The One Player You Wished Never Played For The Sharks

[SF]

Can't remember the name of the below average Newcastle forward we signed after he called Wayne Bennett an 8-ball or something.

Wouldn't sign him again.

Cronulla prop Mark Taufua 'pulls head in' since embarrassing Twitter rant aimed at Wayne Bennett

Taufua apologises for Twitter rant

www.foxsports.com.au

Had forgotten him.

My favourite old no-name player was Sam Moa who was Tongan.

 

[Thresher]

Cronulla prop Mark Taufua 'pulls head in' since embarrassing Twitter rant aimed at Wayne Bennett

Taufua apologises for Twitter rant

www.foxsports.com.au

Had forgotten him.

My favourite old no-name player was Sam Moa who was Tongan.

Bennett never forgives.

I'd imagine he'll be handing out miniature Mark Tafua figurines this Halloween.

 

[BrickMan]

Mitch Brown and Jono Wright

 

[Sparkles]

Triggered a reminder we signed him but I couldnt even picture him in sharks kit - had to check his wiki about how many games he played for us haha
To check if you guessed right: big fat 0

That's good to read, I couldn't remember him playing for us either!

 

[Thresher]

Mitch Brown and Jono Wright

Such a surplus of good wingers these days.

Seemed like they were few and far between back then.

Could be because of the modern way of favouring athletic types through the juniors, like Burgo has been describing.

 

[bort]

Such a surplus of good wingers these days.

Seemed like they were few and far between back then.

Could be because of the modern way of favouring athletic types through the juniors, like Burgo has been describing.

I think stronger defences have forced wingers at various levels to get stronger, also a bit more respect on them now. Used to just be blokes who hung around footballers but now their yardage and a tough put down is actually respected, you see better players played their instead of moved into centre at lower levels. Or players who have moved in more willing to move out.
Probably other factors too.

Corner post was an excellent rule change.

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Can't remember the name of the below average Newcastle forward we signed after he called Wayne Bennett an 8-ball or something.

Wouldn't sign him again.

Mark Taufua. Actually a real nice bloke, did an a/c for him in Newy a couple of years ago.

Sisters a deadshit though

 

[Western Sharkie]

Eric Grothe

I think we only recruited him to play kumbaya at half and full time each game

We needed a new “settler” after Robbo!

 

[BurgoShark]

I think stronger defences have forced wingers at various levels to get stronger, also a bit more respect on them now. Used to just be blokes who hung around footballers but now their yardage and a tough put down is actually respected, you see better players played their instead of moved into centre at lower levels. Or players who have moved in more willing to move out.
Probably other factors too.

Corner post was an excellent rule change.

Yeah - wing has become a lot more specialised, and a lot more respected.

I think other rule changes and technical things have also made wingers come into the yardage game even more. 7 tackle set and no scrums on ball over sideline mean a lot more sets starting with fielding a kick and then a hit up from 1-5 rather than a scrum or tap.

The way marker defence has evolved has also taken away a lot of the winger dummy half running we saw in the 2000’s. Wingers need to be strong enough to take play 1 hitups into 3-4 defenders now.

I’ve actually had some specific winger positional coaching sessions with Mick Hancock. Most people have no idea how much responsibility an NRL winger has and how important goods ones are to the defensive structure.

 

[Matty C of the Shire]

Moylan

 

[Sparkles]

Such a surplus of good wingers these days.

Seemed like they were few and far between back then.

Could be because of the modern way of favouring athletic types through the juniors, like Burgo has been describing.

I think stronger defences have forced wingers at various levels to get stronger, also a bit more respect on them now. Used to just be blokes who hung around footballers but now their yardage and a tough put down is actually respected, you see better players played their instead of moved into centre at lower levels. Or players who have moved in more willing to move out.
Probably other factors too.

Corner post was an excellent rule change.

Yeah - wing has become a lot more specialised, and a lot more respected.

I think other rule changes and technical things have also made wingers come into the yardage game even more. 7 tackle set and no scrums on ball over sideline mean a lot more sets starting with fielding a kick and then a hit up from 1-5 rather than a scrum or tap.

The way marker defence has evolved has also taken away a lot of the winger dummy half running we saw in the 2000’s. Wingers need to be strong enough to take play 1 hitups into 3-4 defenders now.

I’ve actually had some specific winger positional coaching sessions with Mick Hancock. Most people have no idea how much responsibility an NRL winger has and how important goods ones are to the defensive structure.

It feels like back in the day no-one really knew what else wingers were for, besides having speed to burn. The modern game is squeezing every bit of mileage out of players and spreading the workload. You'd have to say GPS tracking and sports science have made a huge impact.

Having said that, you can probably afford to have one freakishly fast and lower workrate winger and set your gameplan up to take advantage.

 

[Addy]

This has been a very modern list, surely we had some duds back in the day.

We could have signed Cliff Lyons, and he could still be playing for us, punching durries at half time

 

[CrazyMatt]

Moylan

Nah I dont regret us signing Moylan, it was the best case scenario deal for us with Maloney wanting out, I regret us RE-SIGNING him though

 

[Sparkles]

Nah I dont regret us signing Moylan, it was the best case scenario deal for us with Maloney wanting out, I regret us RE-SIGNING him though

I would have taken anyone to get rid of Maloney at that point, the petulant prick.
And to be fair, Moylan was looking pretty good at the time.

 

[CHOGM]

Nigel Vagana.

Because he took up a heap of our measly budget and went backwards as soon as his sprigs hit Cronulla turf.

Had been a sensation until he came to us.

Not his fault. We were the neighbourhood lawnmower guy with a sports car.

Yep.

 

[BurgoShark]

I would have taken anyone to get rid of Maloney at that point, the petulant prick.
And to be fair, Moylan was looking pretty good at the time.

... until Shaun Johnson arrived

 

[Matty C of the Shire]

I would have taken anyone to get rid of Maloney at that point, the petulant prick.
And to be fair, Moylan was looking pretty good at the time.

i wanted to keep Jimmy. Give him a pay rise since we did that to Moylan. we could of went on 2nd GF

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

i wanted to keep Jimmy. Give him a pay rise since we did that to Moylan. we could of went on 2nd GF

In 2017, Maloney cost us a chance of a grand final rematch. But also, his whole attitude stunk. When he signed in 2015 he went with us over his current club, as we offered 3 years to their 2. He claimed he wanted the long term security that the 3 year deal gave. Then after a year (yes a very good year) he demands a pay rise amongst the club trying to retain some of the actual off contract players.

In hind sight, one move could have been to not replace Bird with Dugan and go for a slightly cheaper option and then be able to afford Maloneys demands. But really, he showed his loyalty pretty quick there.

 

[HaroldBishop]

In 2017, Maloney cost us a chance of a grand final rematch. But also, his whole attitude stunk. When he signed in 2015 he went with us over his current club, as we offered 3 years to their 2. He claimed he wanted the long term security that the 3 year deal gave. Then after a year (yes a very good year) he demands a pay rise amongst the club trying to retain some of the actual off contract players.

In hind sight, one move could have been to not replace Bird with Dugan and go for a slightly cheaper option and then be able to afford Maloneys demands. But really, he showed his loyalty pretty quick there.

Yep, **** him.

 

[bort]

In hind sight, one move could have been to not replace Bird with Dugan and go for a slightly cheaper option and then be able to afford Maloneys demands. But really, he showed his loyalty pretty quick there.

They were affordable, it was the fact they were demands and associated with sloppy play bordering on tanking which Flanno took issue with.

I absolutely back Flanno not bowing to that attitude.
Fitz made a similar (but certainly not identical) move when he didn’t attempt to keep Metcalf who was putting pen to paper with warriors before Fitz has settled in.