Nasheed here,
I am curious about stories of things you saw coming beforehand that happened at the doggs, and why you thought this.
I have actually foreseen so many things beforehand that makes me question a lot of things in management.
Some I saw:
- letting Cook go. To me this was so bizarre because Cook was already starting to do freaky thangs on the field with us as he was adjusting from halfback to hooker. He was cutting up teams hard when the game has reached a point where defence was winning out and the game needed to be loosened up with less interchanges. It was obvious to me Cook could have been something special. Which he built on at south’s. I genuinely believe he was a better hooker than halfback.
- Barrett crapness. I had a hunch based on his manly fuck up that he wouldn’t work, but what did concern me is HOW he recruited for us. He was enticing some decent players our way, but not spinal players.
He could have outlaid good money to get Reynolds, who didn’t have to move house and wanted 750. He could have stolen Townsend from the sharks for 500 probably. 6 months later Payten saw it and gave him 800 and was the buy of the year.
We also had a shot at Benji marshal who would have cost nothing to come and coach his brother. But instead we went hard for a winger and risky players. Also thinking flanno was cleary was lol
- Hopoate going shit. I could see his body slowing down at the end of the good year he had with us in 2019. I made a lengthy post on this site saying we need to offload him whilst someone would be willing to pick him up at full 600k value. No one did and we suffered.
- Woods signing. Not because he was bad. He was a sensational player then. But I could see the cap issues coming.
In fact some people here at the time really foresaw all our off field dramas before it happened and I want to here from those homeboys.
I agree with all. I thought we were crazy to let Cook go at the time and still do. He was killing it and Hasler didn't make him a priority to re-sign ?
I was hesitant about Barrett as first but then I kind of got talked into it after reading multiple reports that he was virtually the main man responsible for improving the Panthers attack. He seemed pretty intelligent also but in the end I think he was just too much of a soft cock Mr Nice Guy who couldn't discipline players, get their respect and get them motivated enough to play to the best of their ability.
Yes of course we should have signed Adam Reynolds or Townsend as a priority or even Benji for a year. I also thought we should have re-signed Foran at a reduced rate. I was also pushing for Benji as a specialist halves coach. It was painful watching
Hopoate for the last 2 years. He was so f..king slow and below average and offered absolutely nothing in attack besides a quick pass (which Alamoti can do already at 19, Burns can do also).
Woods used to be a good player. I remember a game he played for the Tigers against us not long before he came to us where he was the best player on the field. I didn't think we needed him that much at the time though as we already had a decent prop in Klemmer. Would have preferred Tedesco.
I think we f..ked up by refusing to upgrade Barba after his sensational 2012 season (from what I read)
I knew we were on the downhill slide from the day we lost the semi final in 2015 I think it was against the Panthers. We were slightly up at half time but you could see Hasler on the TV camera in the dressing room giving a spray to our players. We then collapsed in the 2nd half so it was obvious that Hasler had lost the dressing room. It was time for Hasler to move on then.