Re: St.Helens offered Sonny Bi...

[Vaealikis Girl]

Doug Stand posted:
I think they would both do well in SL because at the end of the day, SL is still a long way off the standard of the NRL.

You could be right there. I don't think it will be too long before SL catches up with the NRL though. There's a few players over there i'd love to see come downunder.

He never got it wrong on the field thougb...he is the best stand-off I've ever seen. None of theis Wally Lewis nonsense, Kenny was and still is the King

I won't argue there. I'm too young to have seen his games at the time but i've watched tapes of them a number of teams. He was magic on the field.

As for the overal King, you say you don't know Ellery Hanley.

The name really rings a bell but i can't put a face to it.

Spot on, Trent Barrett, that's who I was thinking of. I really rate him.

I'm a fan of Trent's too though in the last few years he's been a bit quiet but it could also be because of niggling injuries. He still manages to fire up for rep games though.

Anyway, I hope Parra have a better year this time round.

Me too! People are expecting huge things this year because of the players we've bought. I choose to wait till i see them in action but hopefully they gel well and we get another shot at the trophy.

btw - Have the Eels got rid of that dodgy purple shirt yet

Hmm do you mean the actual purple one that was worn to raise money for the children's hospital or the blue one which was very close to purple? The picture below is our jerseys for this year (blue is home jersey, yellow is away).

http://eels.leagueunlimited.com/site/im ... c_0164.jpg

[Vaealikis Girl]

Doug Stand posted:
I had no idea they wore a purple one to raise money for a Childrens Hospital. Obviusly I'm not making any derogatory comments with regards to that.

Oh nah i wasn't having a go in any way at all i was just thinking maybe you were talking about that one and didn't realise it was just a one off charity thing. It was worn in a game against the Tigers as those 2 teams tend to have what we call the battle of the west and there's usually some sort of way to raise money for charity. After the game they put those jerseys on Ebay and all the money made went to the big children's hospital in Sydney's west. That's one thing us Parramatta fans have to be proud of even if our performances aren't always the best, our club does a lot for charity, especially for children.

I've a feeling we are talking about the blue that was almost purple.

Yeah pretty sure i know the one, probably our worst jersey and pretty sure they had some complaints about the colour because later in the year they started making the jerseys in a colour that actually looked like blue.

I've had my eye on Parammtta since 85 and am never too keen when teams move away from traditional colours. For the home shirt anyway.

Yeah me either. Our jerseys started looking like they were going to lose the colours for a while and there was even talk of a bit of green being added as there is a tiny green bit in our new logo. Though when our supporters aren't happy with an idea they well and truly let the club know and that idea was soon ditched. I hate when we have jersey changes because they usually aren't minor changes. The new jersey has grown on me a lot and the material is much more comfortable but i would still love to see a bit more of the '86 style in it.

Himself and Stirling was some half-back partnership.

I've actually just finished reading Sterlo's autobiography. He was still in his playing days when he wrote it but i managed to find a copy in a second hand bookstore. I really wish i had've been young enough to see them live in action in those days. Being at the games is much different from watching replays. I was 2 when we won our last premiership so the 2001 grand final was hugely exciting for me but i'm still waiting to be there when we bring home the trophy again.

Hope there is sucess there because I doubt it will happen at Wigan.

I've learnt after watching footy over the years that anything can happen so i wouldn't give up hope too soon. With a bit of luck both teams will come away champions

[Vaealikis Girl]

Doug Stand posted:
Funny you should mention the 86 style, that would be my favourite too...

The '86 style jersey was my first ever Eels jersey and i absolutely loved it. They did try to incorporate bits of it in the new one but i want to see more. I liked the 3/4 length sleeves on the older jerseys too.

Benny Elias and Garry Jack amongst others.

The first footy game i went to when i was 7 was between Parramatta and Balmain at Parra. Don't remember much about it except that we won, i fell in love with Chris King :eusa13: and i was sitting right in the middle of all the Balmain supporters. I did meet Benny Elias that day though and he was a great bloke.

Ray Pryce came and buried him in the in goal area. Now he was another player of class.

It's hard to pick a top player from the Eels' '80s squad. There were a lot of real class players, other faves of mine are Mick 'Crow' Cronin and Bob 'The Bear' O'Reilly. Ahh if only i was a little older and had been able to see them play live.

Noticed as well Parra have signed Mark Ridell...good move there I think. Will the Parra fans adopt the arm raising style if he gets to kick at goal.

Yeah of all our signings he would definitely be the one i'm looking forward to seeing most, and Glenn Morrison. Riddell's played with a lot of our guys in junior days too so that can't be a bad thing. There's been a lot of discussion about the arm raising thing and people have said it's a Saints thing but i think everyone will find it hard to resist and it'll soon catch on. It's his trademark.

Anyway roll on the start of the NRL...need some distraction from the Super LEague at the moment.

One more week to go, WOO HOO!!!

[Vaealikis Girl]

Doug Stand posted:
I also read an article there a while ago were none other than the king of all stand-offs, or 5/8ths if you prefer. The best No 6 that has ever, ever been Brett Kenny rated Anasta up there with the best of them.

Not sure if you would've seen anything about it over there but Brett Kenny has now publicly bagged out John Morris saying basically that he will be the reason Parramatta won't go anywhere this year.

Kenny was an unbelievable player but sometimes i wish he'd just bite his lip. This is about the 5th time he's publicly put the club down in some way and probably will be about the 4th time he's been wrong with his opinion.

[thegimble]

Looks like Saints are out of the running for SBW and he has not yet signed a contract with the Bulldogs. With Anderson there now they seem to be getting close to the cap limit.

Is this why Whelan got rightfully shirty with the RFU re Faz and setting a deadline.

Still have a feeling we will bring somone major in before next season. Might not be SBW but with the message DW sent out yesterday he wants Faz sorted either way as to bring in a replacement or not.

As Faz's wages will be paid to another player obviously. I know MO said the money was not the issue and we could not spent the transfer fee but it stills leaves manouvering withtin the cap to bring in a new player asap.

[proud_pie_eater]

IS that the latest? Iv not heard anything recently!

[thegimble]

Apparently Saints are going to Sue the agent of SBW for reveling the offer as it broke confidentiality policy.

Bloody hell were in trouble here we knew about it weeks ago and placed it on the page. Better start collecting for the fine when Millward has a moan about us in court.

Now ive heard everything Milward has moaned about everything in the game. That is one heck of an achievement.

[chloe]

Mikes not really going to get into trouble is he?!? Can we not have freedom of speech and all that? The source must have leaked somewere for everyone to find out........ :conf:

[Vaealikis Girl]

Doug Stand posted:
No I wouldn't see anything like that.I live in Ireland, left Wigan a few years ago now so any snippets like that I rarely see unless I go looking for them.

Ohh ok. I thought you were in Wigan. I had a friend over from Ireland not too long ago and they nearly collapsed in our heat I just thought it was amusing because we were saying just the other day how good Morris is and same with Kenny and then that happened.

Maybe Kenny has some other problem with the club..don't know what the circumstances were like when he retired... or if he has anything to do with the club anymore but it's strange to come out and start dissing the club you want to win.

He is part of the Parramatta Legends (kind of like our hall of fame) who had a big reunion do not too long ago but apart from that he has nothing at all to do with the club. He has a particular problem with Denis Fitzgerald as they had a big fallout years ago when Kenny retired and he doesn't think much of Brian Smith so that could be it. It's a bit unfair that he takes it out on players though.

In 85 when he was at Wigan, as a young lad I used to run on the ptch at full time to get autographs. I got all the 84/85 team except for Brett Kenny. Every week I would ask him and he would ignore me. I ran from the 25 covering 3/4 of the pitch with him one week, begging him to sign my book and he never even looked at me.

It's funny you should mention that actually. Maybe 2 years ago i was round the back after a game talking to some of the players and he happened to be coming out so i went to get an autograph. He did sign it but whereas most the guys will have a chat he just seemed very distracted the whole time and appeared as though i was putting him out in some way. Not the best experience i've had with a player.

btw..if you ever do bump into him, will you get me his autograph

If you really want me to try and get one i'm happy to keep my eye out for him. I tend to go round and chat to the players at most home games, though no guarantees because he's rarely there, i'm assuming because he doesn't see eye to eye with many of them.
Also do you have a name you'd like it signed to if i can somehow grab him?

[Vaealikis Girl]

thegimble posted:
Looks like Saints are out of the running for SBW and he has not yet signed a contract with the Bulldogs.

Just finished watching the footy show down here in Oz and their journalist reported that SBW will be waiting to see about a third-party deal but they're pretty sure he will soon re-sign with the Bulldogs. Mason though is another story. He has been offered a contract but they say for him to stay he'll want another $150 000 on top of the offer which the Dogs can't really afford, so Mason is more than likely on the market. Just thought you all might be interested in that.