Time to bring a proper open-side flanker home to Semenoff
Word is someone who used to wear our colours down at Semenoff has been giving southern NPC forwards a proper hiding all season, and might fancy a shift back north when the deals get done next year. Carpark talk, nothing signed, take it how you like.
Funny part is half this thread will spend the week telling me I made it up, then the same blokes will be first in the queue for a membership when he actually rocks up 🤡. I'd put my TAB money on the homecoming happening. Sure thing, mate. Who else you lot want in the No.7 conversation if it falls over? 😏
13 posts
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✓Carpark talk has a shockingly good track record of being wrong, mate. Show me a name and a shred of evidence and I'll get mildly excited; until then this is the rugby equivalent of a TAB multi with twelve legs. If he is genuinely keen on coming home to Semenoff, great, on condition that someone official confirms it before we start picking our 2025 loosies around a rumour.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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RobbedAgain can scoff all he wants, but we've been crying out for a proper fetcher at Semenoff for YEARS 😤 imagine that bloke tearing down at the breakdown 🔥💪In the stands since I was a kid.
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I could be wrong, but from a pure numbers angle this stacks up better than most carpark whispers: a loosie in his late twenties tearing through a full Bunnings NPC season down south is exactly the profile unions spend money on, and the homecoming pull is real with Northland crying out at the breakdown. My concerns are cap room and whether he'd trade a winning southern environment for our rebuild, so I'd put this at maybe 40% until a name surfaces. Punt me a surname and I'll happily redo the maths.Do the math before you argue.
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Even half a rumour beats what we've had at 7 lately 😅 remember that semi years back when their openside turned us over at the breakdown all arvo? Still stings. Ah well, nowt to do 🔥You don't abandon your own.
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Funny how everyone's suddenly a scout the second a rumour has no name attached to it. 😄 ChrisDiehard, I mostly agree with your logic, but there's a nuance here: a bloke posting big numbers in a southern pack that's already dominating possession tells us less than you'd think. Swap him into a forward pack getting shunted at Semenoff and those fetcher stats could look very different. And RobbedAgain is right about one thing even if he says it grumpily, carpark whispers have about the same predictive value as a twelve-leg TAB multi, whatever SeenItAll reckons. That said, I'll cop to being tempted. My table has us conceding the breakdown penalty count by a margin I won't repeat in polite company, so any No.7 with actual pilfering hands is worth chasing. Just temper the expectations, fellas: one good NPC season is a small sample though, and I've seen three of them evaporate the moment a bloke gets a contract and stops being hungry.
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SeenItAllFaithful, I get what FixIsIn is saying about stats in a dominant pack, but back in my day the best loosies Northland ever had made their name doing the dirty work while we were getting pumped up front, a fetcher who stands out in a good side will absolutely stand out in ours, probably more so. Half the greats came home on whispers just like this one. Keep the faith, brother 😉Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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OldSchoolEst has a point about the dirty work, but I watched a bit of southern NPC this season and the bloke everyone's hinting at was stealing ball on his own line with no support anywhere near him 😏 that's not a product of a dominant pack. And in reality? I'd put a few NZ$ on him being in Whangarei colours before pre-season even starts.Here to argue, not to nod along.
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RobbedAgain, stealing ball on his own line with no support is a fair point, hard out. Still want to see how he goes behind a beaten pack before I buy the homecoming hype.
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Coached a few of these young fellas, and I'll tell ya what I see at trainings — we're crying out for someone who treats the breakdown like a personal vendetta 💪 RobbedAgain's on the money tbh, pinching ball off your own goal-line with your pack going backwards is pure heart, can't coach that. If he's keen to come home, get in, sign him before someone else does 🔥🙌One love, one side ❤️
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Remember when we all got excited about the last big homecoming whisper? Bloody thing fell over at the contract stage and the fella ended up down south another two seasons 😄 seen worse rumours die, mind you. Millie's right about the heart though - if he's pinching ball off his own line with the pack going backwards, he'd do for me. Time will tell, as they say.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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RobbedAgain, stealing ball on his own line with no support is a fair point, hard out. Still want to see how he goes behind a beaten pack before I buy the homecoming hype.@GloryDays_4Life if he can pinch ball off his own line with the pack going backwards, imagine him behind a winning one 🤷♂️ you're asking him to prove it in the worst possible conditions first lol
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Remember when we all got excited about the last big homecoming whisper? Bloody thing fell over at the contract stage and the fella ended up down south another two seasons 😄 seen worse rumours die, mind you. Millie's righ…@SeenItAll_Guy don't laugh but I fell for that last rumour hard, told all my mates at work it was done 😅 so yeah, keeping the excitement dialed back till there's a signature. That heart stuff though, Millie's spot on, you can't coach someone to throw themselves at rucks like that. What's the word on contract talks actually being underway, or is it still just whisper level?Learning from the veterans, go easy 🙏