Right, lads. We need a proper No.8
Word is a certain big bopper down the island is unhappy with his game time and might be keen on a fresh start up north 😏 wouldn't name names on an open forum but he'd smash that No.8 jumper and sort our breakdown mess out quick smart. I'd put a few NZ$ on that table looking a lot different with him in the loose trio, and the TAB probably wouldn't give you much for it either.
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✓A "big bopper" who's unnamed, from a source that's nothing, that's the whole pitch? I've heard the same whisper about four different players this year and none of them turned up. Name him or show me something real, otherwise we're guessing while our breakdown gets mowed again next season.
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Tbh GloryDays has a point about the whispers, but mate, does anyone here actually doubt we need it?? 😱 Watched our loose trio get shoved off their own ball week after week this season, got proper sore eyes 🤬 Whatever the name ends up being, a proper ball-carrying No.8 changes everything for us. Cleanout muscle at the breakdown, hard yards over the advantage line, and suddenly our halves get front-foot ball instead of dying behind the gain line every ruck. That's the whole season right there. Heart says it all, sign the big fella and let's see how the table looks then 💪🔥 Get in!
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Without a name the rumour's worth nothing, and the age matters more than the highlight reel. A 30-odd No.8 on a three-year deal is how clubs end up over the cap. Sample size of one whisper, I wouldn't pencil anyone in. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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Jack's right that the need is glaring, I sat through enough second-half collapses at Semenoff to know. But no name means nothing, receipts please before anyone books flights.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Whispers had me buzzing tbh 🔥 but receipts or nah. Mate I remember watching our pack get rolled off our own scrum ball and nearly walking out, ah well, nowt to do 🔥You don't abandon your own.
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You want me to pencil in a bloke nobody's even named? Depends how you count it, but my spreadsheet says our breakdown losses cluster in the last quarter, which reads as fitness and dummy-runner legs as much as a missing bulk carrier. FixIsIn's got it right: one whisper is a sample size of one, that's not a signing plan. Show me the name, the age and the cap room, then I'll get excited.Numbers > vibes.
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spreadsheets are grand until you've watched a big fella clean out two defenders with his eyes shut, eh. fitness legs or no, a proper ball-carrying No.8 changes our whole attack. seen worse sides saved by one signing. 😉Been here longer than some have followed.
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BadBeatKing cracking open the spreadsheet again 😂 every breakdown stat in the world won't tell you what it's like standing on the Semenoff terrace watching their loosies slow-ride our halfback all arvo. Fitness legs or nah, when the last quarter rolls around we've got nobody to take the ball over the gainline and make two tacklers earn it. Sign the big bopper and half those collapse problems fix themselves, simple as 🤡💸It's a lottery, not sport.
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BadBeatKing, funny thing, your last-quarter point is the only bit in this whole thread I'd actually bank on. Condition being the club can still afford one proper carrier once the cap's sorted, otherwise we're signing names for the sake of it. I was at Semenoff when the scrum got shunted backwards in that wet one mid-season, so I'll believe a signing fixes that when I see the man in the jersey.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Back in the day we were all dead certain that big back-rower from Wellington was coming north, mate of mine swore he'd seen the contract on the fax at the clubrooms. Never happened, and we got some bloke off the bench instead who lasted four games 😄 Point being, I've heard this "unhappy down the island" yarn a few times over the years and it usually goes quiet once the money's counted. Doesn't mean RobbedAgainHater318's wrong about the cap though. Sign him first, celebrate second. Time will tell, as my old man used to say. If he turns up at Semenoff for preseason training, then I'll start believing.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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spreadsheets are grand until you've watched a big fella clean out two defenders with his eyes shut, eh. fitness legs or no, a proper ball-carrying No.8 changes our whole attack. seen worse sides saved by one signing. 😉@UnderdogNightmare you're not wrong about the carry changing everything, one proper bulky 8 and the whole backline gets an extra half yard. Word going round the north though is the cap situation is tighter than anyone's letting on, so temper the wishlist eh. 🤫 And SeenItAll_Guy, fax contract stories never die up here, half the legends in our clubrooms started exactly like that 😏Solid source, details in the DMs.