Booze Rothfield at it again

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He may prefer centre, but needs a lot of work defensively.
Sluggish, out of position, terrible reads, last time I saw him play there.

Very underwhelming.

Maybe just an off day though, but I wouldn't be betting the farm on this guy.
Easts seemed happy enough for him to walk
 
Easts seemed happy enough for him to walk
Actually the word was they they were disappointed he left but were putting their eggs in the Suali basket and had to free up some cap space. Then again, “people” say a lot of things so who knows.

Time will tell how he fares. I think Koula will get first crack next year anyway.
 

Monday Buzz: Inside the revival of Manly Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler​

Des Hasler was almost lost to rugby league. Here’s how he turned it all around, via PHIL ROTHFIELD.
@BuzzRothfield

August 15, 2021 - 9:13PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

Des Hasler could have been lost to rugby league if it wasn’t for a Trent Barrett dummy-spit about his backyard furniture in 2018.
Off the back of his bitter sacking from the Canterbury Bulldogs and the salary cap disaster he left behind, Hasler’s reputation was trashed and there wasn’t exactly a queue of chief executives lining up to sign him.
Not surprisingly when you look back at his later years at the Dogs and the embarrassing recruitment blunders that Canterbury are only now recovering from.


To tell the story properly of Hasler’s remarkable resurrection this year, from a $3.50 wooden spoon contender in round four to a genuine title contender, requires the painful rewind to his troubled times at Belmore.
How he inexplicably offloaded State of Origin forward Dale Finucane to Melbourne Storm by ringing Frank Ponissi and asking them to take him, even offering to pay part of his Storm contract.
How he let Damien Cook go to the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Michael Ennis to the Cronulla Sharks in the biggest blunder of them all.
Manly have rocketed into contention for the premiership.

Manly have rocketed into contention for the premiership.
To make it worse he swapped Ennis for Michael Lichaa and then signed Tony T-Rex Williams, Greg Eastwood and Will Hopoate on monster back-ended contracts worth up to $800,000-a-year.
They were so overpaid it forced the Bulldogs to offload the Morris twins, Josh and Brett, to the Sharks and the Roosters. And Josh Reynolds to the Wests Tigers.

The Dogs ran 11th in 2017, their attack so terrible that Dessie was shown the door.
Once great friends, former chairman Ray Dib and Hasler no longer speak.
Des Hasler during his time with the Bulldogs. Picture : Gregg Porteous

Des Hasler during his time with the Bulldogs. Picture : Gregg Porteous
“We lost the heart and soul of our club when all those players were allowed to leave,” Dib said on Sunday. “They were all great players, great clubmen, great Bulldogs. I can still remember Damien Cook crying about having to leave. I trusted the wrong people.”
It’s hard to believe Canterbury team was so unwatchable in 2017 yet this Manly Sea Eagles side under Hasler is playing with such breathtaking attacking skill. They are so beautiful to watch.
The thing about Des and Manly is that much of the recruitment was already sorted when he got back to Brookvale, thanks to scouting guru Scott Fulton.
The likes of boom edge forwards Josh Schuster and Haumole Olakau’ata had already been identified, as had Reuben Garrick, Morgan Harper and Brad Parker.
It meant Des could coach without having control over the roster like at the Bulldogs.
Still the beginning of this season was terrible.
They lost their opening four games to the Roosters (46-4), the Rabbitohs (26-12), the Dragons (38-12) and Panthers (46-6) on the back of finishing 13th last year.

They got out to $100 to win the comp but in to $3.50 to win the wooden spoon on the TAB.
Like at the Bulldogs, Dessie looked almost done as a coach, even allowing for his record of winning titles in 2008 and 2011.
Club veteran Peter ‘Zorba’ Peters even tipped them to win the wooden spoon.
Then they scraped home with a Daly Cherry-Evans field-goal, golden-point win over the New Zealand Warriors in round five and Tom Trbojevic made his comeback.
The rest is history.
A hopeless team quickly becomes a championship contender.
And a struggling old coach becomes a candidate for coach-of-the-year. A truly remarkable resurrection.
 
Didn’t Lionel Harper only join Manly in 2020? Desmond’s second season back?

Don’t respond, it was a rhetorical question.

On a positive note, at least he didn’t have another scoop re: internal unrest. Maybe a certain disgruntled former employee is more ‘gruntled’ these days.
 
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Still on about the furniture. Surprised he didn't mention how they never offered him a sandwich when he went to Narrabeen. We all know he's still seething over that one...
 
Don't even know why I requested to read it. Utter trash..Buzz can't let go of the past and still sufferring from PTSD..anything he writes on Manly has a dig. If you read his bio from the Telecrap you can see where his disorder began. Just like the joker movie..

''Phil Buzz Rothfield is a 43-year veteran of sports journalism. He covered his first rugby league grand final in 1978 - the Manly Sea Eagles - Cronulla Sharks replay.''
 
So yes, Des has made some coaching blunders, I’m sure most coaches have.
Aren’t they allowed to learn from them?
The NRL 2021 is a vastly different beast to 2017 and even last year.
 
Don't even know why I requested to read it. Utter trash..Buzz can't let go of the past and still sufferring from PTSD..anything he writes on Manly has a dig. If you read his bio from the Telecrap you can see where his disorder began. Just like the joker movie..

''Phil Buzz Rothfield is a 43-year veteran of sports journalism. He covered his first rugby league grand final in 1978 - the Manly Sea Eagles - Cronulla Sharks replay.''
He's only a 43 year veteran of sports journalism?, by the look of him, he must have started his cadetship in his early forties.
 
Certainly true about Des letting Finucane, Cook and Ennis go. Des also did not rate DCE when he preferred Hodkinson and banished DCE to reserve grade in Qld. Des only selected DCE in 2011 when Hodkinson signed to big bucks to the Dogs

Remember that Des only used Harper, Schuster and Guac in first grade when we had injuries to Suli, Sirro and Jetski.

If Jorge hadn't been injured, Saab probably would not be playing first grade.

At least Des has kept them in first grade after I guess seeing how good they are.

Des plays favourites , which is his strong point and also his weakness.
 
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Garbage article, zero effort to provide factual information, lazy bastard!

For starters Finucane wasn’t an Origin player when he was released to Storm. He had come through at a similar time to Josh Jackson, they were both smaller workhorse types and Jackson was considered the better of the two, so it wasn’t a shock that one was released, it wasn’t ‘inexplicable’.

In early 2014 Liccha was signed for 2015, soon after making his debut at Sharks. He was 20, and had been hooker in the NYC team of the year, played junior Origin for NSW, and played Junior Kangaroos - all in both 2012 and 2013! He played for City in 2014 after only 3 NRL games and looked like a great signing for Dogs. Hindsight is great.

Ennis signed with the Sharks half way through 2014. He was in his 12th season in NRL, he clearly only had a limited time left in the game, and the Dogs had the hottest hooking prospect signed to come in for 2015. It was hardly controversial not to get in a bidding war for Ennis at that stage. The biggest blunder of all? Yep, hindsight is great.

Cook signed with Souths at the end of 2015. At the time he was a 24 year-old who had only managed 9 NRL games over 3 years at 2 different clubs. He wasn’t a star signing. Maguire signed him ‘to add depth to the squad at dummy half’, and he was expected to compete with the likes of Cam McInnes for first grade. Hindsight is great..

And Hasler didn’t “then” sign T Rex Eastwood and Will Hoppa. T Rex was already signed way back half way through 2012, at the time he was a current Origin and Test player and premiership winner. Eastwood had started at the Dogs in 2009 and was there well before Hasler arrived. Hopoate was re-signed twice by the Dogs - including 2 years after Hasler had left.

This bit is hilarious:

“We lost the heart and soul of our club when all those players were allowed to leave,” Dib said on Sunday. “They were all great players, great clubmen, great Bulldogs. I can still remember Damien Cook crying about having to leave. I trusted the wrong people.

Damien Cook was a great Bulldog? Please. The Morris boys were south coast and St George players, plus they love to play for minimum pay so why did they have to leave? Reynolds, yeah he was shattered at having to sign a reported $3 million 4 year deal to go to Tigers.

Obviously maintaining a ‘balanced’ roster over time is difficult. In fact who can do it? Oh yeah, Storm, Chooks. Anyone else?

Anyway on holiday during lockdown, good opportunity to debunk a cheap Buzz hatchet job.
 
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Yes an interesting article and in some ways probably has elements of truth about it. But Rothfield writes, as usual, in a one dimensional manner and usually to justify a position he is taking. For example his castigation of Des while at Canterbury over the club's recruitment strategies. Curious that it was all Hasler's fault, yet at Manly he isn't involved in recruitment.

Granted the Fulton clan has done marvels with recruitment of juniors but unlike Barrett, Des is effectively utilising that work. Where are the Dogs juniors. Obviously we cant give Des credit for being involved in recruiting Aloiai, De Luis, Lawton, Foran, Harper, Saab to name a few, can we. No that would spoil the story. . But somehow the Dogs recruitment was all because of Des and the Dogs had nothing to do with it, whereas at Manly its primarily the clubs actions. And of course we can see the open cheque book for Barrett at Canterbury to buy from outside again. And of course the Dogs management has nothing to do with that either, or does that not fit the story

Good old Rothfield. Collect a bunch of facts and half truths and mould it to make a good story that fits his aims. Not news, but like most material coming from the Telegraph, manipulated material to fit an agenda.
 
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Monday Buzz: Inside the revival of Manly Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler​

Des Hasler was almost lost to rugby league. Here’s how he turned it all around, via PHIL ROTHFIELD.
@BuzzRothfield

August 15, 2021 - 9:13PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

Des Hasler could have been lost to rugby league if it wasn’t for a Trent Barrett dummy-spit about his backyard furniture in 2018.
Off the back of his bitter sacking from the Canterbury Bulldogs and the salary cap disaster he left behind, Hasler’s reputation was trashed and there wasn’t exactly a queue of chief executives lining up to sign him.
Not surprisingly when you look back at his later years at the Dogs and the embarrassing recruitment blunders that Canterbury are only now recovering from.


To tell the story properly of Hasler’s remarkable resurrection this year, from a $3.50 wooden spoon contender in round four to a genuine title contender, requires the painful rewind to his troubled times at Belmore.
How he inexplicably offloaded State of Origin forward Dale Finucane to Melbourne Storm by ringing Frank Ponissi and asking them to take him, even offering to pay part of his Storm contract.
How he let Damien Cook go to the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Michael Ennis to the Cronulla Sharks in the biggest blunder of them all.
Manly have rocketed into contention for the premiership.

Manly have rocketed into contention for the premiership.
To make it worse he swapped Ennis for Michael Lichaa and then signed Tony T-Rex Williams, Greg Eastwood and Will Hopoate on monster back-ended contracts worth up to $800,000-a-year.
They were so overpaid it forced the Bulldogs to offload the Morris twins, Josh and Brett, to the Sharks and the Roosters. And Josh Reynolds to the Wests Tigers.

The Dogs ran 11th in 2017, their attack so terrible that Dessie was shown the door.
Once great friends, former chairman Ray Dib and Hasler no longer speak.
Des Hasler during his time with the Bulldogs. Picture : Gregg Porteous

Des Hasler during his time with the Bulldogs. Picture : Gregg Porteous
“We lost the heart and soul of our club when all those players were allowed to leave,” Dib said on Sunday. “They were all great players, great clubmen, great Bulldogs. I can still remember Damien Cook crying about having to leave. I trusted the wrong people.”
It’s hard to believe Canterbury team was so unwatchable in 2017 yet this Manly Sea Eagles side under Hasler is playing with such breathtaking attacking skill. They are so beautiful to watch.
The thing about Des and Manly is that much of the recruitment was already sorted when he got back to Brookvale, thanks to scouting guru Scott Fulton.
The likes of boom edge forwards Josh Schuster and Haumole Olakau’ata had already been identified, as had Reuben Garrick, Morgan Harper and Brad Parker.
It meant Des could coach without having control over the roster like at the Bulldogs.
Still the beginning of this season was terrible.
They lost their opening four games to the Roosters (46-4), the Rabbitohs (26-12), the Dragons (38-12) and Panthers (46-6) on the back of finishing 13th last year.

They got out to $100 to win the comp but in to $3.50 to win the wooden spoon on the TAB.
Like at the Bulldogs, Dessie looked almost done as a coach, even allowing for his record of winning titles in 2008 and 2011.
Club veteran Peter ‘Zorba’ Peters even tipped them to win the wooden spoon.
Then they scraped home with a Daly Cherry-Evans field-goal, golden-point win over the New Zealand Warriors in round five and Tom Trbojevic made his comeback.
The rest is history.
A hopeless team quickly becomes a championship contender.
And a struggling old coach becomes a candidate for coach-of-the-year. A truly remarkable resurrection.
That article is so transparent in its attempt to discredit Hasler.

"Inside the revival" is the title, yet there is absolutely no inside information to speak of. It's simply a knock on his performance at the Dogs before alluding to the fact that his current roster was not assembled by him?!

It incorrectly states that Harper was at Manly before Des arrived. How can you be paid to make these incorrect assertions?

Further, Damien Cook spend 1 year the Dogs on minimum wage, yet is thrown in the mix with all the "great players, great clubmen, great Bulldogs."
 
Garbage article, zero effort to provide factual information, lazy bastard!

For starters Finucane wasn’t an Origin player when he was released to Storm. He had come through at a similar time to Josh Jackson, they were both smaller workhorse types and Jackson was considered the better of the two, so it wasn’t a shock that one was released, it wasn’t ‘inexplicable’.

In early 2014 Liccha was signed for 2015, soon after making his debut at Sharks. He was 20, and had been hooker in the NYC team of the year, played junior Origin for NSW, and played Junior Kangaroos - all in both 2012 and 2013! He played for City in 2014 after only 3 NRL games and looked like a great signing for Dogs. Hindsight is great.

Ennis signed with the Sharks half way through 2014. He was in his 12th season in NRL, he clearly only had a limited time left in the game, and the Dogs had the hottest hooking prospect signed to come in for 2015. It was hardly controversial not to get in a bidding war for Ennis at that stage. The biggest blunder of all? Yep, hindsight is great.

Cook signed with Souths at the end of 2015. At the time he was a 24 year-old who had only managed 9 NRL games over 3 years at 2 different clubs. He wasn’t a star signing. Maguire signed him ‘to add depth to the squad at dummy half’, and he was expected to compete with the likes of Cam McInnes for first grade. Hindsight is great..

And Hasler didn’t “then” sign T Rex Eastwood and Will Hoppa. T Rex was already signed way back half way through 2012, at the time he was a current Origin and Test player and premiership winner. Eastwood had started at the Dogs in 2009 and was there well before Hasler arrived. Hopoate was re-signed twice by the Dogs - including 2 years after Hasler had left.

This bit is hilarious:

“We lost the heart and soul of our club when all those players were allowed to leave,” Dib said on Sunday. “They were all great players, great clubmen, great Bulldogs. I can still remember Damien Cook crying about having to leave. I trusted the wrong people.

Damien Cook was a great Bulldog? Please. The Morris boys were south coast and St George players, plus they love to play for minimum pay so why did they have to leave? Reynolds, yeah he was shattered at having to sign a reported $3 million 4 year deal to go to Tigers.

Obviously maintaining a ‘balanced’ roster over time is difficult. In fact who can do it? Oh yeah, Storm, Chooks. Anyone else?

Anyway on holiday during lockdown, good opportunity to debunk a cheap Buzz hatchet job.
SER8 you have de-consctructed Rothfools poorly researched and shoddily cobbled together rag piece with lawyerly precision.
Well done.
Now could you please use those same skills to help free Manase for next year !!!
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 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
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