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A chaotic start to the week rolls on as The Tip Sheet pivots from the Easter Monday loss to the Tigers to a Team List Tuesday that is overshadowed by news that Zac Lomax is a free man from next year onwards. What does this mean for the Parramatta Eels who have been his most public suitor?
Sixties, Forty20 and Clint recap the weekend action for the Eels and beyond before taking a look at a revamped line-up set to take on the Canberra Raiders on Sunday. Brad Arthur has made changes across the team so who is out and who is in?
There are no more undefeated teams in the NRL after Round 4. How does the competition shape up after a month of footy? Jackson Hastings and Andrew Voss had Twitter (X?) beef this weekend…but they resolved it like adults – is this legal??? Ricky and the Raiders are upset about kick interference on the weekend but they might have fair cause.
Thanks again for a podcast that’s well worth listening to, however the lack of resources in number in the top 30 and failure to recruit in needed positions is the elephant in the room. Recruitment has been a big issue for too many seasons, it’s certainly sensible to be conservative and cautious but not for 4/5 seasons.
The club would be reluctant I would think to hire someone like Shane Richardson, but look what his approach has achieved in a short space of time at the Tigers. Just seems until we get more progressive in recruitment and the committee process reviewed, we look like continuing on the current path, close but no cigar. That’s not to say BA doesn’t make errors, but not sure he has been supported fully, as too many good players we are told have been approached but we have not met what their managers see as their worth. Accountants are good people but not always prepared to move quickly when demand is mostly greater than supply.
Even my chemist said Tuesday, if we signed Api and not Hodgson, win that game by 20, if we signed Olam instead of Harper we win by 12. Bargain basement shopping won’t win premierships.
At this stage it was a good punt taken by the Tigers on Olam. And given how much out of favour he was at the Storm it was a punt. But it is a long season so we’ll see if it continues. In some respects his signing would have been an Eels type of signing – a player looking to recharge their career.
Olam would not have been a good fit for us. From what I have been told, by a very reliable source, Bellamy loved Olam but, he couldn’t get the big hits out of his game, he didn’t want him to stop being aggressive, just pick the right times. It showed on Monday, Olam racing out of the line for the big hit, some connect, many don’t. Look at the one he tried on Sean Russell, flew out of the line, arms by his side going for the big hit, lucky Russell stepped otherwise he would have been stretchered off and Olam would have been sent off. Bellamy had tried for years to be more selective, but it fell on deaf ears and that was part of the reason why Olam played reggies a bit last year.
He is also generally a poor defender in terms of decision making as much as technique. Also he is old with 2/3 years left on decent money . Completely wrong profile for modern centre and I’m glad we didn’t go there.
Matto and Junior are no longer starters. It’s been shown to often now.
BA sought to challenge his players. They didn’t rise. They let BA down searching for the soft win.
Blaize has potential – his defence is suspect and was found out two weeks in a row. Galvin looks superior in class. Recruitment let Galvin go?
Dyl played well but he’s not a 7!
If you don’t take the 2 points and you fail to score. You don’t repeat that mistake.
Olam – scored two tries. Apparently not good enough for us to sign? Olam in blue and gold instead of Haper we would have won.
There’s a litany of Recruitment blunders that are dogging season after season. Yet nothing changes. No point sacking the coach if we have HOF like we do. Just embarrassing from HOF!! The front office is recruitment and we keep getting it wrong..
A kick placed down near our try line. We needed a tough run. Sivo wasn’t in the shot and Harper was reaching for his ankle because he didn’t want it. That speaks volumes for attitude.
Lomax player swap today.
Turuva sign him 2025.
I’m not confident about Lomax coming this season. Whether he signs on for future seasons remains to be seen. But we have 3 spots available and an immediate need for 2024.
If he doesn’t come this year with a swap. He’ll be off to the Roosters replacing Sualii 2025.
I was a pessimist and tipped the Roosters sometime ago. We then had a tip that it was a done deal. I hope to be proven very wrong.
Maybe there is a chance of a three way swap between Eels, St George and the Storm.
Lomax to Eels, NSA to Dragons and player X to Storm.
Talk is cheap in negotiations. Where “never” could actually mean soon.
My tip for what it’s worth. Lomax to Roosters. They have a bigger need than the Eels. Manu and Sualii to Rugby and Smith injury issues.
Just to remember. A hard No means nothing in negotiation if you’re close to the end game.
The only thing could be if we offered Lomax (remembering the x factor talk) to play fullback and Gutho moves to centre.
Fullback seems to be the sticking point at Dragons as Lomax was allegedly promised Fullback not wing…
That is a good point Pete. I don’t know how much longer Gutho will play on for. However as you say we could move Gutho to make way for Lomax down the track.
I read somewhere that they are looking to table a three year deal.
Do Lomax and Trent Barrett come from the same town in the Riverina? Could be a connection there.
Hang on, we don’t know that Mark O’Neill is actually the problem when it comes to R&R. The R&R committee is made up of five people, and we were told that all decisions had to be unanimous, which whilst admirable, was unrealistic to say the least. How do we know that McElduff or Sarantinos or BA aren’t the problem here ? They are all on the committee with allegedly equal veto voices on any R&R. To just blame the GM under such a model is lazy and presumptive.
Sivo needs to be tapped on the shoulder and replaced with Turuva for season 2025. We probably need to also move on next year from Simonsson and Harper.
I hear Lomax has agreed to terms. That’s a start, however we need him this season.
If I was running the club I’d offer St George, Shaun Lane and then offer Sanders to Canberra in return for Trey Mooney. Sanders is not rated anyway which is why we made a call to Mitchell Pearce. Trey Mooney is also unsigned for 2025.
Mate I’d be moving on Matto. And I’d be keeping Sanders tbh we need to keep some decent kids. I also feel we need to ensure we have decent young middles coming on as well. I know we can’t keep them all but Mooney is decent as is Shawn Blore who I rate who’s now with Melb. I feel our pack is aging a bit and while we have Greig to come on our next few big kids need a shove and we need to trade one or two.
Also agree abt Sivo and swap.
Bring the fulla home! Trey.
We can be such a dumb team at times.
Lomax next year doesn’t help this year.
In fact its going to block the path of our best juniors.
Playing two 5/8ths is dumb. Sanders either steps up and increases his value in a potential trade for Trey Mooney or his attractiveness to other clubs is reduced and we keep him as a backup.
Have to get smarter.
Which juniors is he blocking mate ??? I attend junior games regularly and believe me theres absolutely nothing in flegg ,theres probably 4/5 prospects in ball and matts combined with no actual standouts and there 3 seasons away , if your relyingon juniors your going to be bitterly disappointed for many seasons , ko cup also zero prospects in backs outside sanders and hes declared hes leaving , there noone to block in our back prospects woody .
Agreed – we desperately need to recruit an external blue chip junior prospect in the backs. Newcastle have some fabulous fullbacks stuck behind kp (Fletcher and especially Voltano). Tigers have makasini, Penrith have iongi and McLean (younger brother) to just name a few. There’s others and TCT will know more about this all than most of us but from what I watch of juniors there isn’t much top shelf backline talent coming through in fullback/centre/wing at cup, Flegg, sg bal (putting aside Matts as too early to tell from afar)l. Some Flegg/sg ball prospects we have are decent (eg Richard penisini) but nothing blue chip. Add to that the fact that our young exciting half metcalf was poached by roosters and elevated quickly beyond his age group. Our young exciting hooker zaidus mataguia was poached by dogs. I get we Can’t keep them all but surely we should be able to keep the few blue chips that we already have and get some blue chip young backs.
Agree but it worse than just juniors , nrl squad of 27 ,4 ot those not up to it ,cini ,asi, mataele, hands , plus 2 injured moses carty , really the coaching staff have 21 to choose from , hang your heads recruitment .
Yea I’ve lamented that fact for many years on this page now but nothing changes. It’s negligent and a completely avoidable issue but we have never got our squad composition correct. Never had a solid utility option for the bench in the modern game. Never had a solid back up half or fullback in case Moses or gutho goes down (even resorted to playing Moses at fullback during parts of game when gutho went down). Always overloaded with forwards. those nsw cup and fringe nrl players you mention are no where near first grade standard other than maybe hands as depth. I don’t get how ba hasn’t sought to get MON removed after last year (or the board haven’t removed MON as a proactive step) and reconstituted rnr committee
I think Blaize is a junior.
He is, but he’s very raw. Sure he has good potential but, to get back to the point, he won’t be blocked by lomax arriving as we don’t even know what blaze’s best position in a first grade backline is yet. So even accounting for him (which I just assumed and therefore omitted) the position remains in my opinion that we simply don’t have enough real first grade quality backline talent coming through our pathways to even suggest that lomax will block anyone. He would automatically be the top centre/wing we have. He could even play fullback if gutho wants to move to left centre.
Here’s a concern. This week in Flegg both centre positions are occupied by pathways players who came through as second rowers.
I noticed that 60s and I share your concern – as I said above or on another post, the state of affairs re: the backs in first grade, cup and flegg is disgraceful. Year on year negligence.
I think hes playing not blocked mate ??
Lomax wont arrive to next year. Missed my point.
We didn’t mids your point – your point is not borne out. You are suggesting that lomax arriving next year “blocks” our juniors. But you’ve refrained from identifying any junior other than blaize and assumed we have several juniors that currently are, or will in future be, better/ equal options to lomax. There is no suggestion of that from the performances of the juniors we know about (which is why higgsy asked you to name them). Blaize is learning fullback in lower grade, he is versatile and he is already playing so he won’t get blocked. Richard is injured and even if he returns he is a depth winger that will still get opportunities to replace sivo or Russell. AMS is not first grade quality and won’t be near selection unless injury crisis so can’t be said to be “blocked”. So you can’t use vague notions of “blocking juniors next year” when those juniors are not blue chip ones (other than maybe Blaize who will have a spot somewhere or come off bench as utility).
And there can’t be any suggestion lomax arriving this year blocks juniors this year when we have a crippling shortage of quality backs (junior and senior) at the moment.
Get a defencive coach, buy Tritian Sailor both cheaperoptions
Get a good defencive coach, buy Tristian Sailor both issues nullified
I thought some we’re saying that BA has very little to do around recruitment except for touring the player around the kellyville precinct.
Apparently BA is now having dinner at the Arthur house with hopeful recruits.
How wrong were we ???
Assume this is another Chief disguise, but you do realise that BA has spoken to a number pf players and when it comes the MON and the recruitment team, the signings haven’t been made. Mostly due to their strict adherence to some sort of value level they seem to place on positions etc.
Caution is one thing, running a football club where demand mostly exceeds supply and there is a premium that has to be paid, they won’t move their needle of acceptance.
The final decision is made by the chairman, CEO and HOF.
No, it’s jointly made by all five members of the R&R committee, which includes BA.
Think’ you will find that the cap impact and contract dollars decision does not include BA and is controlled and decided by the 3 mentioned . That was the structure implemented when the new board took control to avoid the issues of the board they replaced and ensure compliance.
Correct
Wrong again brett . BG4eva is spot on.