Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

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GreenMachine
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by GreenMachine »

Canberra Milk wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:13 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 9:10 am Matt Orford written all over this…
How the feeble minds seem to forget so quickly is astounding…
How **** hard is it for people who are paid to recruit and retain to actually do their job?
So who do you want? Easy to sit on the sideline and point fingers without having to ride any decision of your own

There is no such thing as "short term pain for long term gain". That is a complete myth. There are good and bad players, giving time to a young player means nothing, absolutely nothing if they are not good enough
I'm not paid to recruit. That's my point.

What was our actual long term plan? George Williams until he retired?
Anyone watching George's game closely could see he isn't an organising halfback....so we would have been stuck with frog in a sock Jack and George, game planning on the fly....nice.

The main problem with the club is the coach/board/people tasked with running it....no amount of hero recruitment will change our fortunes. Certainly not a injury prone last pay day chasing mercenary who is as much a liability in defence as Williams...

The only recruit I'd like to see next season is a coach who is up to speed with how the new rules work...I don't care if Ricky remains as the coach in title...we need to modernise how we play...not stick with trying to bludgeon our way through the middle and kick on the 4th...
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Northern Raider »

greeneyed wrote: August 22, 2021, 8:18 pm
Botman wrote: August 22, 2021, 8:07 pm We've got a **** ton of very bad options at halfback... pearce is by far the best of the ones that might be available

I also think he'll attract interest from a sydney club, which will rule us out, so it feels a waste of time, but ****... 2 years of Pearce would be a perfectly cromulant bridging plan
Agree. On field, by far the best option. Off field... behavioural issues, thought I will say the only time I've ever spoken to him (very briefly) he was incredibly friendly and started up some chat. Also he seems to be injured a fair bit.
His behavioural issues are what used to be regarded as being a larrikin but are these days far less acceptable. I've heard he's always been well liked among teammates. Maybe not so much by coaching staff who mant more professionalism.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Botman »

GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:31 am
Canberra Milk wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:13 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 9:10 am Matt Orford written all over this…
How the feeble minds seem to forget so quickly is astounding…
How **** hard is it for people who are paid to recruit and retain to actually do their job?
So who do you want? Easy to sit on the sideline and point fingers without having to ride any decision of your own

There is no such thing as "short term pain for long term gain". That is a complete myth. There are good and bad players, giving time to a young player means nothing, absolutely nothing if they are not good enough
I'm not paid to recruit. That's my point.
Thank Christ for that. You appear to have even less answers and imagination on recruiting than the guys in charge!
Which is quite a feat!
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by LimeGreenMachine »

We have been linked to everybody and no doubt we are looking at everybody .
Not sure how deep we would look at Pearce.
Most options are better than what we have unless Schneider turns out ok , I haven't seen enough or know enough about him.
It would be nice to unearth a gem like Sam Walker.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Timbo »

I went and grabbed a cappuccino this morning - no Pearce sighting.

Unclear if this is because all of the Knights players are in the Queensland bubble, or if it's because he's avoiding me because he's snubbed the Raiders.

Will report back tomorrow.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by RedRaider »

According to NRL Project Pearce has played 9 games this year. I think the wear is showing. On the flip side the Knights have a 77% win rate when he plays. I know the club would do its medical due diligence but I see Pearce as an injury risk. At his age I don't know that will improve. Imo we have recruited young players to develop and give opportunity. Let's give the young blokes a go.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by BadnMean »

These last 3 games where he's averaged more running metres than Jack Wighton (115pg average), a line break, couple of try assists, 2 forced drop outs and only 4 missed tackles across all games, none resulting in a break? This is a shadow?

Sign me up for shadow Pearce he's still twice as good as anyone else we've got.

He's played 20+ games the past 2 seasons prior... I disagree.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by GreenMachine »

Botman wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:59 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:31 am
Canberra Milk wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:13 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 9:10 am Matt Orford written all over this…
How the feeble minds seem to forget so quickly is astounding…
How **** hard is it for people who are paid to recruit and retain to actually do their job?
So who do you want? Easy to sit on the sideline and point fingers without having to ride any decision of your own

There is no such thing as "short term pain for long term gain". That is a complete myth. There are good and bad players, giving time to a young player means nothing, absolutely nothing if they are not good enough
I'm not paid to recruit. That's my point.
Thank Christ for that. You appear to have even less answers and imagination on recruiting than the guys in charge!
Which is quite a feat!
That's funny...really is.

You jump from rumour to rumour drivelling about how you think this move is " the best of the bad bunch" .......like we should be grateful to be served **** on a plate for dinner.

How about this for a change?....ask yourself why we are in this **** predicament?
Ask yourself how you actually see us ever getting out of this ****?

Do you really think we can "out recruit" other teams with the Pelicans running our club? There's a reason why the Roosters get Pearce during his best years and were salivating at the prospect of him joining us as a geriatric Knight's reject no less...

It took us a year to finally play Timoko as a starter at centre when anyone with a set of eyes could se he was an improvement over a year ago.
We resigned Croker on a deal that could only be described as negligent, and proceeded to repeat the offense again with Whitehead because of ...well ...sentiment.

Why not give Trey Mooney and Schneider a run in the team? Nothing to lose now and if we are not winning football games we should be learning something about our roster. At the moment we are doing neither.

Adding Pearce to that is simply shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Quite simply, your resigned to be playing Williams again in 2022.

Instead of wasting time trying to sign a halfback in a dead market, go look for a 13 or a 6 who can actually ball play (and/or swap Jack into the second row).

It's mind blowing how poor Jack is as a central playmaker. The new rules have shown him to be a fraud in the central playmaking role. Don't get me wrong, he was great when there was less emphasis on attack as he could generate "attack" from his physicality and he can defend.

But please tell me why those traits won't work in the second row? So why persist with him in a central role where he is clearly lost? Ideally, he's a centre, but we all know what happened there...

And how about our 13 situation? Are we going to wait another year before we cotton onto the fact that the 13 has become an important link in the attacking structure? Instead we rotate from one ploddering battering ram to another at 13. Choosing the weekly scapegoat from a handful of usual suspects...while our headless chicken 6 and speed bump 7, splatter through a "game plan" that no genius could possibly draft on paper...

We put more pressure on our halves (who are hopeless for different reasons) because of a lack of spark in our 13, 9 and 1 and our stupid as hell "game plan".

But yes...we the fans should come up with solutions for this garbage because that's what were paid for AND the club are desperate for feedback on how to better perform. Well if that were really the case, we'd have a new coach and CEO and maybe a hope in the future.
Last edited by GreenMachine on August 23, 2021, 12:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by CrabLord »

I Would still rather roll with a Pearce 18 games during the season and fit for finals and Williams to fill in the other 5 games and just do a job like we all know he can. I always think back to the masterclass he put on in 2016 when Sezer was out injured early on in the season. Kicked a 40m field goal to win the game, he is up for a big game when called upon to fill the role. Not for a full season of being run over week in week out like we saw against Manly.

We NEED a dominant Half. Maybe 18 games a year is a stretch for Pearce, but if we won at 77% for 18 games we would have 14 on the board. Williams wins 2 or 3 filling in, we are easily in the top four. Not only a competent, but a dominant, GOOD signing at 7 should be priority 1 through 10 for our club.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Hong Kong Raider »

Pearce is a halfback and we need a dominant half to run the side. Brooks, Ash Taylor, Norman (even if we were interested) are 5/8s and play better with a dominant half, which Jack ain't.

I don't disagree at all with what Green Machine is saying above. Really poor administration and coaches' selections. If we were a Sydney club we would get more heat from the press. We focus more on relationships rather than actual performance.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Riaan »

Why are we not trying to get Aiden Sezer back?, if the best we can do is Luke Brooks, Mitchell Pierce, Sam Williams etc then surely worth a call.
Oh and Rueben Garrick plays outside Tommy Turbo so a massive asterisk against him, can't say that I would be desperate to sign him.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Botman »

GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:31 pm That's funny...really is.

You jump from rumour to rumour drivelling about how you think this move is " the best of the bad bunch" .......like we should be grateful to be served **** on a plate for dinner.

How about this for a change?....ask yourself why we are in this **** predicament?
Ask yourself how you actually see us ever getting out of this ****?

Do you really think we can "out recruit" other teams with the Pelicans running our club? There's a reason why the Roosters get Pearce during his best years and were salivating at the prospect of him joining us as a geriatric Knight's reject no less...

It took us a year to finally play Timoko as a starter at centre when anyone with a set of eyes could se he was an improvement over a year ago.
We resigned Croker on a deal that could only be described as negligent, and proceeded to repeat the offense again with Whitehead because of ...well ...sentiment.

Why not give Trey Mooney and Schneider a run in the team? Nothing to lose now and if we are not winning football games we should be learning something about our roster. At the moment we are doing neither.

Adding Pearce to that is simply shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Quite simply, your resigned to be playing Williams again in 2022.

Instead of wasting time trying to sign a halfback in a dead market, go look for a 13 or a 6 who can actually ball play (and/or swap Jack into the second row).

It's mind blowing how poor Jack is as a central playmaker. The new rules have shown him to be a fraud in the central playmaking role. Don't get me wrong, he was great when there was less emphasis on attack as he could generate "attack" from his physicality and he can defend.

But please tell me why those traits won't work in the second row? So why persist with him in a central role where he is clearly lost? Ideally, he's a centre, but we all know what happened there...

And how about our 13 situation? Are we going to wait another year before we cotton onto the fact that the 13 has become an important link in the attacking structure? Instead we rotate from one ploddering battering ram to another at 13. Choosing the weekly scapegoat from a handful of usual suspects...while our headless chicken 6 and speed bump 7, splatter through a "game plan" that no genius could possibly draft on paper...

We put more pressure on our halves (who are hopeless for different reasons) because of a lack of spark in our 13, 9 and 1 and our stupid as hell "game plan".

But yes...we the fans should come up with solutions for this garbage because that's what were paid for AND the club are desperate for feedback on how to better perform. Well if that were really the case, we'd have a new coach and CEO and maybe a hope in the future.
We know exactly how and why we're in this predicament. We dont need to waste anymore time going on the fiasco's that led us here.
And we can talk all day and night about how it wont ever change because of the HC and/or CEO. But that's a pretty **** short conversation to have on a forum about the footy team since they aren't going anywhere and there is literally nothing... NOTHING... we can do about it.


I don't think anyone is "salivating at the prospect" of having Pearce
The reality is we need a halfback, dead market or not, no self respecting club hoping to achieve success of any kind can go into the season with Sam Williams as the first choice #7. If that's what we have going on, we're going to be in a situation where we are a team in an undesirable market, our team will be coming last or close enough to it and the impacts that can have on our ability to recruit is significant, it digs us into a deeper hole.


As for ball playing locks or five eighths... who's off contract in those positions that can ball play? Ball playing is the most highly sought and coveted skill in this game. Anyone who can do it is already snapped up and clubs aren't going to let them go, because they're rare. Those that can do it and are available comes with significant other risk factors and flaws in their game, such as Dufty (though he's not available anymore either). Those markets aren't any more lively than the halfback market :lol:

The club is between a rock and hard place with what they can do, and to your point that is entirely of their own making, however it is incumbent on the club to do what they can to improve the roster, and like it or not, it's going to be Stuart and co doing that because they're not going anywhere, their seats arent even luke warm, let alone hot. We can't just sit back and say "the halfback market is dead... Sam Williams it is!" or "what's the point, nothing will change until Stuart is gone".
As said above, that's digging us into a deeper hole than we are now
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by GreenMachine »

Botman wrote: August 23, 2021, 1:04 pm
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:31 pm That's funny...really is.

You jump from rumour to rumour drivelling about how you think this move is " the best of the bad bunch" .......like we should be grateful to be served **** on a plate for dinner.

How about this for a change?....ask yourself why we are in this **** predicament?
Ask yourself how you actually see us ever getting out of this ****?

Do you really think we can "out recruit" other teams with the Pelicans running our club? There's a reason why the Roosters get Pearce during his best years and were salivating at the prospect of him joining us as a geriatric Knight's reject no less...

It took us a year to finally play Timoko as a starter at centre when anyone with a set of eyes could se he was an improvement over a year ago.
We resigned Croker on a deal that could only be described as negligent, and proceeded to repeat the offense again with Whitehead because of ...well ...sentiment.

Why not give Trey Mooney and Schneider a run in the team? Nothing to lose now and if we are not winning football games we should be learning something about our roster. At the moment we are doing neither.

Adding Pearce to that is simply shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Quite simply, your resigned to be playing Williams again in 2022.

Instead of wasting time trying to sign a halfback in a dead market, go look for a 13 or a 6 who can actually ball play (and/or swap Jack into the second row).

It's mind blowing how poor Jack is as a central playmaker. The new rules have shown him to be a fraud in the central playmaking role. Don't get me wrong, he was great when there was less emphasis on attack as he could generate "attack" from his physicality and he can defend.

But please tell me why those traits won't work in the second row? So why persist with him in a central role where he is clearly lost? Ideally, he's a centre, but we all know what happened there...

And how about our 13 situation? Are we going to wait another year before we cotton onto the fact that the 13 has become an important link in the attacking structure? Instead we rotate from one ploddering battering ram to another at 13. Choosing the weekly scapegoat from a handful of usual suspects...while our headless chicken 6 and speed bump 7, splatter through a "game plan" that no genius could possibly draft on paper...

We put more pressure on our halves (who are hopeless for different reasons) because of a lack of spark in our 13, 9 and 1 and our stupid as hell "game plan".

But yes...we the fans should come up with solutions for this garbage because that's what were paid for AND the club are desperate for feedback on how to better perform. Well if that were really the case, we'd have a new coach and CEO and maybe a hope in the future.
We know exactly how and why we're in this predicament. We dont need to waste anymore time going on the fiasco's that led us here.
And we can talk all day and night about how it wont ever change because of the HC and/or CEO. But that's a pretty **** short conversation to have on a forum about the footy team since they aren't going anywhere and there is literally nothing... NOTHING... we can do about it.


I don't think anyone is "salivating at the prospect" of having Pearce
The reality is we need a halfback, dead market or not, no self respecting club hoping to achieve success of any kind can go into the season with Sam Williams as the first choice #7. If that's what we have going on, we're going to be in a situation where we are a team in an undesirable market, our team will be coming last or close enough to it and the impacts that can have on our ability to recruit is significant, it digs us into a deeper hole.


As for ball playing locks or five eighths... who's off contract in those positions that can ball play? Ball playing is the most highly sought and coveted skill in this game. Anyone who can do it is already snapped up and clubs aren't going to let them go, because they're rare. Those that can do it and are available comes with significant other risk factors and flaws in their game, such as Dufty (though he's not available anymore either). Those markets aren't any more lively than the halfback market :lol:

The club is between a rock and hard place with what they can do, and to your point that is entirely of their own making, however it is incumbent on the club to do what they can to improve the roster, and like it or not, it's going to be Stuart and co doing that because they're not going anywhere, their seats arent even luke warm, let alone hot. We can't just sit back and say "the halfback market is dead... Sam Williams it is!" or "what's the point, nothing will change until Stuart is gone".
As said above, that's digging us into a deeper hole than we are now
Play the young guys now. That is a step towards the solution. At the very least you learn whether you have the underlying talent or not. Take the losses...who **** cares? Melbourne v Penrith at the GF again and that was evident/obvious months ago....were not sniffing a comp with the current team and coaching style....sorry, we just aint. We are not a "Mitch Pearce" away from contending, let alone the top 4 or 6...
Take a look at our backline now...we have some hope there. Unfortunately it came about because of injury and dumb luck rather than being planned. Guy's like Timoko, Savage and HSS give me some hope for the future...
Banking on Pearce is a losing bet. The Knights have known about his injury problems for months and actively recruited a young halfback because of that. They do not care about losing him.
Why do we need to double down on stupidity by signing him when he is washed?
Our current game style (with this roster) is more gut wrenching than the years when we had half the talent under Elliot...at the very least, we could attack and play some exciting football.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by BadnMean »

Riaan wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:55 pm Why are we not trying to get Aiden Sezer back?, if the best we can do is Luke Brooks, Mitchell Pierce, Sam Williams etc then surely worth a call.
Oh and Rueben Garrick plays outside Tommy Turbo so a massive asterisk against him, can't say that I would be desperate to sign him.
yeah we've heard this one- check the tackle break stats or watch him play- he's got as many tackle breaks as To'o this season (equal 2nd among wingers) and Turbo isn't pushing the tacklers off for him. But I get it, no one is good enough to be signed by the Raiders.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Raiders_Pat »

I don't see what the fuss is signing Pearce for a couple seasons while we scout a longer term option. I very highly doubt we will be in a position where we will be short on money if an option comes up. We've got the value of George Williams' contract available to play with, plus $600k free next year and the year after for Scott. Depending on which direction we go with Hodgson, that's another $750-800k on top in 2023. There will be upgrades for a few of the younger backs on the way but there will likely be a few older players moving on too.
Last edited by Raiders_Pat on August 23, 2021, 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Botman »

I'm with you 100% on that, once our chances of winning a comp were clearly done, which was clear to most of us 3 months ago, we should have been playing the young guys so we know what roster holes we have in 2022 and beyond.

But IMO, we HAVE to bring in a new halfback. Reasonable minds can disagree on which is the best bet to take but i don't think it's reasonable to say we simply shouldn't make any bet at the halfback spot. It may be that we can't go anywhere with Stuart as our attacking coach regardless of the halfback, but i know for certain we can't go anywhere with Stuart as the attacking coach and Sam Williams.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by GreenMachine »

Botman wrote: August 23, 2021, 1:33 pm I'm with you 100% on that, once our chances of winning a comp were clearly done, which was clear to most of us 3 months ago, we should have been playing the young guys so we know what roster holes we have in 2022 and beyond.

But IMO, we HAVE to bring in a new halfback. Reasonable minds can disagree on which is the best bet to take but i don't think it's reasonable to say we simply shouldn't make any bet at the halfback spot. It may be that we can't go anywhere with Stuart as our attacking coach regardless of the halfback, but i know for certain we can't go anywhere with Stuart as the attacking coach and Sam Williams.
That’s my point… we can’t go anywhere with Ricky coaching our attack. Our gameplay design is ridiculous. No team dulls their own attack to the extent we do. It’s embarrassing.
Signing Pearce won’t change that. On the rare occasion he plays outside of injury, we’ll be stuck doing the same **** things in attack.
Like I said in another thread, first signing should be someone who can coach a different game plan and style…
Worry about halfback later…in the meantime, play the younger guys and stop clinging onto the top 8 as some type of reward/achievement.
Take a look at the Roosters. Injuries, player turnover, still in striking distance…
This coming from a team that won 2 comps recently…
We have allowed ourselves to be pleased with low expectations and that stench won’t wash away no matter how many times we “bleed green” or are hurtin in the sheds…
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Hong Kong Raider »


Like I said in another thread, first signing should be someone who can coach a different game plan and style…
Worry about halfback later…in the meantime, play the younger guys and stop clinging onto the top 8 as some type of reward/achievement.
Take a look at the Roosters. Injuries, player turnover, still in striking distance…
This coming from a team that won 2 comps recently…
We have allowed ourselves to be pleased with low expectations and that stench won’t wash away no matter how many times we “bleed green” or are hurtin in the sheds…
That's the problem now with our fan base. Satisfied with the mediocrity of what Ricky and some players have been producing, hanging on to the romance of past deeds and not actual performance. Just because he made the GF and prelim excuses him of underperformance for several years. Same with after 2016.

We were a team expected to challenge this year. We will likely be the only team dropping out of the top 8 compared to last year.

We don't even play like a Raiders side. I started following the Raiders in the late 80s due to the attacking flair and unpredictability. We would not always win comps, but we played a great brand of football and didn't underachieve.

Has Ricky adapted to the new rules ? Of course not. Our coaching cannot even manage a change of game plans mid game. It was obvious to all that Whitehead and Williams could not handle Suli, and a change was needed to replace both. What does Ricky do - put on CNK as that was planned.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Matt »

Botman wrote: August 23, 2021, 9:34 am
Hong Kong Raider wrote: August 22, 2021, 11:43 pm I think it will be a matter of terms. If Pearce cannot get a release for next year and wants 3 years on top at $800,000, then that's a big risk. If West Tigers chip in half for Brooks as they or his agent are shopping him around, then at $425,000 that's a better option as he is younger and less injury prone.
100% spot on imo,
the halfback situation right now for us is about assessing each option against each other based on terms

If you're talking Brooks and Pearce, and those being probably the best options available... but it's highly contingent on what you get them for.
As you say, 3 years and 800k for Pearce is too risky and too rich for my blood, i'd rather at that point have Brooks if its going to be 400kish a year for 2 years

But conversely if the Tigers keep digging their heels in and you can only get Brooks for 2 years 600k, but that's a deal Pearce is willing to take if released. I'd go with Pearce.

Completely down to the years and money as to which you'd prefer. I'd be willing to pay a little more for Pearce than Brooks, but not substantially and not at the cost of flexibility to continue to find a long term option, as neither Brooks or Pearce would be more than 2 year bandaid options imo
I subscribe to this
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by GreenMachine »

The hardest part about being a Raiders fan this year is the underachievement.

It’s self inflicted too. Not induced by injuries, but rather, a stubbornness to play a game style that died in 2019.

Failure to adapt unless we’re chasing the game too…
That’s the worst part. The fact that we have players who can excel in a more attacking approach but are forced to play a dull unimaginative and uninspiring grind that makes match day a bore…

I’m more offended by our team this year than I can remember…and we have had some **** teams in the past…

Coupled by the ridiculous retention of certain players!! I mean, how do we keep making the same stupid decisions over again??
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Matt »

GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:31 pm
Botman wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:59 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:31 am
Canberra Milk wrote: August 23, 2021, 10:13 am
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 9:10 am Matt Orford written all over this…
How the feeble minds seem to forget so quickly is astounding…
How **** hard is it for people who are paid to recruit and retain to actually do their job?
So who do you want? Easy to sit on the sideline and point fingers without having to ride any decision of your own

There is no such thing as "short term pain for long term gain". That is a complete myth. There are good and bad players, giving time to a young player means nothing, absolutely nothing if they are not good enough
I'm not paid to recruit. That's my point.
Thank Christ for that. You appear to have even less answers and imagination on recruiting than the guys in charge!
Which is quite a feat!
That's funny...really is.

You jump from rumour to rumour drivelling about how you think this move is " the best of the bad bunch" .......like we should be grateful to be served **** on a plate for dinner.

How about this for a change?....ask yourself why we are in this **** predicament?
Ask yourself how you actually see us ever getting out of this ****?

Do you really think we can "out recruit" other teams with the Pelicans running our club? There's a reason why the Roosters get Pearce during his best years and were salivating at the prospect of him joining us as a geriatric Knight's reject no less...

It took us a year to finally play Timoko as a starter at centre when anyone with a set of eyes could se he was an improvement over a year ago.
We resigned Croker on a deal that could only be described as negligent, and proceeded to repeat the offense again with Whitehead because of ...well ...sentiment.

Why not give Trey Mooney and Schneider a run in the team? Nothing to lose now and if we are not winning football games we should be learning something about our roster. At the moment we are doing neither.

Adding Pearce to that is simply shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Quite simply, your resigned to be playing Williams again in 2022.

Instead of wasting time trying to sign a halfback in a dead market, go look for a 13 or a 6 who can actually ball play (and/or swap Jack into the second row).

It's mind blowing how poor Jack is as a central playmaker. The new rules have shown him to be a fraud in the central playmaking role. Don't get me wrong, he was great when there was less emphasis on attack as he could generate "attack" from his physicality and he can defend.

But please tell me why those traits won't work in the second row? So why persist with him in a central role where he is clearly lost? Ideally, he's a centre, but we all know what happened there...

And how about our 13 situation? Are we going to wait another year before we cotton onto the fact that the 13 has become an important link in the attacking structure? Instead we rotate from one ploddering battering ram to another at 13. Choosing the weekly scapegoat from a handful of usual suspects...while our headless chicken 6 and speed bump 7, splatter through a "game plan" that no genius could possibly draft on paper...

We put more pressure on our halves (who are hopeless for different reasons) because of a lack of spark in our 13, 9 and 1 and our stupid as hell "game plan".

But yes...we the fans should come up with solutions for this garbage because that's what were paid for AND the club are desperate for feedback on how to better perform. Well if that were really the case, we'd have a new coach and CEO and maybe a hope in the future.
Im pretty sure running the Hodgo/Starling combo solves 1 of your complaints. Even if the fans saw it before the coaches.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Timbo »

Riaan wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:55 pm Why are we not trying to get Aiden Sezer back?, if the best we can do is Luke Brooks, Mitchell Pierce, Sam Williams etc then surely worth a call.
Oh and Rueben Garrick plays outside Tommy Turbo so a massive asterisk against him, can't say that I would be desperate to sign him.
Would you want to come back if you were Aiden Sezer? He steered us to a GF only for the club to punt him for George Williams. You'd be constantly looking over your shoulder to see who they'd be trying to replace you with.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by zim »

Happy to have Pearce. With our backups you could cotton wool him into the finals. Pretty much every point of contention is already discussed here. Pearce and Brooks are the best options depending on price while we wait for something long term.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Matt »

BadnMean wrote: August 23, 2021, 1:25 pm
Riaan wrote: August 23, 2021, 12:55 pm Why are we not trying to get Aiden Sezer back?, if the best we can do is Luke Brooks, Mitchell Pierce, Sam Williams etc then surely worth a call.
Oh and Rueben Garrick plays outside Tommy Turbo so a massive asterisk against him, can't say that I would be desperate to sign him.
yeah we've heard this one- check the tackle break stats or watch him play- he's got as many tackle breaks as To'o this season (equal 2nd among wingers) and Turbo isn't pushing the tacklers off for him. But I get it, no one is good enough to be signed by the Raiders.
Actually, Rapa is now #1. I know he has played 5 wks at FB, but Garrick has played some FB too. TBF, To'o would be ahead if he wasn't injured.

Im still not convinced that you go chase a Garrick. Esp given the talent we have in the backs.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Matt »

GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 2:04 pm The hardest part about being a Raiders fan this year is the underachievement.

It’s self inflicted too. Not induced by injuries, but rather, a stubbornness to play a game style that died in 2019.

Failure to adapt unless we’re chasing the game too…
That’s the worst part. The fact that we have players who can excel in a more attacking approach but are forced to play a dull unimaginative and uninspiring grind that makes match day a bore…

I’m more offended by our team this year than I can remember…and we have had some **** teams in the past…

Coupled by the ridiculous retention of certain players!! I mean, how do we keep making the same stupid decisions over again??
Yup. Infurating. Esp when fans can see it, but the coaches can't.

I think most would say re-signing our young backs was a good idea.

Guys like Huddo, Horse and Guler were all good moves.

Im ok with re-signing Smelly, because edge is a need for our club ATM. Yep, it's probably a yr too long, but hard to really fault his efforts, even if people are going off him this yr. Stats wise, he is our 4th most important attacking option. CHN is best one we have, Huddo can play edge, but I still think he is a 13. Is Esra or Rushton going to be ready next yr? My guess is no, so we are thin. Hence we are all looking at Kris as out centre/backrow tweener.

I think most would agree, you sign 1, one, yes 1, of Sammy and Fraws as depth. 2... thats dumb! Sign an unproven rookie instead. This was a terrible move.

We need a 7. We need 1 so so badly. I stand by the fact that every option floated our way is better than we have. That said, we should have seen Schnieder at 7 by now.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by BadnMean »

Matt wrote: August 23, 2021, 2:38 pm

Im still not convinced that you go chase a Garrick. Esp given the talent we have in the backs.
The point is not- Garrick is as good as To'o. You really think the point he would have been 3rd on the list and not 2nd changes the point?The point is, Garrick is a very good winger, who was affordable, gettable, would have fixed some issues with our back 5: slow, can't catch bombs, inexperienced... well he is genuinely quick, better under high ball than Semi (makes his errors at about the same rate as Noufaluma, JAC, Saab, none of whom are presumably worth signing by Gh standards btw) and experienced... Oh and he kicks goals at 80% and we have no other goalkicker besides our captain who we knew was busted from last season...

Our wing stocks are poor. Rapa is a year to year proposition- he may not be effective at all or play next year.

Semi struggles under the high ball and is ok otherwise. Simo is a solid backup + a meh first choice. We are playing our centres as wingers.

Garrick is fast, knows how to position himself + a running threat on his own. When he was available we absolutely should have gone for him.

Sticking with plodders and over-the-hills instead of refreshing + improving the squad is exactly what put us in this mess.

If you can't see Garrick is better than our current wingers (yards and tackle busts similar to Rapana, younger + kicking, more finishing potential these days with his pace- why on earth wouldn't we want another winger that good?) and ticked the boxes then ok. We can disagree, but I have no idea what you are basing your argument on unless it is sheer over-estimation of Simo and Semi, neither of whom have EVER played a season as even Garricks 2nd best season...
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Raiders_Pat »

Matt wrote: August 23, 2021, 2:49 pm
GreenMachine wrote: August 23, 2021, 2:04 pm The hardest part about being a Raiders fan this year is the underachievement.

It’s self inflicted too. Not induced by injuries, but rather, a stubbornness to play a game style that died in 2019.

Failure to adapt unless we’re chasing the game too…
That’s the worst part. The fact that we have players who can excel in a more attacking approach but are forced to play a dull unimaginative and uninspiring grind that makes match day a bore…

I’m more offended by our team this year than I can remember…and we have had some **** teams in the past…

Coupled by the ridiculous retention of certain players!! I mean, how do we keep making the same stupid decisions over again??
Yup. Infurating. Esp when fans can see it, but the coaches can't.

I think most would say re-signing our young backs was a good idea.

Guys like Huddo, Horse and Guler were all good moves.

Im ok with re-signing Smelly, because edge is a need for our club ATM. Yep, it's probably a yr too long, but hard to really fault his efforts, even if people are going off him this yr. Stats wise, he is our 4th most important attacking option. CHN is best one we have, Huddo can play edge, but I still think he is a 13. Is Esra or Rushton going to be ready next yr? My guess is no, so we are thin. Hence we are all looking at Kris as out centre/backrow tweener.

I think most would agree, you sign 1, one, yes 1, of Sammy and Fraws as depth. 2... thats dumb! Sign an unproven rookie instead. This was a terrible move.

We need a 7. We need 1 so so badly. I stand by the fact that every option floated our way is better than we have. That said, we should have seen Schnieder at 7 by now.
I have no idea of the contract value so it's hard to judge whether the Whitehead extension was the right move. I've said it many times but with the quality of second rowers available for 2023, we'd be stupid not to make a pick up here. Whitehead is no longer an 80 min player. Whether we address this by shortening his minutes at second row or by moving him to lock on lower minutes is up for debate... but we definitely need to make a move here.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by RichmondRaider »

Timbo wrote: August 22, 2021, 8:16 pm He lives on the same street as me in Newcastle.

I’ve been in the local coffee shop and the same time as him a few times. Each time he’s held the door open and said hello.

That’s all I have to add on the subject.
Get it done Don. I've heard enough
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Matt »

BadnMean wrote: August 23, 2021, 3:01 pm
Matt wrote: August 23, 2021, 2:38 pm

Im still not convinced that you go chase a Garrick. Esp given the talent we have in the backs.
The point is not- Garrick is as good as To'o. You really think the point he would have been 3rd on the list and not 2nd changes the point?The point is, Garrick is a very good winger, who was affordable, gettable, would have fixed some issues with our back 5: slow, can't catch bombs, inexperienced... well he is genuinely quick, better under high ball than Semi (makes his errors at about the same rate as Noufaluma, JAC, Saab, none of whom are presumably worth signing by Gh standards btw) and experienced... Oh and he kicks goals at 80% and we have no other goalkicker besides our captain who we knew was busted from last season...

Our wing stocks are poor. Rapa is a year to year proposition- he may not be effective at all or play next year.

Semi struggles under the high ball and is ok otherwise. Simo is a solid backup + a meh first choice. We are playing our centres as wingers.

Garrick is fast, knows how to position himself + a running threat on his own. When he was available we absolutely should have gone for him.

Sticking with plodders and over-the-hills instead of refreshing + improving the squad is exactly what put us in this mess.

If you can't see Garrick is better than our current wingers (yards and tackle busts similar to Rapana, younger + kicking, more finishing potential these days with his pace- why on earth wouldn't we want another winger that good?) and ticked the boxes then ok. We can disagree, but I have no idea what you are basing your argument on unless it is sheer over-estimation of Simo and Semi, neither of whom have EVER played a season as even Garricks 2nd best season...
The GKing is a huge plus.
Yep, safe as. Quick enough. A better than avg FG winger.

Id love to know what you consider affordable/cheap. But I suspect he is on more than you think.

Read this and tell me what you see...

2019 avg/game
Run meters = 107.8m
Tackle busts = 2.8
Try = 0.7

2020 avg/game
Run meters = 102.8m
Tackle busts = 2.5
Try = 0.2

2021 avg/game
Run meters = 159.6m
Tackle busts = 3.8
Try = 0.9

My eye tells me he is in a purple patch for 2021... or is it a Turbo-patch?!? You can argue til your blue in the face, but Garrick and Saab aren't 20+ tries a yr wingers without Turbo being the best or 2nd best player in the league.

As for, is Garrick better than Semi, Rapa, Simmo, Savage, CNK, HSS or whomever we play on the wing next yr, I'd say he is better than most, but no, I don't want him at the expense of any of those guys.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by nachopants »

Obligatory "hide your kids, hide your wife" post
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Finchy »

nachopants wrote: August 23, 2021, 5:18 pm Obligatory "hide your kids, hide your wife" post
and hide yo husbands, cos dey rapin' erybody out dere!
Ata Mariota’s #1 fan. Bless his cotton socks.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by greeneyed »

Brent Read on NRL 360 saying that Raiders given an opportunity to have talks with Mitchell Pearce... but he doesn't "think it progressed anywhere". Not sure how the Raiders could talk to him before November anyway...
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by Northern Raider »

greeneyed wrote: August 25, 2021, 7:09 pm Brent Read on NRL 360 saying that Raiders given an opportunity to have talks with Mitchell Pearce... but he doesn't "think it progressed anywhere". Not sure how the Raiders could talk to him before November anyway...
It's all very ambiguous. Clubs can talk to managers any time they like, especially given managers represent so many different players. NRL can't control how those conversations go.
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by UncleDrew »

greeneyed wrote: August 25, 2021, 7:09 pm Brent Read on NRL 360 saying that Raiders given an opportunity to have talks with Mitchell Pearce... but he doesn't "think it progressed anywhere". Not sure how the Raiders could talk to him before November anyway...
Did he mention who we are looking at? Or if we are even looking at all?
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Re: Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce emerges on Canberra Raiders' radar

Post by greeneyed »

UncleDrew wrote: August 25, 2021, 8:03 pm
greeneyed wrote: August 25, 2021, 7:09 pm Brent Read on NRL 360 saying that Raiders given an opportunity to have talks with Mitchell Pearce... but he doesn't "think it progressed anywhere". Not sure how the Raiders could talk to him before November anyway...
Did he mention who we are looking at? Or if we are even looking at all?
According to Gorski on Blake and the Pork, we plan to play Josh Hodgson at No. 7 next year!
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