Kaeo Weekes

[HK_Eagle]

LC. Defense is learned. Innate skill is natural. I mentioned in another response about Talua's claim that when playing his first game, Turbo ran through him five times, he says. Seems Wright has no problems today, given he's recognised as the No 1 full back in the Australian four Rugby Union sides playing the top echelon of the sport.

Put your hat in for the 18th team NRL licence, hire all those fabulous players Manly were too impatient to develop, teach them how to tackle, and go win yourself a premiership.

 

[maxta]

Players don't get 'thrown away' per se. There is this illusion that the club is impatient and makes poor retention decisions. That's not true at all. There is a salary cap to consider and ALL clubs have players that were once on their books, doing good things elsewhere. It's the nature of professional sport. And don't say they were signed and released early as some indicator that they were tossed out because the club thought they were no good; salary cap management is fluid and circumstances change. Players are often released early to (a) take a better opportunity somewhere else or (b) another player's stocks rise, requiring more cap space to retain or (c) another position has been identified as needing more depth, etc.

If Josh Schuster goes on to be successful somewhere else, it does not mean Manly made a mistake. It wasn't working at Manly at that particular time. Likewise, Gutherson. We let him go to use the money to sign Walker, who had some fantastic years at Manly in the centres, before an horrific ankle injury robbed him of his greatest asset; speed. He was still quick but never quite the same and eventually moved to the forwards. Would Gutherson have been as successful playing centre? Probably not. He is clearly a fullback and was never going to take Tom's spot. That he has been great for Parramatta, is not a Manly error, just a part of professional sport. Weekes would not be a better fullback than Tom, a better 5/8 than Brooks, a better centre than Koula or Garrick, a better winger than Saab or Talau. It was not a mistake to let him go, even if he ends up being fantastic. He was not going to make the starting side and he is too good to have in NSW Cup, so he left for an opportunity somewhere else. No one has made an error.

Well summed up, as per usual mate....in fact - it's fact !

 

[Bearfax]

Put your hat in for the 18th team NRL licence, hire all those fabulous players Manly were to impatient to develop, teach them how to tackle, and go win yourself a premiership.

I'm for a Perth side. Go west young man

 

[ManlyTragic]

LC. Defense is learned. Innate skill is natural. I mentioned in another response about Talua's claim that when playing his first game, Turbo ran through him five times, he says. Seems Wright has no problems today, given he's recognised as the No 1 full back in the Australian four Rugby Union sides playing the top echelon of the sport.

Bearfax I wouldn’t use ‘Australia Rugby Union’ in any narrative to strengthen or justify your argument..

Just sayin’

 

[mave]

To me, this discussion is actually more about the way we as a club do not have a aura of stability around our coach, and haven't done since 2011.

The problem stems from our owner.

KPIs, chasing instant success over long term planning. Penn has interfered with every coach since the beginning with power plays, internal bickering, etc.

Weekes leaving/being told to look elsewhere is a symptom of this.

Even now there are Seibolds extension talks put on hold, BA potentially being sounded out, etc, etc.

How the fk does Seibold be patient with a player like Weekes, for example, when at this stage he just about needs a win every week to keep his job for next season.

Ricky, Robinson, Bellamy, Uncle Wayne, etc do not have these concerns. They can plan longer term....with patience.

 

[Scorpio]

LC. Defense is learned. Innate skill is natural. I mentioned in another response about Talua's claim that when playing his first game, Turbo ran through him five times, he says. Seems Wright has no problems today, given he's recognised as the No 1 full back in the Australian four Rugby Union sides playing the top echelon of the sport.

Tom Wright was under contract here until the end of 2019... But after 5 NRL games in 2018 and getting dropped back to reserve grade, he quit the sport and went to rugby at the end of the year.

Barrett is statistically not a very successful NRL coach, but the decision to pack up and quit rugby league entirely (instead of sticking around and improving in reserve grade, like 99% of players do) was on Tom Wright. It's also worth considering that if Des was the coach here in 2018, he might not have given TW a debut at all.

 

[maxta]

Bearfax I wouldn’t use ‘Australia Rugby Union’ in any narrative to strengthen or justify your argument..

Just sayin’

Yeh it's an obvious call, I mean players not cutting it "or" have deficiences like rocks or diamond attack, or poor tackling, tend to go to Rugby Union or UK Super league and become stars

 

[Disco]

The club 'invited' each of those players to look elsewhere. Gutherson had even signed to a 2 year contract with Manly in 2015 but because of a knee injury was unavailable for much of that year. Manly released him from the contract later in the year, I suspect because they had Turbo and Gutherson mainly played full back. No thought was obviously given to the fact that he could play centre and five eighth and that both Matai and Jamie Lyon were at the end of their careers. Two months later Manly signed Dylan Walker. Work it out.

Tom Wright was off contract and given Barrett's lack of interest in using him, and I suspect delays in any offer to renew, the Brumbies offered him a solid contract, so I suspect given little interest from Manly and despite Bob Fulton's recruitment of him and high opinion, he left.

Weekes was, according to reports, told his contract would not be renewed with Manly at the end of 2023.

I dont see any impatience there on the part of the players.

I was fuming when we released Gutho.

Wright and Kaeo I was and remain fine with.

 

[Phobia]

I think Gutho, Hynes, AFB and Koroisau (obviously there's some hindsight there with Fainu, and AFB was looking for $$$), are the only ones that I think we would've been better off keeping.

 

[Loyal Eagle]

Bearfax I wouldn’t use ‘Australia Rugby Union’ in any narrative to strengthen or justify your argument..

Just sayin’

Like saying he is the best third grade fullback in the comp lol

 

[Jay Eagle]

Come on Jay. The kid is 22 and now Canberra's first pick half. Despite their loss yesterday, they are above Manly, sitting in 6th spot. He must be doing something right. Hardly call him average. I know someone local who is a Raider's supporter and he thinks Manly were mad to let him go. He's a few years from his best, just as Gutherson was,, around the same age, when he moved to the Eels. Similar to Tom Wright, The Brumbies full back who according to the SMH assessor is consistently the top full back from the Australian rugby sides, has been the Wallaby's full back, and Eddie Jones recently rated him as one of the best he's seen. There are others. Manly made some questionable recruitment decisions over the past decade. Fortunately this year they seem to have a made a few good ones...at last.

Go back and watch the game..he's the half yet hardly recieved the ball first off the ruck and they even took the kicking off him..Rapana was kicking..even in the red zone..

He's only the half back due to injuries.
And yes he's average..just my opinion