Manase Fainu

[Paw93]

You're kidding yourselves if you think Fainu is up for a full time role at 9 in first grade - he's been quite inconsistent for Blacktown. Great player and is a future star but he needs more time to develop before he can be thrown in. Bring him into the top 30 next year and let him ply his trade in reserve grade. Then for 1-2 years after that he can play off the bench in first grade to give Api a spell. If he does well then hopefully he'll be ready for the starting role then.

I think we all forget that a starting hooker has one of the toughest jobs in league and that there is a big difference between U-20s, reserve grade and first grade.

 

[40 years an eagle]

He will be gone if he is not brought into the 30 system this year and/or a sizeable contract upgrade.
Some other team will for sure.

We can't BUY a competative team due to the cap penalty, and more importantly, our substandard TPA gathering ability.
We need to BUILD one. We can't afford a 400K+? a year hooker for the next 3 years.

Anyone we have that is any good will be bought by the BBPB clubs if we don't absolutely maximise our funds to ability ledger.
We need probably 5 or 6 young guys playing FG that cost a total of around $1.1-1.3M. Right now we have maybe 2 of them in AFB and Gojetski and the spots for the other 3 or 4 needed are are taken up by guys who in total cost us around 1.2- 1.6M on their own.

That's if we want to actually COMPETE in a year or so of course because we can't pay market value for established stars. We just won't have the kind of money needed to put up a competitive team (with $3M we are stuck with on our 1, 7 and 13) without some "better valued" young guns. It's nigh impossible.

Key positions: 1, 6, 7, 9 and 13= $4M, spend the other $5M on the other 25 guys.

 

[Tomay]

I can’t believe people want to keep Fainu and get rid of Api. That’s absolutely crazy.

He will likely get a role as a bench hooker to relieve Api at some point. Then we can see what he might be made of. There’s no way he’s able to replace Api for 65+ minutes a game at NRL level. I don’t know why we would downgrade anywhere at the moment.

 

[Bearfax]

I can’t believe people want to keep Fainu and get rid of Api. That’s absolutely crazy.

He will likely get a role as a bench hooker to relieve Api at some point. Then we can see what he might be made of. There’s no way he’s able to replace Api for 65+ minutes a game at NRL level. I don’t know why we would downgrade anywhere at the moment.

We came close to losing Krillich because of the loyalty shown to Jones in his lateryears. Jones was solid but pedestrian in his later years. Krillich was an absolute whizz in reserves and ended up selected for rep football while still playing reserves. When you've got a good player and a potentially great player sitting in the wings, what would you do? Same could have happened with Eadie, had Batty not chosen to retire because he knew the kid was on the rise and Manly needed to keep him. Api is like Batty. Inspirational, does some fine things, could kick goals, much loved. But would you retain him at the risk of losing Eadie

 

[Bearfax]

I can’t believe people want to keep Fainu and get rid of Api. That’s absolutely crazy.

He will likely get a role as a bench hooker to relieve Api at some point. Then we can see what he might be made of. There’s no way he’s able to replace Api for 65+ minutes a game at NRL level. I don’t know why we would downgrade anywhere at the moment.

We came close to losing Krillich because of the loyalty shown to Jones in his later years. Jones was solid but pedestrian in his later years. Krillich was an absolute whizz in reserves and ended up selected for rep football while still playing reserves. When you've got a good player in first grade and a potentially great player sitting in the wings, what would you do? Same could have happened with Eadie, had Batty not chosen to retire because he knew the kid was on the rise and Manly needed to keep him. Api is like Batty. Inspirational, does some fine things, could kick goals, much loved. But would you retain him at the risk of losing Eadie

 

[lurker]

I saw api down at dee why beach yesterday with his kid. Didn’t seem to be limping or anything so I’m thinking this story about a cork is just a bit of a beat up. Continue to kick a dog while he’s down etc.

 

[manly al]

Not too sure there would be that many clubs interested in signing Fainu , maybe the Eels or Panthers but providing that A P I is not going to impact unfavorably on Manly 's cap for an extended two year contract for instance , probably can retain Fainu and even as a bench player at least next season . Certainly agree that definitely need some realistic and value based future contracts for the emerging group of youngsters in the Manly ranks now such as Suli , Paseka , Fainu . Anderson and Fanu and to be retained . At least Tom Wright is still contracted for next season , Jet ski , well maybe hopefully also to retain past this season on some sensible money .

 

[Smokin Joe]

Not too sure there would be that many clubs interested in signing Fainu , maybe the Eels or Panthers but providing that A P I is not going to impact unfavorably on Manly 's cap for an extended two year contract for instance , probably can retain Fainu and even as a bench player at least next season . Certainly agree that definitely need some realistic and value based future contracts for the emerging group of youngsters in the Manly ranks now such as Suli , Paseka , Fainu . Anderson and Fanu and to be retained . At least Tom Wright is still contracted for next season , Jet ski , well maybe hopefully also to retain past this season on some sensible money .

Fainu,Anderson and Funa are all contracted for 2019 @manly al .People would be chasing Fainu for 2020.

 

[1969]

Fainu,Anderson and Funa are all contracted for 2019 @manly al .People would be chasing Fainu for 2020.

The problem with contracts it seems these days is that we release players who get offered a better contract deal, and end up paying them until our exsisting contract expires. Rediculous!

 

[manly al]

Fainu,Anderson and Funa are all contracted for 2019 @manly al .People would be chasing Fainu for 2020.

That's interesting to know and good to be kept up to date and again also certainly good to have specialist type individual posters like yourself who do keep up to date and informed with these matters . Would also seem positive to keep Suli and Paseka in the Manly ranks past this season and one would think that the club would be working on this at present .

 

[Smokin Joe]

The problem with contracts it seems these days is that we release players who get offered a better contract deal, and end up paying them until our exsisting contract expires. Rediculous!

Yep,that is true.The difference with Fainu is that a starting hooker takes time to develop the ability to play long minutes,and I don't know that anyone would seriously be offering him a huge contract to be a bench player or to expect him to be a starter for next year.I could be wrong but I thought that if he was contracted to us for 2019 then a club is not legally able to approach him or his manager until November this year?If someone has approached him then Toddy needs to get the bloodhounds out to investigate,or is it ludicrous for me even to think that?My understanding is that they would have to approach us to see if we were willing to let him go....

 

[Smokin Joe]

That's interesting to know and good to be kept up to date and again also certainly good to have specialist type individual posters like yourself who do keep up to date and informed with these matters . Would also seem positive to keep Suli and Paseka in the Manly ranks past this season and one would think that the club would be working on this at present .

Agree Al,it is just speculation as to what deals are being worked,but you would hope that the club is getting the ball rolling.....Trent did mention Fainu and Suli so hopefully the club is looking towards extending them...

 

[Fluffy]

I am confused - Barrett can't coach because he hasn't brought Fainu up so surely he is available

 

[pjayz]

You're kidding yourselves if you think Fainu is up for a full time role at 9 in first grade - he's been quite inconsistent for Blacktown. Great player and is a future star but he needs more time to develop before he can be thrown in. Bring him into the top 30 next year and let him ply his trade in reserve grade. Then for 1-2 years after that he can play off the bench in first grade to give Api a spell. If he does well then hopefully he'll be ready for the starting role then.

I think we all forget that a starting hooker has one of the toughest jobs in league and that there is a big difference between U-20s, reserve grade and first grade.

Agree that he is not ready for a full time first grade role this year; however, there is no way they will wait until 2020 for him to start playing off the bench in first grade.

Fainu will most likely be our 14 next year.

 

[Paw93]

Agree that he is not ready for a full time first grade role this year; however, there is no way they will wait until 2020 for him to start playing off the bench in first grade.

Fainu will most likely be our 14 next year.

Yeah he might be our 14 next year but I do think it's ridiculous that people expect the coach to ditch Api completely for Fainu.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

I saw api down at dee why beach yesterday with his kid. Didn’t seem to be limping or anything so I’m thinking this story about a cork is just a bit of a beat up. Continue to kick a dog while he’s down etc.

Might be like Jacko's Achilles injury.... so the entire playing squad is now refusing to play with Api.

 

[40 years an eagle]

The problem with contracts it seems these days is that we release players who get offered a better contract deal, and end up paying them until our exsisting contract expires. Rediculous!

This is the real concern.

 

[Woodsie]

I won't make a decision on how good a FG player Fainu is ..... until he plays a FG game ..

But I am just funny like that ...

 

[Woodsie]

We came close to losing Krillich because of the loyalty shown to Jones in his later years. Jones was solid but pedestrian in his later years. Krillich was an absolute whizz in reserves and ended up selected for rep football while still playing reserves. When you've got a good player in first grade and a potentially great player sitting in the wings, what would you do? Same could have happened with Eadie, had Batty not chosen to retire because he knew the kid was on the rise and Manly needed to keep him. Api is like Batty. Inspirational, does some fine things, could kick goals, much loved. But would you retain him at the risk of losing Eadie

Bear, if you could prove that Fainu would be as good as Eadie .. I would say no ..

Also Batty was just starting what would have been his last year ..... Api is still improving and has at least 5/6 years left ....

 

[1969]

I'd take any or all of Eadie, Batty, Jones and Krilich at this point.

Me too, as well as Bozo, Randell, even the Cootamundra Kid!

Oh, and Greg Hartley as the ref!