We don't need you doing that, the players and coaching staff are doing a more than adequate job, but thanks for the kind offer

Like a kid at Christmas with this now. One who has been borderline bad and half fears Santas gonna bring him coals.

'exciting' signings NH says. So that would indicate (to me) they're ace or have potential. Has Brierley (sp?) at Leigh been snapped up by a SL team yet?
I quite like the Holdsworth rumour. His form and confidence dropped at the end of his time in SL, but he knows the country and the competition and has a decent rugby brain, which is something we've lacked. Should easily have a couple of years left in him.

Its funny you say that m.r I was watching Leigh and was thinking the same. He looked decent.

Heard your after signing anth thackeray on a 1year deal.

You seem to hear a lot of things. Have you considered psychiatric help?

Are you taking the micheal out of people with ill health? Or just been clever towards me? You are the one with mad in your name petal.

Not that I wish to speak for the strange jacketed chap, but I suspect he's finding your inanity a little tiresome.

fx[easthull fc fan[mode ON Huh, huh, it's gone nine o'clock, I've been to the boozer, had a couple of cooking lagers, I'll go and (huh, huh, funny me, proper funny) post some utter banality on RLFans, huh, huh, proper funny, wait 'till (please excuse the proper punctuation) I tell the lads on the vans, huh, huh. Oh knows, I have wet my pantaloons as I realised my incredible imbecility![mode OFF[east hull fc fanfx

Many apologies for the last sentence, my dignity got the better of me and would no longer allow to write in such a manner of decrepitude.

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 0pjel.html

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 0pjel.html

hasn't he got a bad injury record of late Campese?

You're the one who hears things. Are you unstable?

He's always had a bad injury record, but he's got a $500k contract because he's worth every penny of that and more if he ever strings a season together.
It's a funny thing to say about a guy who has played for Australia, but his best football was played in reserve grade. He took Canberra reserve grade to a title when he was young with freakish playmaking skills, but since he made firstgrade he has only had a few good runs when he has been injury free.
He is basically the whole package. He is tall, over 100kg, can play lock and defend like a forward, has the speed and evasive skills to run the ball as well as anyone, has the kicking and passing skills and the vision of a halfback. The only thing he can't do is avoid season ending injuries.

Roopy, do you reckon Campese is too risky, then? I'm thinking on the lines if we can get him at the right price and maybe manage his game time in order to get an extended season out of him ie by factoring in rest games (two thirds of a season sounds like a reasonable target based on his injury CV) and at the same time develop our promising u19 player Matty Marsh, perhaps he might be a risk worth taking?

I hope we do manage to secure the services of Luke Kelly (who was Cooper Cronk's understudy for a few seasons). IMO he is on a par with Blake Green and Travis Burns, but surely he demands a sizeable contract? I've seen him covering at 9 and doing a pretty good job as well.

The really interesting one is Maurice Blair; he's built and plays like a second rower but I'm sure he has played most of his NRL career at left centre. where I've seen him put in some devastating big hits. I've never seen him in the half backs which is what we are looking for. I'm wondering if his stock has fallen (over the New Years eve incident) but he is something we do lack and would certainly bring size and aggression to the back line. A quota place will be a problem and it looks like it is two out of these three. . .according to the Fairfax article in the SMH.

Campese could win you a title if he had the season everyone has wanted to see from him for years, but he's a lot more likely to show you how good he could be and then sit in the stands for the rest of the season.
The other two are typical ex Melbourne players. They looked great when playing for Melbourne, but have been on the downhill slide since. I don't know what it is about Melbourne, but they buy ordinary players, turn them into quality players, and they go right back to being ordinary when they leave.
Having said that, they seem good enough to play NRL, which makes them good enough for ESL.

You see, this is why I love you. I'm sure you speak for us all with you razoredge wit.

Thanks once again for the inside track roopy. It will be interesting to see who turns up at training next month.

Yes cheers roopy,very informative as always.

Zero tackles 5 best nrl buys of 2014,were ben barba,sam tomkins,will hopoate,gareth widdop and maurice blair.Interesting.

Didn't you know. Hes the pub landlords bezzy mate.
Tells him all FCs secrets including players earnings revealing information from their personal contracts.

You have to laugh at these caravan jig monkeys.

Que the I will come round and beat you up.

Dated Dec 13, so article was done pre-season and I don't think any of those mentioned would make that list post season. Widdop had a good start and Tomkins found his feet later in the year, but I wouldn't say they have been that good.

Blair has been bang average year, but I would guess that anyone who has played well would not be available. When I have seen Blair play he has been a reasonably solid centre, with quite good hands. I don't really see him as a quality half - even for Super League.

Campese would be a massive gamble, with very low odds of coming good. If we could get him to play to 75% of his best, he would be a top signing - That said if you thought that Kris Keating didn't take the line on enough you will be in for a real shock seeing TC play. He has had too many injury problems and this season he was either unwilling or unable to take the line on. He ran the ball on average twice a game for about 7 metres each.

Kelly is most probably the preferred option of the 3, however he hasn't really featured at Paramatta this year. He wasn't too bad last year when he played as a result of Sandow's issues, but didn't really get a look in as Sandow played well and their other half was a Corey Norman (a big money recruit)

Of the out of contract players Holdsworth, Kelly and Beau Henry look about the best available.

Luke Kelly and Terry Campese would be my choice if Matt Minto wasn't available...Roopy?

Since Widdop was actually voted best buy and was 4 th in Dally M table I think he may qualify as a success

While you have great knowledge of the NRL, your knowledge of SL us poor and a little disrespectful if you think Campese even on fire could turn Rovers (or Hull) into a championship winning team.

Massive risk signing him, type of signing we have often made and it usually ends in tears, I watched he a lot this season, after we were linked with him and he looks gone, really slow and hardly takes on the line. If he could find his form of a few years ago and have some luck with injuries he would get you around the park, but not convinced he is a sensible signing, would need a quick running half with him.

The Knights have let Matt Minto go. I don't know what he is doing next season.
He had a decent end to the season.
The Knights bought him on the strength of him being the best half in the Queensland cup last year and used him as a fullback in firstgrade at the start of the year, where he went pretty average.
He then got a hamstring injury that held him back for half a season.
The second half of the season the Knights reserve grade went on a streak where they won 11 of 12 games with Dobson and Minto playing really well as halves partners, but when Dobson broke his foot and couldn't play in the grandfinal the Knights got thrashed and Minto looked terrible as the main playmaker.
In short, he looked really good, but I think Dobson was doing most of the quality work and making Minto look good, but he is young and shows a lot of potential.
He is 23. In 3013 he won a grandfinal of the Qld cup with the Mackay Cutters and was great in that comp. He had offers from several NRL clubs because of that form, and went to Wayne Bennett at the Knights because Wayne had a great relationship with his uncle (Scott Minto - one of Bennett's old favourites).
I think he has a future and could be a decent signing for you if you got him cheap and he wasn't your main playmaker first up. He plays fullback, 5/8 and halfback at just under NRL level and still has a lot of improvement in him.

I don't think his form in his few firstgrade games this year are any real indication. He has obviously been in an open dispute with Ricky Stuart and hasn't been putting in. Ricky Stuart has a real knack of getting the worst out of players.