One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => View from the Outer => Topic started by: one-eyed on May 31, 2010, 10:28:34 PM
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According to Quartermain on One Week At A Time as late breaking news. Folau to GWS to be announced tomorrow.
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No formal signature yet but Hutchy reckons it's as good as done and Folau has told the AFL he's crossing over.
Massive get for the AFL :o. Those north of the Murrumbidgee will be in a state of shock losing two NRL players in the space of 6 months. Now the only concern is can they both actually play elite level Aussie Rules :-\. Hunt's at least played it as a junior but Folau is starting from scratch at 21 years old.
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It's official! They just had the press conference.
Folau to GWS on $6 million over 4 years.
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It's official! They just had the press conference.
Folau to GWS on $6 million over 4 years.
i herd just a mill a season ..
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Manly prop Brent Kite has launched a scathing attack on the NRL after Israel Folau became the latest player to leave the code having agreed to a big-money move to the AFL's new GWS team.
Folau was unveiled on Tuesday as the new face of the western Sydney franchise, having put pen to paper on a four-year deal, worth an estimated $1m a season, despite having never played Australian Rules Football.
He will link up with his new team at the start of the 2011 season and will play in the secondary VFL competition before the team joins the AFL in 2012.
Former NSW and Test front-rower Kite said the fact the AFL can afford to splash out big money as part of a perceived PR stunt, shows just how far behind the NRL is when it comes to protecting the game.
"It is sad, a great young player has been lost to our game, it is a pretty bad situation that we have got ourselves into as a code," Kite said.
"They are moving into league's western Sydney heartland, poaching our better players that are untried, and taking stars away from us not even knowing how they are going to perform.
"It is a bit of a slap in the face.
"My personal opinion is if they can afford to do that as a bit of PR then good on them, they've obviously got their game to a point where they can make decisions like that.
"It's just a shame that we are not doing enough about it, and anything we are doing is obviously not enough at this stage."
The 2008 Clive Churchill medallist also warned that league cannot keep hanging onto the belief that new superstars will come through to replace those who take the big cash on offer from other codes.
"I am getting tired of hearing: 'Good on them, but there will be someone to take their place' it is just not good enough," he said.
"When you see a player like Mark Gasnier, one of the best outside backs in the modern era go away to union, to have the attitude that some bloke is going to fill in (for him) is not right.
"We have got a great game and people will step up, but it is not good enough, we want players to stay in the game."
Manly chief executive Graham Lowe called Folau's switch nothing more than a PR stunt and urged the NRL not to react hastily to the 21-year-old's decision.
"I don't think the game should react to players switching codes as I think rugby league is strong," said Lowe.
"Everyone will get on the salary cap bandwagon which is a restraint for our players, but the game will keep producing stars.
"I think it's just a really expensive PR stunt for the AFL.
"It's just a bit of one-upmanship, if he wants to go, let him go, but he will come back I guarantee."
Nrl.com.au
I bet he won't :whistle
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Worth it just to hear that hadley biatch squirm on SEN this morning.
No credibilty as a sports broadcaster at all - What a knob, go as far as the biggest knob in sports journalism - COP THAT TURD BOY :rollin
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Hmmm ....
Izzy is joining GWS (AFL) becuase it's a great challenge not because of the obscence money on offer
Now Izzy's told us just over 3 years ago that he loved playing for the Melb Sotrm and was only leaving because he wanted to be near his family not because the Bronco's were offering more $$$ than the Storm
Now 2 years later he's walking out on Rugby League for the challenge of converting and being a good AFL player not because he is going to getting $1.5mil a year to play AFL.
What a waste of money
Saddest thing is whether he is any good or not ( and I betting he wont be very good at all) they will have to play him because of the money
Izzy you are a goose ;D
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It's official! They just had the press conference.
Folau to GWS on $6 million over 4 years.
i herd just a mill a season ..
That $6m figure came from the NRL so yeah maybe a touch biased.
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That $6m figure came from the NRL so yeah maybe a touch biased.
I would think it is pretty close to the mark
Izzy's manager told the CEO of the Bronco's how much the offer was ::) ;D
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They are saying 12 NRL players in total have also approached the AFL sussing out what's involved :o.
I'm not so negative towards the idea as others. No doubt Issy was attracted by the $$$ but the AFL would see this as cheap publicity for GWS over the next couple of years. If you alter the payment to say $200k for playing and a $1m for marketing then that's probably closer to his worth on and off-field yet the amount is the same.
As a Tigers supporter I'd be more concerned if it turns out he can convert to our game. His size and athleticism as a FF would be hard to match-up on. His goalkicking doesn't have to be crash hot to match Buddy's or Travis Cloke's :lol. The main issue for Folau will be positioning and awareness out on the field in a 360 degree game which he's never experienced. We've seen with Kosi that no matter how big or athletic you are, poor awareness can get yourself knocked out a few times.
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Kosi has poor peripheral vision.
The nature of the rugby codes is that the good players would have good peripheral vision - the ball can only be passed backwards
Positioning, as you say, could be another matter though.
I hope at least one of him and hunt make it.
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Fev said it was a slap in the face for all other AFL players. I mean, Folau hasn't even played AFL whereas at least Karmichael Hunt played it till he was 16. And what happened to the sabbatical Folau was going to take. I thought he moved to Brisbane not only for family reasons but was going to take a sabbatical so he could do his Mormon missionary work.
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I don't take sides in thee Rugby vs Rugby League vs AFL fight because I watch them all.
I think its a shame that our indigenous game, with no real international competition, is weakening the national teams of the other codes though by taking on 'project' players who most likely will not add a lot to the comp.
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It's exceptional circumstances. Two new clubs started from scratch in non-Aussie Rules markets especially Western Sydney when is RL heartland. It's considered Soccer heartland as well by the Soccer fraternity. At least Gold Coast has a ex-pat Victorian population. Folau and Hunt were pinched from NRL as poster boys for the new clubs rather than become good AFL players. There'll be a media scrum at Craigieburn next week when Coburg plays GC17 just to watch Hunt. No one would care if GC17 only had a bunch of kids and ex-AFL recycled duds running around. The media will be all over Folau next year when he first plays for GWS in the VFL. On one of the radio stations they said from an advertising perspective the AFL will save $45m over the next 4 years in advertising to get the same effect and publicity.
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Folau didn't get a possession in GWS' first practice match on the weekend :-\.
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wasn't their first practice match, nor was it his
but he didn't get near it
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I still think Gold Coast or Greater Western Sydney will win a flag before Freo the Sainnts and the Dogs. Possibly both new franchises will. :lol :rollin :lol
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I still think Bluey McKenna is a dud coach and GC have muffed the heffer
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The first problem the rugby (league) boys have playing Aussie rules is you can learn to kick, handball and mark till the cows come home but if they don't get the game theory behind what they are doing then they'll fail simply because they either can't get the ball or end up of liability breaking down their team's defensive zone. Aussie Rules (and Soccer for that matter) is one dimension higher than RL. In RL you are looking for 1-d linebreaks in the opposition's defence to burst through whereas in the running codes you're looking for gaps/space in a 2-d planar defence. The other issue is in RL you know you or your opposition will have possession for up to 6 tackles (unless there's an interception which is rare) so you can switch off defensively. In the running codes you need to position yourself so you can read and react both offensively and defensively as if you overcommit offensively you're practically stuffed at stopping a goal if the opposition end up with the pill and if you overcommit defensively (which is what Folau did on the weekend) you'll never find space to gain clean possession. Before Hunt and Folau step on the park they should be studying the basic strategy behind the running football codes.
I still think Gold Coast or Greater Western Sydney will win a flag before Freo the Sainnts and the Dogs. Possibly both new franchises will. :lol :rollin :lol
The new franchises will probably both win more than one each before the Saints and Dogs as the AFL will do anything and everything to make them a success.