibility we're not going to play finals. They really only gelled for a few weeks mid season. Disappointing year.
Love him or hate him, Gallen is right. Base on currently available top 17, we are where we should be... around 8th. With a few hard games left, there is every chance we could miss the finals.
We had our chance last year with a much stronger roster and blew it. Super coach GF game plan never changed to meet the Penriff ambush.
I can't stand Gallen, he never shuts up. He's not wrong here though
Form your own opinions, Gallen isn't an expert, more like an admitted drug cheat.
We really need to beat the storm to have any hope. The club really need to invest in one or two class outside backs because our development isn't going to produce anything anytime soon.
We have to pay massive overs for players even when nobody else is bartering for them. Who does that? We were going dollar for dollar with Wests to ensure we kept Moses when we were the Grand Finalists and they are the gimps of the competition. I thought I was in the Twighlight Zone when I was reading we have to up our offer because Wests had upped theirs. You either want big money and play for a bum team or you want decent money and play in a successful team, you don't get both. Moses and his bullshit was the early derailment of our season. Remember how awful he was whilst he was walking around with his hat out asking for an extra penny here and penny there. We should've landed him at minimum 150-200k less than a shit show like Balmain. We ended up having to match them and throw in an extra year to entice him to grace us with his presence. He is as much to blame for our poor season as anyone considering his first few months of disruption and poor games.
We are like drunken sailors with the chequebook at contract time.
Mate the Roosters with all their connections and cap cheating still can't get it done. How embarrassing for them.
Lol
Or, maybe the club chooses not to spend a huge chunk of change trying to recruit players and thereby lose juniors. Previously, the club has been hammered for losing good juniors. Right now, it has a focus on developing from within.
I note Chief says our junior development is dog shit although we just won Harold Matts. Do clearly have some talent there
We let Reed go because he wanted too much, Papa wanted too much so he was let go.
All this commentary is bullshit. The way you guys see it is that the club is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. Spends on a big name recruit? Well, we'd lose a bunch of juniors. Prioritise junior development? Well, we clearly can't compete in the player market.
Bloody every club deals with similar shit. Penrith has been haemorrhaging players. Melbourne lost almost its entire forward pack.
Price of players is going up. What you see as us overpaying for Moses is the going rate for a halfback at his level. There aren't many Origin halfbacks on the market.
As for Paul Gallen? Well, Mr convicted drug cheat isn't someone I'd be listening to. Parramatta's season is still alive and in their hands.
I'd say our bench is better than last season, we've had a settled backline for most of the year and our attack has been much improved on last year.
The key player out at the moment is Brown, he has one more game. I can see us winning without RCG and Maika, but not so much without Brown.
Which juniors are we heavily invested in salary cap wise ? Do we have some future big stars we don't know about that we are invested in therefore reducing our cap spend on the NRL recruitment front ? Ethan Sanders maybe .... I don't get the point you're making as we haven't spent bugger all on recruiting any big names for a decade so by your claims we should have a squad full of superstars we've bred. The only one I know of that's been paid superstar kid kinda coin to ensure he stayed is Brown.
You spend money on one big signing, you lose 3 young blokes. All the talk has been about Sanders, but we have Richard Penisini, Blaze Talagi, Sam Tuivaiti and Jock Brazel. All future NRL players who we would be in danger of losing if we recruited high cost players from outside the club.
Then you've also got current NRL players like Luca Moretti, Will Penisini, Sean Russell and Wiremu Greig alongside Brown who have all come from our junior ranks. Again, you spend big on one player then it's likely you lose some of them.
The idea of junior development is that you don't have to over-invest in them. I guarantee if we tried to get Penisini from another club right now he'd cost a lot more than what we're paying him.
The club is approaching its recruitment from a long term sustainability perspective. Replacing departing players with either juniors or experienced but undervalued NRL players. Guys like Cartwright, Ogden, Simonsson. That structure allows you to heavily invest in your spine and middle forwards.
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