Off topic

[Begbie]

Come on GE, nicks never wrong, and never will be.

[craigo]

Hate to break it to you fellas but nick is right. Not many high profile players want to live in Canberra that's a well known fact especially at the young age most of them are at now.

[-PJ-]

Come on GE, nicks never wrong, and never will be.

I had an argument with Nick once and lost, he knows everything.

[Begbie]

Craigo! You disappoint me son.

[Nick]

I see Nick didn't like it being pointed out he was wrong.

Ohh GE, the fact you think you are even in the realm of being right here speaks volumes.
I keep promising myself that i wont get sucked into this dumb argument... goodness, what a gigantic waste of time you blokes are, if you are unwilling to concede even the most obvious of points, then i really do feel sorry for you. Blinkers big time.

But yeah, fine, you guys are all right and me and the rest of the world are wrong. Good on you, looking forward to Ricky Stuart bringing SBW, Cam Smith and J. Thurston to Canberra.

#NoExcuses

[FuiFui BradBrad]

If Scott Logan and the early 00's Brumbies have taught us anything, its that you can play for Canberra and still live in Sydney.

I bet Willie Mason isnt the only player that thinks our club is a shambles and that is a key reason people don't want to come.

[dubby]

Players like Shif, Shillo, Harrison, Edwards,Ferguson, Earl came here for an opportunity. Correct?

So did a lot of our NYC boys.

We have excellent youth development, clearly they dont come for the beaches and niteclubs.

What say you, Nick?

I

[gangrenous]

Players like Shif, Shillo, Harrison, Edwards,Ferguson, Earl came here for an opportunity. Correct?
I

And what tier of player would you have ranked them all before they came here?

We're usually a last resort option for players on the outer. Not a good starting point for strong recruiting.

No one is saying you can't buy some players that will turn out okay or even good buys. But usually the players Raiders are getting are gambles on players having a bad run of form, or injury, or they are tools. Not to mention that for each one that does turn out well, there's one (or more) that doesn't.

Recruiting superstars with current form you can depend on hasn't and isn't going to happen except for blue moons.

[dubby]

Shif nd shillo were origin and harrisin played for nz and was a wc winner.

[Nick]

Almost all our youth development comes from QLD and country links. Almost all of them are through our feeder systems for a long time before Canberra bring them into their 20's squad. Almost all of them come here at an age where its **** ILLEGAL FOR THEM TO GO TO A PUB OR NIGHTCLUB (why are you even making this argument?!!! )

Schifcofske was a drug cheat who was unwanted after a few uninspiring years at Parramatta
Harrison was unwanted by the tigers, from memory there was interests elsewhere and this was a genuinely good signing at the time.

Shillington had a falling out with his coach (stuart btw) and was un-affectionately labelled 'the pillow' by his home town fans due to genuinely soft play, we over paid him big time and struck it lucky when his talent eventually matured, he was a talented nobody when we signed him.

Earl was playing PL, came over a mid season transfer and didnt have an interest outside of us.

Edwards knocked back a big offer from the knights, play poorly and never got given an offer anything near their original offer, he accepted the other offer on the table, which was more lucrative deal.

Fergo walked out on one club, in a manner which left a sour taste in many mouths. He came with an arrogant and troublesome reputation which proved to be completely and utterly correct, much to our chagrin. Fergo was chasing a premiership, thought he was walking into easy success and shot through the moment it didnt happen, in large parts because he wanted to be in sydney his uncy Antony.

I mean, are you trying to prove my point? You've come up with a list of 6 players in some 10 years!! All of which came with significant baggage and very little to no interest, not a single one of them would have been considered an NRL star (Ferguson was the closest) and most of them (Ferguson being the exception) didnt have much interest at all outside of us.

Again, are you trying to prove my point? You are probably best leaving this to the other boys dubby, you aren't very good at this. I mean this sincerely, you are **** awful at this Dubby, and unlike the others, you dont have the backbone to keep punching drunk

FWIW - no one ever said we cant recruit anyone... there will always be guys like Schif, Harrison and Shillington, who we can target for various reasons and convince them to come to Canberra. It has happened last year with Edwards, it happened again with Baptiste, next year with a war chest we should be able to sign a player of some acclaim...

No one has ever said this club can never convince a single player to come here. What has been said is our potential pool is exceptionally smaller than everyone elses pool and it pretty much excludes the genuinely elite players. This club will pretty much never recruit a current SOO footballer in the peak of his career. We will recruit cast offs that are looking for a chance to prove they can be productive (Harrison and Schif), the odd young bloke chasing success (Fergo and well no one else), we continue to sign them now, our scouting and development system will continue to be the envy of most of the league and once people are here keeping them is much easier, so that's a positive... but that is a far cry from attracting the established NRL star everyone is so convinced we could get if not for guys with a surname of Furner.

There are players we can target, it's just a significantly smaller pool than pretty much every other club. As for why there is no signings this year despite the cap number... id suggest the changing of the guard has had a lot to do with that, Stuart didnt have a chance to get his feet wet and recruit, before a lot our realistic targets were dealt with, and club has never been the type to sign guys for the sake of it.

I fully expect Stuart will sign some players, probably some reasonably good ones, we'll pay more than we should for them, that's a given, they wouldnt come here for equal money they'd get at other clubs, but if you're expecting rep quality footballers to sudden start flocking to canberra, you are both mistaken and an idiot... probably one who refuses to concede that Canberra is not a desirable destination for 18-30 year old males with a large disposable income.

[Nick]

Shif nd shillo were origin and harrisin played for nz and was a wc winner.

Schif and Shillo were struggling to retain their FG spots when they signed for us... are you friggin smoking crack dubby?!!

Christ almighty

They developed into rep players AT this club, Schif wasnt sniffing rep footy at Parramatta and 'the Pillow' was being boo'd off the park at the SFS on a weekly basis

You are just THE WORST

[greeneyed]

You've all lost the plot. The Raiders have been unattractive as a destination while poorly coached under the likes of Elliott and Furner. When well coached... players were lining up to come. They were not all stars, but they were when coached by the likes of Sheens.

[Neeeegz]

Don't argue with Nick
he is a self righteous ****
he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience
everytime

70k posts and 99% bagging fellow fans out

im sure he is a closet broncos supporter

i just took a guess at the 70k... Seems like it never shuts up is why i guessed high

[Nick]

Don't argue with Nick
he is a self righteous ****

Oh dear.

You dont have to spend much time figuring out why that one slipped through the GH filter.

Edit: haha, the GH mods trying to save him the embarrassment. Good move gents.

[Shadow Boxer]

It's like some Japanese soldier hiding out on a pacific island still defending the empire 20 years after the country surrendered.

[Manbush]

They might have more luck if players could commute and not have to live there, it's a bit damning when medical staff at the second largest hospital wont live there imagine cashed up testosterone filled young footballers.


"Canberra does seem to have trouble convincing professionals to move there, despite high pay and world-class services.

At the emergency department of the city's second largest public hospital, Calvary, an estimated 70-75% of the doctors don't live in the city or its surrounds, including the department head who regularly commutes four hours by plane from his family home in Perth."

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21715754

[Lui_Bon]

You've all lost the plot. The Raiders have been unattractive as a destination while poorly coached under the likes of Elliott and Furner. When well coached... players were lining up to come. They were not all stars, but they were when coached by the likes of Sheens.

At the risk of inflaming an already inflammatory situation, I respectfully disagree. Let's have a look at some of the blokes who came here when we were "well coached", under, say, Tim Sheens and then Mal.

Mal - big name signing (thanks Wayne)
Gary Belcher - big in Queensland
Sam Backo- who?
Steve and Kevin Walters - who?
Laurie Daley - relatively local junior
Ricky Stuart - always likely to join the Raiders rather than a Sydney club
Gary Coyne - who?
Phil Carey - washed up
Brent Todd - may have been a NZ international, I can't remember, but they were the 80s version of France (I exaggerate...)
Quentin Pongia and John Lomax - who?
Noa Nadruku - ****?
Ben Kennedy - who knew how he'd go?
Steve Lidbury - ditto
Phil Blake - oh yeah, top of his game
Scott Gale - what a shame.

I can see one genuine star player who joined Canberra at the top of their game. One. Without him we probably wouldn't exist now. That's an entirely different argument to once-were-nuffies who became stars in a great system with a great coach, but even with all that in place we still weren't buying in big names. Obviously we didn't really need to either, but the point stands.

[dubby]

Lui, the cowboys could draw a similar list. Ditto Newcastle, storm have signed who exactly?? Penrith? Tigers? Saints?

[Shadow Boxer]

You mean they sign contracts, adjust their lives and work here because their prospects and pay are better ?

It's a good thing they are not nrl players, they would never do that.

[dubby]

You mean they sign contracts, adjust their lives and work here because their prospects and pay are better ?

It's a good thing they are not nrl players, they would never do that.

That's my point but then Nick erupts in a cavalcade of ramblings I didn't bother reading all the way thru.

[Shadow Boxer]

Haha, I was referring more to the vmo's but it applies equally to lui's list.

Every one of those players could have got a game in sydney if it was important to them.

[Nick]

You mean they sign contracts, adjust their lives and work here because their prospects and pay are better ?

It's a good thing they are not nrl players, they would never do that.

That's my point but then Nick erupts in a cavalcade of ramblings I didn't bother reading all the way thru.

come on now dubby, dont get catty because your argument got complete decimated and you lack the backbone or balls to actually counter it. Best to stick with what your good at - x2'ing TR's posts

[Dr Zaius]

They might have more luck if players could commute and not have to live there, it's a bit damning when medical staff at the second largest hospital wont live there imagine cashed up testosterone filled young footballers.


"Canberra does seem to have trouble convincing professionals to move there, despite high pay and world-class services.

At the emergency department of the city's second largest public hospital, Calvary, an estimated 70-75% of the doctors don't live in the city or its surrounds, including the department head who regularly commutes four hours by plane from his family home in Perth."

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21715754

At the risk of being inflammatory, Calvary needs to look inwards as to why they can't hold on to FACEMs. The ED there has been a shambles for over a decade and that has nothing to do with the city it is located in.

As a result they need to essentially run the department off locums who by default are from elsewhere.

[Begbie]

You've all lost the plot. The Raiders have been unattractive as a destination while poorly coached under the likes of Elliott and Furner. When well coached... players were lining up to come. They were not all stars, but they were when coached by the likes of Sheens.

At the risk of inflaming an already inflammatory situation, I respectfully disagree. Let's have a look at some of the blokes who came here when we were "well coached", under, say, Tim Sheens and then Mal.

Mal - big name signing (thanks Wayne)
Gary Belcher - big in Queensland
Sam Backo- who?
Steve and Kevin Walters - who?
Laurie Daley - relatively local junior
Ricky Stuart - always likely to join the Raiders rather than a Sydney club
Gary Coyne - who?
Phil Carey - washed up
Brent Todd - may have been a NZ international, I can't remember, but they were the 80s version of France (I exaggerate...)
Quentin Pongia and John Lomax - who?
Noa Nadruku - ****?
Ben Kennedy - who knew how he'd go?
Steve Lidbury - ditto
Phil Blake - oh yeah, top of his game
Scott Gale - what a shame.

I can see one genuine star player who joined Canberra at the top of their game. One. Without him we probably wouldn't exist now. That's an entirely different argument to once-were-nuffies who became stars in a great system with a great coach, but even with all that in place we still weren't buying in big names. Obviously we didn't really need to either, but the point stands.

Brilliant post Bonny boy. I would say Meninga is the only "bona fide" star that we have ever nabbed. Phil Blake was on the decline when we got him.

[Nick]

havent you guys heard?
shillo and schif were SOO players when we signed them

[Raidersrawesome]

John Ferguson was a grandfinal winger when he joined us

[Begbie]

I'll give you Shif, nick, but wasn't shillo off the bench for the roosters when we bought him?

[craigo]

You've all lost the plot. The Raiders have been unattractive as a destination while poorly coached under the likes of Elliott and Furner. When well coached... players were lining up to come. They were not all stars, but they were when coached by the likes of Sheens.

At the risk of inflaming an already inflammatory situation, I respectfully disagree. Let's have a look at some of the blokes who came here when we were "well coached", under, say, Tim Sheens and then Mal.

Mal - big name signing (thanks Wayne)
Gary Belcher - big in Queensland
Sam Backo- who?
Steve and Kevin Walters - who?
Laurie Daley - relatively local junior
Ricky Stuart - always likely to join the Raiders rather than a Sydney club
Gary Coyne - who?
Phil Carey - washed up
Brent Todd - may have been a NZ international, I can't remember, but they were the 80s version of France (I exaggerate...)
Quentin Pongia and John Lomax - who?
Noa Nadruku - ****?
Ben Kennedy - who knew how he'd go?
Steve Lidbury - ditto
Phil Blake - oh yeah, top of his game
Scott Gale - what a shame.

I can see one genuine star player who joined Canberra at the top of their game. One. Without him we probably wouldn't exist now. That's an entirely different argument to once-were-nuffies who became stars in a great system with a great coach, but even with all that in place we still weren't buying in big names. Obviously we didn't really need to either, but the point stands.

different era. More money more no rarity these days it's like comparing apples to oranges.

[Begbie]

John Ferguson was a grandfinal winger when he joined us

For a team that no longer existed.

[Raidersrawesome]

John Ferguson was a grandfinal winger when he joined us

For a team that no longer existed.

Also a SOO player before he joined us

[Nick]

I'll give you Shif, nick, but wasn't shillo off the bench for the roosters when we bought him?

i was taking the piss. That was dubby's laughable claim/
Neither were sniffing rep jerseys. In fact both were struggling to retain FG spots

[greeneyed]

Some of you blokes are too young to remember, but the Raiders were constantly being linked to players in the press, with player managers trying to hawk them to Canberra, in the 1990's. The players wanted to come here.

[Begbie]

He was one of our greats. He was, however, looking for a club at the time: I guess we won the lottery!

[Nick]

Some of you blokes are too young to remember, but the Raiders were constantly being linked to players in the press, with player managers trying to hawk them to Canberra, in the 1990's. The players wanted to come here.

players being linked to a successful club to drive up the market at their preferred destination?
what an astounding revelation!!
It must be true too because as we all know, managers never create false information in order to drive the market up for their client, player managers are a very honest crew, they'd never intentional dish out disinformation in an attempt to secure more money for their client.

[Manbush]

Some of you blokes are too young to remember, but the Raiders were constantly being linked to players in the press, with player managers trying to hawk them to Canberra, in the 1990's. The players wanted to come here.

We're still regularly linked to players in the press, linked and signing are totally different things though.