2025 recruitment & retention

So from the 32 players on the club website for 2024 we have lost 5 players (Parker, Condon, Humphries, Paulo, Lawton).

With questions still over Lodge, Waddel, Ray Vegas) in terms of re-signing or leaving.

From what we hear Tevaga, DJ are the only ones coming in so far for Top 30 unless I missed someone. Players like Large, etc would be dev players.


 
Reading the Cowboys forum they dont seem to rate DJ, the consensous seems he showed talent early but hasn't kicked on.

They seem happy he wont be taking a top 30 spot.

Doesn't read as sour grapes either.

That said, kid is still you so I wont write him off, but I'll have measured expectations to begin with.
 
Reading the Cowboys forum they dont seem to rate DJ, the consensous seems he showed talent early but hasn't kicked on.

They seem happy he wont be taking a top 30 spot.

Doesn't read as sour grapes either.

That said, kid is still you so I wont write him off, but I'll have measured expectations to begin with.

.Shibisaki is the one at the Cows who would have been a great get.
 
So from the 32 players on the club website for 2024 we have lost 5 players (Parker, Condon, Humphries, Paulo, Lawton).

With questions still over Lodge, Waddel, Ray Vegas) in terms of re-signing or leaving.

From what we hear Tevaga, DJ are the only ones coming in so far for Top 30 unless I missed someone. Players like Large, etc would be dev players.


Waddell signed on for another 3 seasons also, a few weeks back.
 
We need a prop to replace Lodge who was our starting prop on most occasions when he was not injured or coming back from injury. As many have stated also a decent back rower to replace lawton and of course a Hooker. Lets hope we address this ASAP otherwise it could be another long off season.
 
Unfortunately , mainly comes back to the re signing of Alioai in terms of being able to accommodate and bring in a reasonably well credentialed prop out there.
Able to produce in patches when he is largely uninjured [ Alioai ] , how to get some improvement on that , just can not really say but largely being relatively injury free and his fitness level up would be a start .
Like to think that it is more then possible but hardly on the predictable or certain side .
Was also compounded with the indifferent form of Lodge and Brown and jaded Jake [ occasionally ]when it really mattered this season and Bully still not re signed past next season .
Looks like Lodge out of the scene now but still a question mark with some of these other related matters
 
A Johns on nine.com.au about how Bellamy recruits players:

The key - says Johns - is the unique recruitment policy Bellamy and his football boss Frank Ponissi have in place.

"They go back to the school, they will phone the principals, school teachers, they go to junior coaches, people in the area where they grew up - and if one or two people say 'he's a bit of a dick', they don't sign them," Johns said.
 
A Johns on nine.com.au about how Bellamy recruits players:

The key - says Johns - is the unique recruitment policy Bellamy and his football boss Frank Ponissi have in place.

"They go back to the school, they will phone the principals, school teachers, they go to junior coaches, people in the area where they grew up - and if one or two people say 'he's a bit of a dick', they don't sign them," Johns said
Yeah that's the kind of culture building you need to do to have a stable squad, and I think also a big factor in why our spate of signings of youngsters in the western suburbs had such mixed results is because some of them were acting like cocks behind the scenes.

I still remember seeing that video of Suli throwing Schuster's phone into the creek and thinking that was a really bad sign.

During our last glory period the players were all mates and having poker nights at each other's houses etc.
 
We need a prop to replace Lodge who was our starting prop on most occasions when he was not injured or coming back from injury. As many have stated also a decent back rower to replace lawton and of course a Hooker. Lets hope we address this ASAP otherwise it could be another long off season.
Fairly hopeful that Burbo can hold down and perform quite well on an edge next season .
Showed enough there this season to indicate this .
As for back up options , really can only look to Waddell , the Cowboys forward addition may take a bit of time to establish himself if he can measure up . not sure if Tevaga has played much backrow
Was some references previously about Max Hayley , a back rower from the Blacktown squad as having some ability
Must have been a relatively good offer from the Cowboys to lure Lawton there , will represent a bit of a loss but will just have to get on with it .
Not sure of the game plan to try and accommodate both Talau and Lehi in a game day 17 but could be worth considering again to look at trialing or off season option preparation of Talau at 13, ,. edge role probably not as encouraging
 
Can’t see any major improvements coming into our pack yet it looks like we are just shuffling deck chairs. Lodge moving on and no replacement yet. Brown is not a prop.
 
Can’t see any major improvements coming into our pack yet it looks like we are just shuffling deck chairs. Lodge moving on and no replacement yet. Brown is not a prop.
The Improvement I see is the coach getting the best of the playing roster playing their best on a CONSISTENT basis Just like other top 4 coaches like Bellamy does for example
Bellamy had key players like Munster and Hughes out of service during the year but still managed to get his team playing consistently and winning consistently

Our 2024 season has been inconsistent and our last three games were underwhelming......

We Lost the opportunity to play a home final when we were convincingly beaten 40 points to 20 on our home soil by the sharks

Escaped with a narrow 24 points to 20 in the last 10 minute of the game by a individual effort after being dominated for the majority of the game by the underdogs whos coach Rookie Ciraldo was rewarded with a Daly M coach of the year Nomination for over achieving .

Eliminated by another 40 point disappointing capitulation to the roosters

As Steve Roach was quoted after our final end of the year elimination game
""Manly has been inconsistent all year
You can not be inconsistent all year and expect to suddenly go up a gear in the finals ""
Steve Roach
 
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Impressive in changing players but still being at the top. Our salary cap is so unbalanced and we will never win until the 1 million plus contracts of Turbo, DCE and Jake retire.
I disagree
We have a top 4 squad
and once you earn a top 4 position playing consistent footy all year anything is possible
What we dont have is a top 4 coach to get the best out of our squad
I hope I am wrong for the sake of our beloved Manly
But I can not see us winning a grand final under this guy
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A Johns on nine.com.au about how Bellamy recruits players:

The key - says Johns - is the unique recruitment policy Bellamy and his football boss Frank Ponissi have in place.

"They go back to the school, they will phone the principals, school teachers, they go to junior coaches, people in the area where they grew up - and if one or two people say 'he's a bit of a dick', they don't sign them," Johns said.
I would've had no chance playing for the Storm.
 
I disagree
We have a top 4 squad
and once you earn a top 4 position playing consistent footy all year anything is possible
What we dont have is a top 4 coach to get the best out of our squad
I hope I am wrong for the sake of our beloved Manly
But I can not see us winning a grand final under this guy
View attachment 28385
We are a club and team on the improve.

Our consistency was markedly the best it's been in a decade this year.

But winning a comp ain't easy.

Sharks are in front of us. They dominated the comp early on in the season. Have been building greater consistency in last 2 or 3 season, are building finals experience to a core team they have kept together. And they are even a way off just yet and had poor patches. Even the premiers often do.

Unless u have the Sombrero of the dogs and can buy penrith stars for big $ but still have apparently under spent your cap by 1.6million in 2024 LOL. It takes time.

Seibs will have a much harder job next couple of year IMO.

Our aging forwards and halves. They might not have the blow outs in them the kids often do. But the legs get slower and some will have a year where wheels fall off. AOA wheels might have fallen off a couple of months back too. He's almost walking now.

With the game speeding up too, add other teams having already recruited bigger to date.

We really need something on the recruitment front as well as continued improvement in defence, just to maintain the status quo.

If we stand still we will actually go backwards by a fair way.

We will need to make a pretty significant step forward in 25 even to be top 4.

Even a coach improving things needs $ to spend.
 
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