Metcalf

[susan]

Seem to read a lot of talk about Weekes, Humphrey , Fainu etc leaving.
Might not be common knowledge and he gets less attention but Luke Metcalf leads the Dally M table right now and the Warriors may lead the comp at the end of the weekend - he replaced a legend.

Metcalf was a junior prodigy with blinding speed.Given zero chance.

As well as an incredibly poor forward pack and bench , roster management is the issue crying out to be dealt with.

We get rid of Metcalf , Weekes and Humphreys after giving them three and four games and place the task of backing up our aging underperforming halves in the hands of Jake Arthur, possibly the most untalented young half on any roster in the NRL, which was blinding obvious to anyone watching.

Good coaches give young players time, accept inevitable mistakes and rely on the latent talent that they know these kids have.

“ He can’t tackle “, “ had his chance “, “ no great loss “, “ missed 4 tackles in Reggies last week “ common themes as young players with talent walk while we have a 5/8 and back up half who are absolute blindingly obvious plodders.

Brookes plays like **** most weeks with no consequences.

Ricky and Webster saw the talent , accepted the inevitable errors and kept picking Weekes and Metcalf and have young teams are leading the comp and playing fast mobile footy 2025 requires

That’s the halves fiasco …the average age of our pack is above 30 and with the exception of Ola and Bully are immobile and just damn slow .
Place is a mess with retention and recruitment leading the way.

 

[Nordburg]

Seem to read a lot of talk about Weekes, Humphrey , Fainu etc leaving.
Might not be common knowledge and he gets less attention but Luke Metcalf leads the Dally M table right now and the Warriors may lead the comp at the end of the weekend - he replaced a legend.

Metcalf was a junior prodigy with blinding speed.Given zero chance.

As well as an incredibly poor forward pack and bench , roster management is the issue crying out to be dealt with.

We get rid of Metcalf , Weekes and Humphreys after giving them three and four games and place the task of backing up our aging underperforming halves in the hands of Brad Arthur, possibly the most untalented young half on any roster in the NRL, which was blinding obvious to anyone watching.

Good coaches give young players time, accept inevitable mistakes and rely on the latent talent that they know these kids have.

“ He can’t tackle “, “ had his chance “, “ no great loss “, “ missed 4 tackles in Reggies last week “ common themes as young players with talent walk while we have a 5/8 and back up half who are absolute blindingly obvious plodders.

Brookes plays like **** most weeks with no consequences.

Ricky and Webster saw the talent , accepted the inevitable errors and kept picking Weekes and Metcalf and have young teams are leading the comp and playing fast mobile footy 2025 requires

That’s the halves fiasco …the average age of our pack is above 30 and with the exception of Ola and Bully are immobile and just damn slow .
Place is a mess with retention and recruitment leading the way.

Metcalf has taken many years to get to where he is,he is 26,he played ZERO first grade games at Manly and was let go by the Sharks TWICE.You can find many players out there that Manly could have done better with,but Metcalf is not one that they should be criticised for

 

[eaglebuzz]

It's not like we could have kept him and let Arthur go. Metcalf is ready for first grade now

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

We let go of Weekes, Metcalf and Humphries...but keep Arthur.

 

[susan]

Metcalf has taken many years to get to where he is,he is 26,he played ZERO first grade games at Manly and was let go by the Sharks TWICE.You can find many players out there that Manly could have done better with,but Metcalf is not one that they should be criticised for

That’s my point. He played zero games while blokes failed above him and beside him. The games I saw, quite a few , he had obvious talent.
He got let go by the sharks the second time because he had blokes in front of him who play extremely well and win games , especially against us lately .
Corey Walker, Fogarty .. late bloomers

Why does Brookes get a pass? The blokes mentioned were not only behind DCE.600k should not buy you a free pass at 30 years of age .

The point I’m trying to make is that talent( leaving Metcalf out aside if you want ) is constantly being discarded while mediocrity is accepted week in week out by Brookes and the pack is an abomination with old slow lugs replacing old slow lugs .

It’s ridiculous.

 

[Ohgeez]

That’s my point. He played zero games while blokes failed above him and beside him. The games I saw, quite a few , he had obvious talent.
He got let go by the sharks the second time because he had blokes in front of him who play extremely well and win games , especially against us lately .
Corey Walker, Fogarty .. late bloomers

Why does Brookes get a pass? The blokes mentioned were not only behind DCE.600k should not buy you a free pass at 30 years of age .

The point I’m trying to make is that talent( leaving Metcalf out aside if you want ) is constantly being discarded while mediocrity is accepted week in week out by Brookes and the pack is an abomination with old slow lugs replacing old slow lugs .

It’s ridiculous.

Wasn’t Metcalf always injured? Or was that when he left for sharks?

 

[JakeyB789]

Metcalf has had the advantage of a few extra years of development which all young players need to come into their own. It’s only gonna get harder to justify letting the likes of Weekes, Humphreys and Fainu leave as they will continue to develop and improve just as Metcalf has.

I would take any of them over Brooks in a heartbeat, but we’ve been too focused on trying to win a premiership (how about even making finals?) with a team that just doesn’t have it. Should’ve let D$E go at the end of ‘23 and started a proper rebuild then, now we’re just stuck in no man’s land.

 

[The '47ers]

Seem to read a lot of talk about Weekes, Humphrey , Fainu etc leaving.
Might not be common knowledge and he gets less attention but Luke Metcalf leads the Dally M table right now and the Warriors may lead the comp at the end of the weekend - he replaced a legend.

Metcalf was a junior prodigy with blinding speed.Given zero chance.

As well as an incredibly poor forward pack and bench , roster management is the issue crying out to be dealt with.

We get rid of Metcalf , Weekes and Humphreys after giving them three and four games and place the task of backing up our aging underperforming halves in the hands of Brad Arthur, possibly the most untalented young half on any roster in the NRL, which was blinding obvious to anyone watching.

Good coaches give young players time, accept inevitable mistakes and rely on the latent talent that they know these kids have.

“ He can’t tackle “, “ had his chance “, “ no great loss “, “ missed 4 tackles in Reggies last week “ common themes as young players with talent walk while we have a 5/8 and back up half who are absolute blindingly obvious plodders.

Brookes plays like **** most weeks with no consequences.

Ricky and Webster saw the talent , accepted the inevitable errors and kept picking Weekes and Metcalf and have young teams are leading the comp and playing fast mobile footy 2025 requires

That’s the halves fiasco …the average age of our pack is above 30 and with the exception of Ola and Bully are immobile and just damn slow .
Place is a mess with retention and recruitment leading the way.

In fairness, Brad is 50 so of course he'll have trouble in the top grade.

 

[1967 eagle croc]

Seem to read a lot of talk about Weekes, Humphrey , Fainu etc leaving.
Might not be common knowledge and he gets less attention but Luke Metcalf leads the Dally M table right now and the Warriors may lead the comp at the end of the weekend - he replaced a legend.

Metcalf was a junior prodigy with blinding speed.Given zero chance.

As well as an incredibly poor forward pack and bench , roster management is the issue crying out to be dealt with.

We get rid of Metcalf , Weekes and Humphreys after giving them three and four games and place the task of backing up our aging underperforming halves in the hands of Brad Arthur, possibly the most untalented young half on any roster in the NRL, which was blinding obvious to anyone watching.

Good coaches give young players time, accept inevitable mistakes and rely on the latent talent that they know these kids have.

“ He can’t tackle “, “ had his chance “, “ no great loss “, “ missed 4 tackles in Reggies last week “ common themes as young players with talent walk while we have a 5/8 and back up half who are absolute blindingly obvious plodders.

Brookes plays like **** most weeks with no consequences.

Ricky and Webster saw the talent , accepted the inevitable errors and kept picking Weekes and Metcalf and have young teams are leading the comp and playing fast mobile footy 2025 requires

That’s the halves fiasco …the average age of our pack is above 30 and with the exception of Ola and Bully are immobile and just damn slow .
Place is a mess with retention and recruitment leading the way.

Agreed Manly through bad recruitment has assembled to many has-beens, neverwas and never will bes . big dollar multi year contracts seem to breed lazy players who dont need to prove their worth

 

[Nordburg]

That’s my point. He played zero games while blokes failed above him and beside him. The games I saw, quite a few , he had obvious talent.
He got let go by the sharks the second time because he had blokes in front of him who play extremely well and win games , especially against us lately .
Corey Walker, Fogarty .. late bloomers

Why does Brookes get a pass? The blokes mentioned were not only behind DCE.600k should not buy you a free pass at 30 years of age .

The point I’m trying to make is that talent( leaving Metcalf out aside if you want ) is constantly being discarded while mediocrity is accepted week in week out by Brookes and the pack is an abomination with old slow lugs replacing old slow lugs .

It’s ridiculous.

You have some fair points,but this is a Metcalf thread,I’m not talking about the Humphreys and Weekes’ etc of the world,on this thread,although I do have my thoughts on them

 

[manly al]

Still not sure how Metcalf or Weekes could have been catered for at Manly in the prevailing circumstances when they did move on .
Just another example and as has been suggested , seems to happen sometimes that promising players do take a while to finally reach their potential and could be anything from a sides different playing style and playing make up , gaining a certain experience or confidence level or other relevant factors .
Metcalf was given stints at full back and in the halfs in trials and lower grades at Manly but was never going to displace the likes naturally of D C E and Turbo .
Dito Weekes but who had even more opportunities to try and establish himself a bit better in Manly colors .

 

[susan]

Still not sure how Metcalf or Weekes could have been catered for at Manly in the prevailing circumstances when they did move on .
Just another example and as has been suggested , seems to happen sometimes that promising players do take a while to finally reach their potential and could be anything from a sides different playing style and playing make up , gaining a certain experience or confidence level or other relevant factors .
Metcalf was given stints at full back and in the halfs in trials and lower grades at Manly but was never going to displace the likes naturally of D C E and Turbo .
Dito Weekes but who had even more opportunities to try and establish himself a bit better in Manly colors .

Easy answer

They could have been catered for by NOT recruiting Brookes or dropping him after the abomination “ free throw at stumps “ fiasco and his many **** games since .Why is Brookes a roadblock to young talent? He fails for ten years at tigers yet he’s the roadblock. I thought he may have been ok given a chance but he has failed that test repeatedly.

DCE for sure is going nowhere but Brookes!!
All these young guys could play 6 and be given a run of games … most of the time in the last three years we are getting drubbed most weeks so why not?


600 k for Brooke’s at 5/8 is about what an average 5/8 costs these days
Shouldn’t make him a certainty each week
Players in that category get dropped every week across the NRL.And it says mediocrity will be tolerated … and guess what , we get mediocrity … we are a 7 to 12 team and will be for a long time unless a broom goes through the place. Recruitment and retention is the lifeblood of a club.

 

[Hertera]

Brookes plays like **** most weeks with no consequences.

Was a poor signing and offers nothing.

 

[manly al]

They could have been catered for by NOt recruiting Brookes or dropping him after the abomination “ free throw at stumps “ fiasco and his many **** games since .Why is Brookes a roadblock to young talent?
DCE for sure is going nowhere but Brookes!!
All these young guys could play 6 and be given a run of games … most of the time in the last three years we are getting drubbed most weeks so why not?


600 k for Brooke’s at 5/8 is about what an average 5/8 costs these days
Shouldn’t make him a certainty each week
Players in that category get dropped every week across the NRL.And it says mediocrity will be tolerated … and guess what , we get mediocrity … we are a 7 to 12 team and will be for a long time unless a broom goes through the place. Recruitment and retention is the lifeblood of a club.

Had an off night but generally accepted to have had a pretty fair season in 24 .
Needs room to move and not quite as effective attacking wise this year for a range of reasons but apart from last night , defence has been holding up O K
Not a lot of depth in the halves at the moment in any case unless Walsh can really get a roll on for the rest of the season
And could be interesting next season with Fogarty coming in and Walsh quite possibly knocking on the door for a i st grade halfs spot as in all likelihood , he may be able to be equally adept as a 7 or 6

 

[Scorpio]

Easy answer

They could have been catered for by NOT recruiting Brookes or dropping him after the abomination “ free throw at stumps “ fiasco and his many **** games since .Why is Brookes a roadblock to young talent? He fails for ten years at tigers yet he’s the roadblock. I thought he may have been ok given a chance but he has failed that test repeatedly.

DCE for sure is going nowhere but Brookes!!
All these young guys could play 6 and be given a run of games … most of the time in the last three years we are getting drubbed most weeks so why not?


600 k for Brooke’s at 5/8 is about what an average 5/8 costs these days
Shouldn’t make him a certainty each week
Players in that category get dropped every week across the NRL.And it says mediocrity will be tolerated … and guess what , we get mediocrity … we are a 7 to 12 team and will be for a long time unless a broom goes through the place. Recruitment and retention is the lifeblood of a club.

IMO, our past 10 years as a club has led us to this point.

Whenever DCE hasn't had an experienced halves partner in the past 10 years, the opposition teams pressure him and the game plan falls apart. After Foran left in 2022, we tried Schuster, Johns and Arthur in 2023 and none of them provided what we needed. So we signed the 'safe' option in Luke Brooks, who IMO has been okay... when DCE is also on the field.

Likewise we tried a rookie NRL coach in 2016 and that did not work. So when it was time to replace Hasler we took a 'safer' option by signing a coach that already had some NRL experience, rather than go all-in on a rookie coach again.

Whether the alternative rookie options at the time would have been (or are) better options is a separate discussion.

 

[Sheikheagle]

Had an off night but generally accepted to have had a pretty fair season in 24 .
Needs room to move and not quite as effective attacking wise this year for a range of reasons but apart from last night , defence has been holding up O K
Not a lot of depth in the halves at the moment in any case unless Walsh can really get a roll on for the rest of the season
And could be interesting next season with Fogarty coming in and Walsh quite possibly knocking on the door for a i st grade halfs spot as in all likelihood , he may be able to be equally adept as a 7 or 6

I actually think brooksey has been ok. Poor last night. But really missed Burbo, both in attack and defence. Their combo has been developing nicely.