This heading is probably something we don't like admitting to. Yes it implies criticism but I don't want to start looking for blame or scapegoats, just accept it and move on.
The main issue in my mind is the "Pezet" experiment. It hasn't worked and the future has to be now. If its not, then it is a pointless exercise.
Back to Pezet. It occur's to me that just about everyone is in concurrence that he is not up to the 5/8 role.
The fact that our Reserve Grade side is struggling and do not have a proper half, it is a good opportunity to let Pezet fill this role and see what he can achieve, and how our long term 5/8 potential reacts to having a "proper" half!....????.
After all the real point of having Pezet was a backup half for Moses and the developing of our junior 5/8 talent. Well the 5/8 role ain't working.
He has no speed. His defence is poor. And he show's me nothing much as a link man.
I believe all the rhetoric and dislocation, not to mention the poor form of Moses is directly related to covering Pezet's shortfalls. That included the positioning of Williams at lock and the dropping of JDB to provide cover defence for the Pezet shortfall.
We are in a remarkable good position with 2 out of 3 games, whereas we could be zero and 3 and in deep shit.
Lets not abuse our good fortune. Let's act now.
There is no way we will beat Penrith going forward with this current make up.
Finally, I expected with our back ups and juniors coming through that we were good things for Reserve Grade. But we are now showing issues there. Our junior's are struggling as well. The issue is our upcoming 5/8's are not exactly killing it!
Have we overated our position and personell?
How does this happen? Well, we, Parramatta, are total optimists with the exception of a few and we always want to see the positives.
All that being said, I continue to believe in Ryles and our coaching staff and the reality is he is still learning as well.
Just a smokey to end this discussion. Bevan French.
I do not know the contract implications, but if we get cap dispensation on Hopgood, how about making an offer for French to take the 5/8 position? He hasn't played for Wigan yet this season and I would be not against making an offer he "can't refuse". Obviously this could simply be too hard, but we are a long way short of what we want to be!
Please don't bring up the "French" defensive issues, he is now one of the best players in the world and a lot stronger defensively than when he was with us.
Replies
LB, I deliberately do that because it really "irks" you.
Remember something I tried to teach you, just because you are older doesnt mean you are wiser, but you are definately wiser than you once were as you get older.
How that compares to your wisdom is your problem.
Just to settle something and I think Wiz ran with my blog about Canberra in Darwin. I deleted it because I thought I was wrong and overreacted. I explained this after the deletion, I never have denied it or acted like it didn't happen.
Finally you don't know who has approached French and it is highly likely it never would have been Melb, but don't let any potential facts harm your version of events.....he was horribly treated in the light of BA and his lack of development in players like him.
You are having a bit eachway with Pezet, as you tend to do.....you say you don't rate him but then say he will play 100-150 NRL games......make up your mind!
PS I lead with my chin, which means you get knocked out fair bit.....to say I acted like something didn't happen is unusual for an "arrogant prick".
With the Darwin blog, i brought i up once and you said "I don't remember that" then with more pushing you admitted "It could have happened but can't remember".
Well you don't know if anybody has approached French. But fact is, if a player is claimed to be one of the best in the world, a club worthwhile would have at some point in the last 6 years would have tried and more likely got him since he was on record saying his goal is to get back to the NRL. That is not potential facts, that is facts. You knock Blaize Talagi, yet when they were on the look out for a 6 why did they not go with one of the best in the world with French? Instead went with Blaize. I used Melbourne as an example as you said he was so badly treated in the NRL referring to he might not want to come back to the NRL. If a club like Melbourne came calling he would drop everything and go there. So you said he might not want to come back over how he was treated yet said a goal of his is the return to the NRL. So again no potential facts, there are facts that disprove your assumption he might want to return.
You can not rate a player and they can play 100 NRL games as a decent half that you can use to get by. Rating a player means they are a star. Pezet can be a player that goes to certain teams that need a stop gap or be in a team that has cap space heavy in other spine areas and need a middle of the range cost 7 so they use Pezet. There have been a host of players that are not great or average that have played 100+ plus games. Matt Keating played 130 games for us, he was ok but doesn't mean i rated him. So yeah i do not rate Pezet as the next superstar half, but he could be just a fine NRL player that can do a job for you.
You sound desperate to me LB, its about a discussion, contrary to what you think if you can't keep up, don't bother trying. IMO at the moment Pezet looks a lessor player than Keating, but hey go back to the start of the blog, read it and if you cannot understand the discussion, get off the toilet!
PS The start of the blog was about Pezet, some of our juniors could be overrated and a smokey called French. You have had your say on Pezet, nice each way bet, you don't rate French and our juniors seemed to have escaped? What else would you like to contribute other than your wisdom as a school teacher and your unquestioned love of the game.....btw....that's called passive aggresive which it was meant to be.
What the hell are you talking about you old fool. I brought areas of your discussion, you argued against, i gave you facts and you have yet to show anything in response. The Keating comparison was an example of what i meant by not rating a player but they can still be ok enough to garner over 100 NRL games. What is this each way bet rubbish you go on about. I do not rate him nor do i like the signing but nothing can be done about it so just have to support him and hope it works out. He will be a player that will play a few years in the game. Guess what so have a whole bunch of halves that aren't overly good in the league but they are decent enough as a bridge. So wake up to yourself. Saying he will be a servicable Halfback is not rating a player, that is acknowledging they are fine and can do a job. I'd be different if i said i don't rate him but let's sign him for 3 years as we have nobody else.
How many experts are excited for our juniors like they are for other teams halves? Not many, we may have felt this person might be the one but we are also going off one of them has to be since the plan is Pezet for a year then in 2027 by process of elimination one of the kids has to come in unless we sign another stop gap.
Juniors have escpaed? What do you mean there?
In terms of French again, i am saying temper expectations of how good he is in one League compared to the NRL.
You are here saying i cannot keep up yet you argued against what i replied with and i replied back? Instead of going back to what i said and try and prove a point more, you rabble on with this rubbish of bringing up the side discussions brought up, they are brought up to prove my point which i feel i have done well. So maybe you would like a repeat of your old forgetful ways of forgetting things you did in the past when people catch you out when you tell us not to do that yourself.
So yeah this blog is about Pezet and i answered as well as a few other things in the blog. If you didn't want the discussion on French, don't mention him?
RUOK LB, That school playground can get pretty tough.
You have nothing to counter what I said that was against what you are saying so that's your response. Great talk coach.
PS: I was off class for most of today for planning for term 2 so didn't even see the playground thankfully haha
I'm sure you were there in Spirit LB.....you are right by the way "I had nothing to counter" .....of course that depends how you interpret it!
Beautifully responded NOS, your summation is just about perfect......and like you and Coryn I have no answers.
One thing I will say is that we know that Perth and PNG are going to place a large drain on overall playing talent, I think our lack of recruitment vision has been our valuation of players, I think in this environment and the salary cap being raised substantially in the light of TV rights etc then we need to be more adventourous with "offers too good to refuse' I now fear we have missed this boat as well......French could work btw.
I think some of us are massively overreacting. St George are always going to be a tough team to put away. Melbourne and Bulldogs both struggled to put them away and everyone is expecting those teams to be top 4. It's early in the season and we have heaps of improvement in us not to mention I think most teams are adjusting to the way the referees are controlling the games and how teams use their interchange benches moving forward to combat/exploit fatigue. I suspect we still have a lot of tinkering to do with our starting lineup/bench rotation. The form lines read Melbourne beat us, we beat Brisbane, Brisbane beat Melbourne. This weekend says a lot about where we are. Penreff have been the standout team so far. If we are close to a result (even if we lose but lose a tight one) 2/4 with one of the worst possible draws to start the season becomes a pretty good result. 3/4 is phenomenal with improvement still left in us. Whilst our pack you can argue has been dominated so far to start the year, last year we were able to combat that with fantastic ball movement which we will get better at as the year goes on. Yes Pezet's defence hasn't been good at all but he's had some nice touches in attack. We are not the complete package yet but there's heaps of improvement in us and yet we are 2/3. Absolutely no need to overreact right now, just like there was no need to compare Ryles to Kearney 2 weeks ago.
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