Onitoni Large

[Dion Johnson]

So snatching the Fainu brothers doesn't count, Surely tit for tat

Some sour grapes definitely at the Tigpies, hopefully it leads to the club getting his brother and a few more over, they have some talent in the junior ranks.

• Haemasi Makasini (rated highly)
• Jared Haywood
• Jhevon Lele
• Siotame Havea Jr
• Archie Duncombe
• Pheonix Godinet (rated highly)
• Christian Taupau-Moors

 

[Bearfax]

Some sour grapes definitely at the Tigpies, hopefully it leads to the club getting his brother and a few more over, they have some talent in the junior ranks.

• Haemasi Makasini (rated highly)
• Jared Haywood
• Jhevon Lele
• Siotame Havea Jr
• Archie Duncombe
• Pheonix Godinet (rated highly)
• Christian Taupau-Moors

Should Wests first grade be disbanded and made a second tier team for Manly? Better than Bloketown.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Should Wests first grade be disbanded and made a second tier team for Manly? Better than Bloketown.

The Wests side of equation should just ditch the Balmain side, consigning the latter to Newtown/Norths status.

Who knows, it could happen. Things aren’t perfect in Tigerpie Town.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Balmain Tigers only own 10% of the joint venture and hold only two seats on the board of 8. Can't see how they can ever stand alone even in the second tier competition without some serious financial backing. Whilst their junior league is small they do produce some great talent such as Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks. It is a difficult marriage for the Tigers. The failure of the Balmain Leagues Club development was in reality the end of the line for the Balmain Tigers.

Nobody likes to see their talented juniors go elsewhere but if they can't see a pathway to the top grade in the foreseeable future I can't blame them for chasing their dream.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

You’ve got to be kidding me. I guess the wallabies are a team that suit his defence capabilities.

Just sayin

what defence capabilities would you be referring to? when he was only a teenager with us under the supercoach that was Trent Barrett? When he was still learning his trade and rugby league in general to be fair. Or now hes playing in the 10th best Rugby nation as per rankings?
Defence can be taught (DCE excepted). the Attacking upside that kid had is a very rare quality that doesn't come along often. Under the above mentioned supercoach a lot of young talent was left to rot or shipped off. Jessie Ramien is a pretty good centre these days. Hynes was treated like ****.

 

[maxta]

I think the Fainu situation was more a decision Manly heirarchy wanted "Instant Success" and were VERY open to the move to Tigers.
The sitiuation with Onitoni Large was simply a kid with Massive potential falling down the pecking order at Tigers and with Manly looking at life in the halves with an aging DCE and Brooks, who is also no spring chicken, were able to offer an opportunity at a club Onitoni and his manager thought was beneficial moving forward.

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Defence can be taught (DCE excepted).

Technically, I think that's correct, EOL. But the desire to defend - to tackle like your life depends on it and treat it as a way of punishing your opponent, not just as the stuff you kinda need to do when you don't have the ball - can't. And that desire has been sadly missing from our team for around a decade. Our lack of defensive resolve and inability to fall back on defensive systems just kills us. Even good defenders look average in our team.

Off topic, I know, but it bugs the s**t out of me that we've never even looked like fixing it, no matter who we've got on the field.

 

[lsz]

I think the Fainu situation was more a decision Manly heirarchy wanted "Instant Success" and were VERY open to the move to Tigers.
The sitiuation with Onitoni Large was simply a kid with Massive potential falling down the pecking order at Tigers and with Manly looking at life in the halves with an aging DCE and Brooks, who is also no spring chicken, were able to offer an opportunity at a club Onitoni and his manager thought was beneficial moving forward.

Also some off the park stuff had an influence as well

 

[HK_Eagle]

Defence can be taught (DCE excepted).

Poignant and insightful statement slipped in amongst an avalanche of information 👍

 

[maxta]

Also some off the park stuff had an influence as well

No doubt, if Manaise stays and plays, they are ALL at Manly today....

 

[manly al]

Still will never know if Manaise's shoulder injury [ which seemed almost chronic before his offf field issues and standing down ] would have come good and if he was able to resume his Manly career in a successful way
Then of course the set and often mentioned Manly plan to bring in Brooks and the lower priority to promote Latu further as another factor .
No way could justify keeping Latu on 500 K , Samual on 500 K and if Alioai was not retained or some other cap juggling , definitely a reasonable proposition .
Then the complication with Latu and not sure how much appreciation was offered by the Fainu family in general to the Manly management in their considerable and ongoing at the time , support and patience with Manaise 's predicament but did not notice anything significant publicly

 

[eaglebuzz]

No doubt, if Manaise stays and plays, they are ALL at Manly today....

And we probably would have won at least the 2021 premiership.

 

[maxta]

And we probably would have won at least the 2021 premiership.

I have no doubt if Manaise "stayed fit" and had been here since that 'incident', Manly would have formed another dynasty and we would be having Epic games with Penrith to decide the NRL comp....I don't base that on JUST Manaise Fainu, though in his own way would be as good as Grant imo, but the fact our belief and culture would be at a far higher level and we would have had star quality players knocking on the door to be part of the success.....such is the importance imo - of a quality dummy half, as this is so vital in what the modern game is built around....as example I reckon it will be Harry Grant the most important player to Storms chances and what he does, dictates, instigates and creates for the trio of Munster, Hughes and Papp to cash in on and impact the scoreboard.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

don't base that on JUST Manaise Fainu, though in his own way would be as good as Grant imo, but the fact our belief and culture would be at a far higher level and we would have had star quality players knocking on the door to be part of the success

I know what you mean but the counter argument - if Manase hadn't gone to the dance that night he'd still be who he is, namely a guy who could contemplate such a thing. In which case our culture would be pretty much cactus if he was in the squad long term.

 

[maxta]

I know what you mean but the counter argument - if Manase hadn't gone to the dance that night he'd still be who he is, namely a guy who could contemplate such a thing. In which case our culture would be pretty much cactus if he was in the squad long term.

I get your point too mate and it's got merit, but prefer to stick with the footy talk "not the off field stuff" and my opinion was purely based on Manaise footy talent....if we wanna flip a coin the other way and looking back in time, I'd prefer to say if we had made the decision in hindsight to keep Api, Manly would have been far more competitive also and just maybe contested a GF or 2.

 

[BOZO]

Onitoni Large highlights I found:

Thank you for the Highlights feathered friend
But wise man say
Dont count your Great Eagles until they Hatch

 

[BOZO]

I know what you mean but the counter argument - if Manase hadn't gone to the dance that night he'd still be who he is, namely a guy who could contemplate such a thing. In which case our culture would be pretty much cactus if he was in the squad long term.

I do not think our culture would have been cactus if Manase would have been in our squad long term
I think it would be the other way round
I think Manase would have been a better character by the influence of our Manly culture long term

But his one moment of madness turned his great Manly opportunity into career ending catastrophe

 

[BOZO]

I get your point too mate and it's got merit, but prefer to stick with the footy talk "not the off field stuff" and my opinion was purely based on Manaise footy talent....if we wanna flip a coin the other way and looking back in time, I'd prefer to say if we had made the decision in hindsight to keep Api, Manly would have been far more competitive also and just maybe contested a GF or 2.

I agree with you about if only Manly Knew what was on Manaise mind
But Not even Manaises own Mother knew what was on Manaises mind on that fatal NRL future career ending day
Every person has a mind of their own and every mind can change for the better or the worse at any moment
And we all have our moments that we would like to take back

 

[mave]

Fk I hate the off season.

 

[castle eagle]

I have no doubt if Manaise "stayed fit" and had been here since that 'incident', Manly would have formed another dynasty and we would be having Epic games with Penrith to decide the NRL comp....I don't base that on JUST Manaise Fainu, though in his own way would be as good as Grant imo, but the fact our belief and culture would be at a far higher level and we would have had star quality players knocking on the door to be part of the success.....such is the importance imo - of a quality dummy half, as this is so vital in what the modern game is built around....as example I reckon it will be Harry Grant the most important player to Storms chances and what he does, dictates, instigates and creates for the trio of Munster, Hughes and Papp to cash in on and impact the scoreboard.

you could add 'if the unfortunate death of keith titmus didn't happen' what a difference that could have made - we may have still had schu playing for us & no luke brooks