Souths get Burgess

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Kiwi Eagle

Moderator
Staff member
SOUTH Sydney are poised to announce the signing of English international Sam Burgess as they continue to assemble one of the NRL's most formidable forward packs.


In a major coup for co-owner Russell Crowe, The Sunday Telegraph understands he has convinced the 114kg prop to play in the NRL for the next three seasons. Burgess, 19, is the front-rower who famously decked Parramatta's Kiwi Test prop Fuifui Moimoi during the 2007 Tri-Nations.
South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson refused to confirm Burgess had agreed to terms for next season. The Sunday Telegraph understands the Rabbitohs will have to pay his current club, Bradford, a transfer fee.

"We've been in discussions with Sam for some time now, but I've got no further comment to make on the situation at this stage,'' Richardson said.
Souths co-owner Peter Holmes a Court was also tight-lipped about the expected announcement next week. "That one is definitely in the category of Richo handling,'' Holmes a Court said. "There have been various discussions going on, but nothing's a deal until Richo announces it. He's clearly an impressive footballer.''





South Sydney legend Mario Fenech said the combination of Burgess with Kiwi Test prop Roy Asotasi, star recruit David Taylor, Michael Crocker and Eddy Pettybourne would give the Rabbitohs one of the most intimidating packs in the NRL.

"I'm told he's an outstanding young prospect and there's no question as a club we've benefited by the addition of Russell Crowe,'' Fenech said.
"There's a clear advantage with having someone of Russell's calibre associated with the club. He's a person not many people say no to. We're on the rise as a club.''
 
Another Telecrap story which can't be confirmed. It could be true but we shall have to wait. The transfer fee (which would be the first that I know of and a huge amount) would have to go towards their cap.
 
wat the did to taylor was ****house

but i think with lang in charge they will win a comp within 4 seasons.

Lang gotta closer than anyone else has recently to gettin the shirescum a comp and he turned the panthers from ****kickers to premiers
 
Souths get Dave taylor and Burgess and we get an old fart like Joe who is doing our recruitment. Last year we signed the 2 biggest oxygen thiefs in the game in Baily and Williams ( tony) now we back it up this year with by having a player choose Souths Scum over us. I guess with no Chief Exec it looks very unprofessional to any player and manager. As much as I hate the Storm and Bellamy you have to admire 4 GF in a row. They seem to be able to handle success unlike us. I have more then a fear we are heading back to the mediocre team we were before we snared Ben Kennedy
 
reyam link said:
Souths get Dave taylor and Burgess and we get an old fart like Joe who is doing our recruitment. Last year we signed the 2 biggest oxygen thiefs in the game in Baily and Williams ( tony) now we back it up this year with by having a player choose Souths Scum over us. I guess with no Chief Exec it looks very unprofessional to any player and manager. As much as I hate the Storm and Bellamy you have to admire 4 GF in a row. They seem to be able to handle success unlike us. I have more then a fear we are heading back to the mediocre team we were before we snared Ben Kennedy

I agree with some of your points. The lack of a chief exec is a concern. I also don't think that we are genuine contenders next year. We will finish top eight, but our time has passed. We blew a great opportunity this year I believe. Other teams are building very strongly, while we have remained stagnant. The Eels are in the GF this year and are adding Tahu, Poore and Shackleton for next year. The young guys like Mannah, Mortimer and Keating will be so much better next year. The Dogs are also adding Halatau for next year and some others that escape me right now. If the Rabbits get Burgess, to add to Dave Taylor, then their pack will be scary. The Titans will also learn from their semi campaign and be 25% better. We are back to the field.
 
We are stuffing around dancing with Orford.  Let the guy go and get serious with what we've got.
 
it doesn't look good:

injury prone matai and lyon;
30 odd year halfback (who was injured all this year: Zorba)

Glenn in wrong position at 2nd row, too slow out wide
Kite and Perry went missing this year, what about 2010
good nrl players like robbo, farrar, bailey, are not going to do much good for us in winning the comp

For us to be at the top:
We need 2 top class centres (matai, lyon too slow) these 2 won't score many tries in 2010 which means less quality ball for wolfie and robbo
1 mongrel front rower (could be kingy to be honest)
1 hard running right hand 2nd rower (hoping it will be Darcy Lussick)
Foran at 5/8, and running more plays than the token stuff with Orford this year
 
We get a top line fullback, game breaker and match winner back, who sets up as many tries as he scores

That in turn means we get a quality finisher like Robertson back on the wing

Personally, I think you place far too much of a centre's ability on pace Darren. They are both good enough to break the line in their own way, and always lurking around will be Stewart, Robertson, Williams and Watmough. They have far more attributes to there games that make up for a lack of pace

If we move into the pack, Kite's last few games were certainly quite an improvement and his form was heading back in the right direction. Perry showed signs at times but desperately needs that consistency back. Watmough is Watmough, we will get some match winning efforts out of him

Most importantly though, is that the side will have a normal, uninterrupted off season. I can't see any more than Watmough, Glenn Stewart, Matai and possibly Foran being involved in the 4 nations.
We don't have to run our off season to involve a trip to England and to hit some sort of peak form in early March.
No major surgeries to take place, so we should have the majority of the squad running around together for 5 months working on things, which can only benefit blokes like Stewart, Tony Williams, Foran etc
 
Good point Kiwi. We get back a 20 plus tryscorer a season plus a world class winger. This year, despite our disappointment and a shocking start we were only one win off a home semi and only three wins from the minor premiership.

If the hunger is there, we still have a pack to cause problems, though I think we need to do more to adjust to the two ref, faster speed of the play the ball.

I am not ready to say we have gone backwards yet. Souths will have a great pack maybe but they are yet to show they can win the big games that count. Even with the season we have had, I still reckon, were we still alive we could have beaten most times bar maybe Melbourne in Melbourne with a fit squad.
 
gday kiwi, fair enough, good call, I'm just concerned that we rely too heavily on brett, remember the days of oconnor, shearer, innes etc, centres who scored 15-20 per year, matai was 3 this season, I'm sorta hoping one of the young guys come thru, lussick, foran, even hopoate later in the year, some youth would help
 
Darren link said:
gday kiwi, fair enough, good call, I'm just concerned that we rely too heavily on brett, remember the days of oconnor, shearer, innes etc, centres who scored 15-20 per year, matai was 3 this season, I'm sorta hoping one of the young guys come thru, lussick, foran, even hopoate later in the year, some youth would help
you gotta remember daz
for 2 seasons Matai has had the same men inside and outside of him

this year he had robbo outside of him for what 5 games.

I see matai as an extra forward he gets good metres for us out of dummy half.
 
gday cam, hope work is going strong, old wollongong is about blown away with these winds, sounds abit like a choking noise but that word isnt popular down here  ;D

big year for matai 2010, up for renewal of contract, under the knife again with work, can't see him switching to lock etc so hoping he can get back to old form, yes, robbo was a big loss on the wing, finding top class centres isn't easy so either matai comes good or whare/hopoate/davey step up.
 
Assuming we re-sign Ox (which I hope we can do [if we can still re-sign some youngsters]), we still have a great looking squad Dazza. Here's a depth chart if you will (and I have listed players I think COULD make the team given extreme injury or whatever):-

01. Brett Stewart 01. William Hopoate 01. Denis Sandow
02. Michael Robertson 02. Tony Williams
03. Steve Matai 03. Ben Farrar 03.Dean Whare
04. Jamie Lyon 04. Shane Neumann
05. David Williams 05. Andrew Suniula
06. Keiran Foran
07. Matt Orford 07. Trent Hodgkinson 07. Daley Cherry-Evans
08. Jason King 08. Lama Tasi 08. Michael Tiopira
09. Matt Ballin
10. Josh Perry 10. Matt Cross
11. Anthony Watmough
12. Shane Rodney
13. Glenn Stewart

14. Chris Bailey
15. Brent Kite 15. Vic Mauro
16. George Rose 16. Phil Moorwood
17. Joe Gulovou 17. Darcy Lussick 17. Junior Palau

We aren't TOO bad - and I think I have missed some players.
 
Whare will play plenty of first grade. Mark my words. Hes like Jennings. Quick and light on his feet.
 
I'm still worried about our pack.

I think go-forward was the centre to many of our problems this year.
 
It will be interesting to see how Rodney goes next season, hopefully he will be fully fit and not get an injury as he really added some value in attack and defence.
 
KaZa link said:
Whare will play plenty of first grade. Mark my words. Hes like Jennings. Quick and light on his feet.

From what i've seen this year, Blake Davey would be ahead of Whare at Manly. Not to say that Whare isn't good (because he's bloody brilliant), Davey just seems more solid all round & is better in defence.

Both of those lads should be pushing for some games next year however & I would imagine that Suniula & Neumann will make way for them.
 
Darren link said:
gday cam, hope work is going strong, old wollongong is about blown away with these winds, sounds abit like a choking noise but that word isnt popular down here  ;D

big year for matai 2010, up for renewal of contract, under the knife again with work, can't see him switching to lock etc so hoping he can get back to old form, yes, robbo was a big loss on the wing, finding top class centres isn't easy so either matai comes good or whare/hopoate/davey step up.

G'day Darren

I have heard that the NSW RL wants Manly to field a team back in NSW comp next year and not the Sunshine coast.  Have you heard anything?

I think that we really missed not having a team in the NSW cup this year.  The players must get sick of travelling to the sunshine coast every weekend and not training as a full team.  It would also be better stepping stone for toyota cup players before they move to FG.

Also heard a rumour that Hodkinson wants to get out of his contract and go back to Parra.  Apparantly he sees an opening there with Robson not being signed for next year.  
 
KaZa link said:
Whare will play plenty of first grade. Mark my words. Hes like Jennings. Quick and light on his feet.

I have to admit that I didn't see any St George Toyota Cup games but I did check the game reports and Whare didn't seem to get the kudos, it seemed to be Linnett, the other centre. Linnett seemed to be the one scoring the tries as well and he is off to the Roosters. I also read somewhere that he has had knee problems. For someone so young, this is a concern.

If we get the best out of our forwards, we are in the mix, but you have to wonder about the motivation of Kite/Perry. Fit and hungry, our pack can match it with anyone, but it really did seem that both Kite and Perry were just going through the motions. This placed incredible pressure on King.

W.Hoppa seems to be a few years away as well.
 

Members online

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom