I was reading through the article Hayne wrote for SMH on the upcoming SOO series, and one thing really struck me...you can feel the passion in his words, the pride, the hunger.
Just have a read of this snippet:
Physically, I was wrecked. But I knew I couldn't let this state down. I couldn't let my teammates down. They're are not just my teammates. They're my brothers.
"C'mon. Keep going, keep going!", trainer Ronnie Palmer yells out as he tries to get me back up on my feet knowing just how exhausted we all were.
By that stage all feeling in my legs were lost. Nothing in my body was functioning. It felt like I was moving with my head.
"This is hell", I remember thinking to myself. "This is literally hell".
In Origin, you need to take your body to places you've never been, experience feelings you've never experienced and suffer pain you've never suffered.
I was hurting beyond measure, but I had to keep pushing for the boys, because deep down I knew they were pushing for me. We were all pushing for each other. We showed that warrior mentality.
For me, the achievement was not wearing the jersey but what I put into that jersey.
That hunger, that pride, that win-at-all-costs mentality and standing shoulder to shoulder with those boys beside you willing to go through hell to get the result. What I wouldn't give to see that pride in the Parra jersey. To see that hunger in their eyes. To see defeat FUEL them towards revenge, instead of deflate them into depression.
That's what we need to foster within the team. It's something that Crowe managed to get happening at Souths, he made them proud to bleed for their colours. They didn't play for 40 minutes, or 60, or (as we saw last weekend) even 75 - they played every single minute and when it ended they started planning for the next minute of play to either carry on winning or to exact revenge.
We need that hunger. We need to foster that pride. And as Hayne showed above, it doesn't come from winning. Hell the NSW hunger came from almost a decade of LOSING! But with every loss the hunger grew, it became insatiable, the boys wanted to put in more and more and more to clime their Everest.
We need that hunger.
We need that desire.
We need a team who are willing to aggressively go to battle for the Blue and Gold, through hell and high water, again and again, through unimaginable pain and fatigue. We need wins to bring confidence and losses to bring a yearning for revenge. Other teams have it, and if we want to compete, we need it too.
So who's hungry??
Replies
The team need the hunger, the fans need the hunger. "Fortress Pirtek" is a myth when the crowd is small. When we get a big crowd > we very often win, and against fancied opponents. NSW lost 8 straight! And still sold out ANZ every time. Parra lose one or two games and crowds halve in size. Sadly, Parra fans don't thrive on adversity, nor does it galvanize us, rather we see those who stick strong, those who don't, the whingers, those looking to blame the coach or board etc. We need to stick TOGETHER. Players feed off fans and fans feed off players, when the crowd is big, they lift, and as they lift, so does the crowd. We need everyone to have the hunger & desire.
I for one am sick of hearing about boardroom reform,new training facilities ,new toilet blocks and especially about what good church going boys the players are.I DON'T A FLYING F**K ABOUT ANY OF THAT INCIDENTAL CRAP.
Results on the field should be the only measure of whether this side of overpaid,give up when the going gets tough spoilt kids we call players are judged by.I am sick to death of excuses.The other blog about the statistics was a clever exercise in sophistry.No matter which sets of numbers you spruik,the fact we are last again and firming as favourites for the spoon AGAIN,should speak for itself lodvand clear.
We need hunger, we need desire but what we mostly need is Hayne.
Wow that was so good I want too pull on my jumper and run on and give it my all for the two minutes I would last or is that one minute, seriously good read
Maybe our players have the hunger but don't have the talent?
We have a lot of talent in our team, and a lot of unrealised potential talent. I've also seen a lot that shows a lack of hunger. The first game against Souths we showed hunger, and we won.
No way do our boys play with the passion that Hayne evokes in his article. It's simply not there. Talent or otherwise.
Of course players are going to put their hands on hips and heads back after a try is scored against them. You've defended well right up until that point and it would be frustrating to have a try scored against you. Every team does that, not just ours. Smiling has nothing to do with hunger. We obviously don't have a lot of talent in our team otherwise we'd have more than 1 player in the SOO this week.
You've defended well right up until that point and it would be frustrating to have a try scored against you.
Sure, it's frustrating. Losing is frustrating. So how do you channel that? Into despair? Or into aggression and revenge? How many times have you seen the Eels cop one try against us and the run of play and then they suddenly look like they've given up? An all too common scenario.
Smiling has nothing to do with hunger
I disagree. If you have the desire to win and nothing else is good enough you won't have a sheepish Mannah grin at the end of a drubbing.
We obviously don't have a lot of talent in our team otherwise we'd have more than 1 player in the SOO this week.
Souths have only 1 player in SOO. Inglis. Are they lacking talent as well?
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