: Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:22 am  

LS14 RHINO wrote:

Richie Mathers says in the YEP that he's a left centre but i've seen the Titans a few times this season and everytime Delaney plays right centre, Esi Tonga is there left centre.

note the number (and NRL teams don't have squad numbers!)







He is a Left Centre.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:25 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I'm not really slagging the guy off himself. He's OK. Yes, he plays for a top-eight team in the NRL. Whoopee. Ask any Titans fan who their key players are and the answer will always be the same - Prince, Campbell and Bailey. Delaney wouldn't get mentioned in the same breath.

My issue with signing any overseas player is simply that I think that if we do, either they should be here to be a star player or to help bring on a highly rated junior. In that respect had Leeds signed a 30-year old it would have made more sense to me.

I've said several times on here that in an ideal world someone like Kylie shouldn't be in the Leeds squad. I do accept that you can't play against the likes of Sts with one hand tied behind your back WRT overseas players, but I really see nothing hugely positive about this sort of signing.

TBH it really does speak volumes about the gap in standards in the backs between NRKL and SL - Leeds and Sts have signed two centres neither of whom would get a mention as either current or future stars of the game in Aus and yet the chances are one or both will end up part of a championship-winning side in SL.

Re Toopi - he was a gamble by the club on the basis that he could possibly have recaptured his best form. That included two hat-tricks against Australia, so at his best Toopi was very, very good. He'd been dumped to reserve grade by the Warriors for dropping huge clangers virtually every game, but I still think the club were right to take a punt with him. It never panned out that way, as for some reason any semblence of attacking capability had gone, but that's life.

My attitude is nothing to do with Delaney himself. He's now a Leeds player and I'll back him as a result. But just the whole ethos of the signing leaves me very confused. And I'm sure Ratu and Watkins for example are equally unsure as to where they now fit in for next year.

Slightly OT - how any Wigan fan can come on here and have the nerve to slag Leeds off for signing an overseas player is beyond me. Against Sts they played with FIVE very average overseas backs, plus Gleeson, with only one homegrown back in Tomkins. Now that is depressing for what was once the powerhouse of league in England.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:09 am  

Tony Soprano wrote:

Has any Australian rugby league player ever come to England for anything but money?

Well given they are professional sports men would you move to another country and not get paid?

Surely there is an adjective missing from your sentence somewhere?

There are plenty of Aussie players whom have come over to England as unknowns and signed for 'smaller' clubs for modest money and moved onto bigger and better things in SL and the NRL.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:14 am  

Chris... careful now! Some of the more pedantic members of this forum would be quick to point out that you look to have been surfing some odd sites to find your pics given the copyright URL.

Of course, some will be very interested in the sites you have been looking at given the URL!

christopher wrote:

note the number (and NRL teams don't have squad numbers!)



He is a Left Centre.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:55 am  

Inflatable_Armadillo wrote:

Chris... careful now! Some of the more pedantic members of this forum would be quick to point out that you look to have been surfing some odd sites to find your pics given the copyright URL.

Of course, some will be very interested in the sites you have been looking at given the URL!

Just googled Brett Delaney, Honest Guv!

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:22 am  

Just to put the City vs Country thing in perspective, that's a trial for NSW where in fact only one or two players have a chance of becoming 'bolters' into the Origin squad. Delaney was never in contention for NSW, whose centres are way behind those of Qld. TBH any comparison between him and say Hodges or Inglis (sadly a player I doubt we'll ever see in SL until he's knackered) would be embarrassing.

Anyway, he's a solid enough player, but I would have liked to see Leeds either really push for one of the juniors to take the spot or just get the best centre possible - which Delaney patently is not.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:35 am  

christopher wrote:

note the number (and NRL teams don't have squad numbers!)




He is a Left Centre.

So why is he defending on the right then? Look at the pictures you can see the posts to the left of the pictures, that confirms he must be on the right hand side of the field...

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:37 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

Just to put the City vs Country thing in perspective, that's a trial for NSW where in fact only one or two players have a chance of becoming 'bolters' into the Origin squad. Delaney was never in contention for NSW, whose centres are way behind those of Qld. TBH any comparison between him and say Hodges or Inglis (sadly a player I doubt we'll ever see in SL until he's knackered) would be embarrassing.

Anyway, he's a solid enough player, but I would have liked to see Leeds either really push for one of the juniors to take the spot or just get the best centre possible - which Delaney patently is not.

It's ok saying that but there's the small matter of the cap and balancing the rest of the team. Don't forget we're at least 1 quality forward down, possibly 2 so we have to take that into account. He sounds like a good investment to me who will make us a better side while leaving room for further signings.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:55 am  

batleyrhino wrote:

So why is he defending on the right then? Look at the pictures you can see the posts to the left of the pictures, that confirms he must be on the right hand side of the field...

Actually I will concede. he does play on the right sometimes (last week for example!) but he is not a specialist right centre as 'Bluey' is saying.

: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:16 am  

Can GH do anything to keep Leeds fans happy?