The Book of Albert

[ManlyTragic]

is he better than RTS, Herbert, Pompey, Hiku or Jennings? That is the question I suppose.

The warriors aren't losing games because of their backs.

So if hoppa is going from back-up at manly to back-up at warriors it makes no sense, especially now elliott is gorn.

But Hoppa hasn’t even played 1 nrl game not 1 - the warriors players have all played more than hoppa.

last played when he was 16 ?- hasn’t played for 2 years? Am I right?

his surname wasn’t hoppa no one on here would give a toss!
Just sayin!
Ps I don’t give a toss what the warriors do.

 

[Rynostradamus]

We need a 2nd fullback for the rest of this year and next year. Wingers are the worst defenders in any nrl side, they just are not an option. So if Hoppa walks who is our back up this year and next. Simple we don't have 1.

 

[ManlyTragic]

We need a 2nd fullback for the rest of this year and next year. Wingers are the worst defenders in any nrl side, they just are not an option. So if Hoppa walks who is our back up this year and next. Simple we don't have 1.

What guarantee do we have that hoppa will be any better than Elliot or Garrick?

 

[Rynostradamus]

Seems to be a fairly similar situation to William dont you think

He joined Manly's squads in 2009 at the age of 16 and played the entire year in the Sea Eagles Toyota Cup. He primarily played at fullback but also played on the wing and in the centres. Despite a season-ending injury to Manly 1st-grade fullback Brett Stewart in Round 1 of the 2010 NRL season, Hopoate had to wait until Round 13 to make his debut as coach Des Hasler preferred to use Ben Farrar in the custodian role.

 

[40 years an eagle]

What guarantee do we have that hoppa will be any better than Elliot or Garrick?

None, but guaranteed he wants more money to play for us than they do..

 

[Rynostradamus]

What guarantee do we have that hoppa will be any better than Elliot or Garrick?

Absolutely no garauntee mate. No risk no reward. 70 points in a game and a half of garrick at fb and 2 wins from 8 between them. Nothing left to lose do we?

 

[40 nil]

What guarantee do we have that hoppa will be any better than Elliot or Garrick?

No guarantee, but it would seem he has more natural ability than either of these players. It is injuries that have blocked his progress at this point. He is highly rated by Fittler, Andrew Johns and others. If he is injury free, I think Albert should make an immediate impact in the NRL.

 

[susan]

What guarantee do we have that hoppa will be any better than Elliot or Garrick?

You seen him play ? He has more ability in his left toe than Elliott
Plenty of his peers are going good in first grade and he was regarded as better than them all ... doesn’t guarantee he’ll be a star but I can guarantee one thing. Garrick Elliott and Parker won’t ever be more than triers.

And isn’t that the point .. you know they are not good enough ... you don’t know he’s not good enough .., and we have no fullbacks left lol

 

[Will on the hill]

Have a good look at HTF, touted as the next big thing from NQ, shows glimpses of brilliance, surrounded by glaring errors through inexperience. So much so that he has been pushed out of FB by Drinkwater. Albert will be much the same. If he wants to work hard he could be anything. If he wants $ for nothing we don't need him. How much can we really afford to throw at a winger anyway?

 

[susan]

Gees he doesn’t look very big! I can’t see him tackling someone like a big prop or second rower 10 metres out

just sayin

See him close up He’s close to the strongest bloke at the club
Built like a brick ****house for his age - in two years he’ll be a weapon physically
I’ve heard they are a bit concerned his eventual size may mean he may not be a good fullback prototype In the modern game - If he got a go this year it wasn’t going to be fullback but no one can ever doubt our capacity to find an injury

 

[susan]

Have a good look at HTF, touted as the next big thing from NQ, shows glimpses of brilliance, surrounded by glaring errors through inexperience. So much so that he has been pushed out of FB by Drinkwater. Albert will be much the same. If he wants to work hard he could be anything. If he wants $ for nothing we don't need him. How much can we really afford to throw at a winger anyway?

Geez. He wa pretty good the other night.He’s 18 Fydow. Of course he makes mistakes and he’ll keep making plenty of them. That’s how you learn.You don’t judge a kid against Ado Carr. You cop the mistakes to get him ready. We cop the same mistakes from plodders.Especially so when you have ten or twelve sides ahead of you like us and the cows.Tigers tossed JOC early because he had an error in him - great choice that was.

He also scores tries and beats defenders like other players dream about.

 

[40 nil]

Have a good look at HTF, touted as the next big thing from NQ, shows glimpses of brilliance, surrounded by glaring errors through inexperience. So much so that he has been pushed out of FB by Drinkwater.

Love watching the Hammer - glides across the turf like a gazelle. I think he is better suited to wing & will probably be scoring tries for the Maroons in the not too distant future. Drinkwater is a good fullback & ball player. When Holmes returns from injury, the Cowboys will have plenty of options at the back.

 

[susan]

Love watching the Hammer - glides across the turf like a gazelle. I think he is better suited to wing & will probably be scoring tries for the Maroons in the not too distant future. Drinkwater is a good fullback & ball player. When Holmes returns from injury, the Cowboys will have plenty of options at the back.

Yep Drinkwater has a much more rounded game right now. Hammer is perfect for wing slot. Joy to watch move .

 

[40 years an eagle]

Let him do his learning to play against men in the lower grades instead of getting smashed by seasoned FG'ers. He's not ready... let him go if 250K is not enough to stay at Manly and learn under Des, Snake etc.

 

[Will on the hill]

Geez. He wa pretty good the other night.He’s 18 Fydow. Of course he makes mistakes and he’ll keep making them. That’s how you learn.You don’t judge a kid against Ado Carr. You cop the mistakes to get him ready. Especially when you have ten or twelve sides ahead of you like us and the cows.Tigers tossed JOC early because he had an error in him - great choice that was.

He also scores tries and beats defenders like other players dream about.

It's not always about the sexy stuff. IMO no 18 year old can be ready to play FB in 1st grade.

 

[susan]

That
not ready is one side of the story

The other is

2.R Garrick
5 J Tafua

We go nowhere with them. The good sides have great wingers and centres who score off kicks. Modem game is speed and power. We don’t have it.


Creighton would be washing dishes if Cleary thought that way and Hoppa is a more powerful unit than him.
Anyway it’s round in circles stuff
Plenty think like me, plenty like you
The age old canundrum
There is no right answer

 

[40 years an eagle]

The good sides have great wingers and centres who score off kicks. Modem game is speed and power. We don’t have it.

"The good sides" have 1-2M more to buy their roster. We spend far too much money on too few players and have no money left for "speed and power".

I know how to fix it...spend 4 or 500K /year overpaying another local junior so he can leave in a few years chasing even bigger money we won't have, and spend 4 or 500k less on the 20 other players we have to have.

Lack of funds = slow, journeymen, cast-offs and reserve graders.

Hire someone that does not come off our cap who can find the $ needed. It is the only solution.

Smart business people are those who surround themselves with people who can do the job.

It's of no use hiring the best chef and supplying him with crap ingredients coz you don't have enough money.

 

[Rynostradamus]

Let's make this really easy for all of us. Go to our mwse website. Go to team. Look at how many players we have listed as actual fullbacks. There are 2. 1 has been injured for 10 weeks with a hammy. The other has been loaned to another club at the absolute worst possible time and has not been given a chance. If someome finds another fullback on our list please let me know. As far as I am concerned Keppie should play fullback this week if Hoppa isn't. After his line break off the kick off why the hell not. If you are going to play players out of position go all in.

 

[40 nil]

Hoppa was picked in the 21 for the Warriors game and deemed fit to play at that time. Usually, this indicates Des is easing a player towards debuting. Something must have happened (as outlined in earlier posts) between Hoppa's side (family & management) & Des's side in the interim. I think money is the problem. No doubt, Albert is frustrated at not having played for so long and he also sees footie as his career which can set him up long term. He has a girlfriend and with his faith is probably aiming towards marriage, buying a house etc. This would no doubt be encouraged by Will who has done very well financially out of the game & is a devoted family man. Also, his father has a somewhat mercenary nature & would be pushing his son to earn top dollar.

It would be such a shame for we fans if Albert doesn't play NRL with the Sea Eagles. Apart from his individual brilliance, there are already great combinations with Schuster & Burbo.

Tangentially: I thought Des was overly tolerant when he allowed Will not to play on Sundays (for religious reasons) at the Dogs. I wonder if this part of Des's character has come into play in this scenario with the Hopoates?

 

[susan]

"The good sides" have 1-2M more to buy their roster. We spend far too much money on too few players and have no money left for "speed and power".

I know how to fix it...spend 4 or 500K /year overpaying another local junior so he can leave in a few years chasing even bigger money we won't have, and spend 4 or 500k less on the 20 other players we have to have.

Lack of funds = slow, journeymen, cast-offs and reserve graders.

Hire someone that does not come off our cap who can find the $ needed. It is the only solution.

Smart business people are those who surround themselves with people who can do the job.

It's of no use hiring the best chef and supplying him with crap ingredients coz you don't have enough money.

I don’t buy this our salary cap is ****ed forever stuff.
Elliot and Thommo are going just for a start.That’s 750 k right there . Plus a few others on the chopping block . If you pay 250k to add another two hacks to replace them as we usually do it still leaves cash.Our upgrades for Cust and Keppie wouldn’t have broken the bank.

We have plenty of young guys with big potential (more than most clubs in fact ) and plenty of reserve graders that can be culled soon.

Plenty of upside if we take a proactive route.
We are not getting rid of our top players. They are fixtures. DCE Tom Jake are here to stay. Asking for that is a total waste of time.

Putting reserve graders around them doesn’t work. We know that for certain.Better off punting on potential and risk them leaving down the track.

At the moment with Dessies selections we have a squad of 25, not 30 as some players won’t be picked whatever the situation or their potential.
So why not that 25 be made up of kids for spots 20 to 25 with upside getting paid a touch of overs on future ability and take the risk of having absolute plodders for 25-30 on the minimum due to the cap. We have it the other way round at the moment where we continue to reward guaranteed mediocrity with game time.
The crazy thing about this comp is we have been decimated with injury yet have used less players than most clubs!! That is ridiculous.

If you lose a good young player to money after a season or two so be it.Watching these guys right now is just so hard.
It’s not working and makes us nuisance value.Id rather compete for a couple of years and lose players due to cap than accept mediocrity like we have for five years.. Only needs Hoppa Shuster to go good , deadwood let go and one or at most two good experienced players and we win the comp in two or three years.

Any way we agre to disagree.