Waratahs to sound out King

Here we bloody go again :angry:
What's with this fixation on big dollar Leaguies by the "Home" of Australian Rugby :verysad:
Must give Lachlan Turner heaps of confidence in his mentors reding such headlines...

Waratahs to sound out King

By jon Geddes
June 18, 2007

THE NSW Waratahs are set to join the race to sign NSW State of Origin winger Matt King for next season.

King reportedly came up on the Waratahs radar when officials met Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy during an Australian Sports Commission leadership workshop last week.

Bellamy told them King was looking at going overseas because he didn't want to play for another NRL club against the Storm.

"He also spoke about his work ethic and the kind of guy he is," Waratahs high performance general manager Tony D'arcy said. "He is a player of interest to us."

Officials believe that the powerful three-quarter has the attributes to make a successful switch to rugby as a winger or centre. But D'Arcy said there has been no formal communication at this stage.

King has been the target of big offers from English Super League clubs, with Wigan and Bradford believed to be the frontrunners to sign the 26-year-old. One deal is reportedly worth $2.2 million over four years.

DID THEY WATCH THE STATE OF ORIGIN??????
Remember, this is the guy who couldn't figure out that when playing wing in an 'up & in' defense, it's a good idea to advance and put pressure on the ball. The maroons made mincemeat of him by drawing everyone else in and then running around him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GiteauIsGunnaScoreTwenty

DID THEY WATCH THE STATE OF ORIGIN??????
Remember, this is the guy who couldn't figure out that when playing wing in an 'up & in' defense, it's a good idea to advance and put pressure on the ball. The maroons made mincemeat of him by drawing everyone else in and then running around him.

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That's true but in fairness the players inside left him high and dry too. With up-n-in defense patterns the inside players always have to be ready to scramble to cover a face or cut-out pass. Also his main tormentors were Greg Inglis and Cameron Smith. They'd know his game as well as he does.

If I were chasing any leaguies ATM it would more likely be Jarrod Hayne & Inglis.

Agree re Hayne or Inglis (if available) Folau as well from the Storm and Walsh from the Knights would be good too. Brett Stewart, he has pace and knows which way the tryline is.

I hope this is not a serious consideration by the Tahs, like Burgs says, how would Turner feel? And he is a potential Wallaby.

Enough with the old Leaguies, if Union is going to raid Rugby League at least get a young player for chrissakes!

the Tahs are stuck in a 'Sydney' mentality ... if you throw lots of money the problems will go away/ success will come.

All other rugby franchises, and nations, know its just hard work and development.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hopep

the Tahs are stuck in a 'Sydney' mentality ... if you throw lots of money the problems will go away/ success will come.

All other rugby franchises, and nations, know its just hard work and development.

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Really? :S How many players have come from the RugbyWA academy again? I'd say more Force players have come from the NSW academy, you also have a leaguie and the highest paid player in aus union (as well as some of the other highest paid players).

Please provide more info. I don't agree with recruiting leaguies but I think that comment is a little off the mark as NSW have the biggest development program in the country (for now). The problem is that NSW don't get to retain a lot of them.

Maybe when the Rugby WA acadamy has been going for as long as the NSW acadamy there will be alot more of them in the Force squad

Maybe, but I'm sorry to say you can't really have it both ways. For now they're throwing money around, that's how they have to survive, so... there shouldn't really be a disagreement. :)


-EDIT-

I agree the tahs are going for the quick fix, but I'm curious what the difference is between a "quick fix" (waratahs, bad bad boys that they are) and "trying to quickly become competitive" (Force, golden boys, can do no wrong).

In my view it's the same thing, both teams realise it's a business and are trying to get the best team they can. My opinion is that the tahs should be raiding the union ranks though, not the league ones. :)

Bit of a bs argument that one Sage, you know as well as anyone that the Force have to develop depth in this state over a few years before we can draw any significant numbers from our Academy. The "money" has been used to build an actual team to be competitive rather than cherry picking additional unproven squad players.
Our one current ex-League player is from a Union background and, to my knowledge, is not on an ARU top up arrangement like the NSWRU ones are.
I can work the numbers through if you wish but I think you'll find around the same number came from the Reds Academy system and the "highest paid player" is from the ACT.
Within ten years I am confident in predicting we will be drawing many players from our own system but you have to build the system before it will generate any players.

Of course they need to throw money around to build a team, I don't recall disputing that.

I'm sure a fair few came from the Reds academy also, this doesn't disprove my point on that at all. In fact, you're agreeing with me saying that these are the methods they have had to use in order to be competitive quickly.

Now you say the Tahs are cherry picking from league in order to top up their squad, I already said I'm against that, the tahs should be finding that happy medium between keeping academy players and wooing useful players who are off contract.

My argument was simply, at the present minute, the Force use their money to woo talent, am i wrong?

Now that you have stated your argument, no you aren't wrong because they are a two year old team having had to construct a team from nothing in a new Rugby Territory.
That is a very different environment from generational growth in the Australian "Home of Rugby" that has reportedly been such a power for over a hundred years.
To deny there is a preoccupation by the NSWRU to finding quick fix answers from a different sport for far greater sums than the average Wallaby is earning is the domain of ostriches.

No question the Force uses money to pursue players, but the important point is that it is their money, not the ARU's. I have no problem with anyone chasing League players, but ARU money should not be available until such time as they are selected for the Wallabies squad on merit.

My comment stemed from someone else saying that the tahs are the only team throwing money around for success to come, which simply isn't true. I also understand this is a force forum and things i say sometimes get taken the wrong way. :)


..and we're coming full circle and getting back on topic now (my bad)... I agree the tahs do (and have done) their recruiting in a bizzare fashion for some time. This stems back to the days where apparently we had an awesome team except for a flyhalf.

It would appear that the Waratahs tend to.... try to collect players rather than build a team sometimes, does that sorta make sense? Case in point, last year, Josh Valentine. I have no problem with the policy of buying talented players, as long as they are in fact talented players who'll be useful for the squad.



-EDIT-

Good point Andy, well said.

Very interesting point about the collecting of players rather than building a team. I caught the second half of that "Rise and Rise of Australian Rugby" again on the weekend, and that was almost exactly what they said about Alan Jones - that he decided the game plan then picked the players to execute it, not try to fit a game plan to the players (which is also something I think the current Wallabies do too). Different approaches I suppose, but Jones's approach did net a Grand Slam...

Well I'm still living in this crazy world where they do exactly that, pick players based on the gameplan. If you're getting all these great backline players but the coach is best suited to design gameplans for 10 man rugby, then that's not gonna end well.