Blues 2019
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@Dice Yes I like how no one else seemed to rate Colin Bourke yet we get criticised for not signing him but yes, Saili was poor for a lot of his tenure. His hands were terrible. Dare I say him being a St Peter's boy enhanced his reputation with Pat Lam. Funnily enough, I thought 2013-2014 were his best seasons for us and he definitely outplayed Luatua in 2014.
Don't even get me started with Chris Lowrey he was awful.
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@Steven-Harris said in Blues 2019:
@Dice Bourke still had more skill than of the 3 no8s ,so your telling me Saiili and Lowery were better selections..?
Saiili was mud and Lowery no better..real home town selections in my opinion ,if Mafu was that good, why was he not re signed for another season..?The problem with Bourke wasn’t his skills (which were exceptional). It was his willingness to do any hard work whatsoever.
The bloke thought he was part of the backline and spent the whole game playing that way.
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@SammyC No issues with what you are saying, there may have been issues in and around his work ethic but you can’t deny his skill level which was ahead of the numbers 8s the Blues had available at the time..
The Peter Saili selection I will always point to as home town selection from a Marist Old Boys coach who could not see past his own..To be honest it’s just another in a long line of questionable selections made by Blues coaching staff for well over a decade..
Interesting hearing from a friend who was at the Blues awards the other night, Many of the younger players and their partners where going through alcohol like it was kids drinking fizz..
Laughing and chatting while awards were being handed out..talk about disrespectful, apparently the sponsors were not impressed.
Saw an interview with Te Arihi Maipi and TJ Faiaane ,he sounded as though he was drunk .bloody embarrassing if you ask me..
Quite frankly given the circumstances of their season you have got to wonder -
@Steven-Harris said in Blues 2019:
@SammyC No issues with what you are saying, there may have been issues in and around his work ethic but you can’t deny his skill level which was ahead of the numbers 8s the Blues had available at the time..
The Peter Saili selection I will always point to as home town selection from a Marist Old Boys coach who could not see past his own..To be honest it’s just another in a long line of questionable selections made by Blues coaching staff for well over a decade..
Interesting hearing from a friend who was at the Blues awards the other night, Many of the younger players and their partners where going through alcohol like it was kids drinking fizz..
Laughing and chatting while awards were being handed out..talk about disrespectful, apparently the sponsors were not impressed.
Saw an interview with Te Arihi Maipi and TJ Faiaane ,he sounded as though he was drunk .bloody embarrassing if you ask me..
Quite frankly given the circumstances of their season you have got to wonderFree piss is still free piss even for highly paid professional athletes.
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@SammyC said in Blues 2019:
@Steven-Harris said in Blues 2019:
@Dice Bourke still had more skill than of the 3 no8s ,so your telling me Saiili and Lowery were better selections..?
Saiili was mud and Lowery no better..real home town selections in my opinion ,if Mafu was that good, why was he not re signed for another season..?The problem with Bourke wasn’t his skills (which were exceptional). It was his willingness to do any hard work whatsoever.
The bloke thought he was part of the backline and spent the whole game playing that way.
I hope Vaea Fifita is reading this
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@African-Monkey I think bad hands is a St Peter's trait.
Just when Saili was starting to look decent, he left.
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@SammyC said in Blues 2019:
@Steven-Harris said in Blues 2019:
@Dice Bourke still had more skill than of the 3 no8s ,so your telling me Saiili and Lowery were better selections..?
Saiili was mud and Lowery no better..real home town selections in my opinion ,if Mafu was that good, why was he not re signed for another season..?The problem with Bourke wasn’t his skills (which were exceptional). It was his willingness to do any hard work whatsoever.
The bloke thought he was part of the backline and spent the whole game playing that way.
He was a fullback stuck in an 8s body.
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@Dice said in Blues 2019:
@SammyC said in Blues 2019:
@Steven-Harris said in Blues 2019:
@Dice Bourke still had more skill than of the 3 no8s ,so your telling me Saiili and Lowery were better selections..?
Saiili was mud and Lowery no better..real home town selections in my opinion ,if Mafu was that good, why was he not re signed for another season..?The problem with Bourke wasn’t his skills (which were exceptional). It was his willingness to do any hard work whatsoever.
The bloke thought he was part of the backline and spent the whole game playing that way.
He was a fullback stuck in an 8s body.
Liam Messam tightened up his game considerably. Bourke never did.
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@Dice Hey! You take that comment back!
But yeah, just as Saili started to play some good rugby, other younger players began to overtake him so it was a bit of bad timing for Saili. We needed him to come right about 3 years before that and so did he for the benefit of his own career.
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@Dice Saiili was stuck in the body of someone impersonating a professional rugby player.
Every year the Blues team was named and his name was in the squad you were just left shaking your head ..hoping it was some sort of misprint ..the Blues would have been better of taking the field with 14 players that’s how much of a liability i thought of him..and I wasn’t the Lone Ranger ,a former All Black great Buck Shelford thought the same way. -
I think with Peter Saili it was one of those deals where people were constantly enticed by the physical ability/potential and assumed they could fix him/he would figure it out. Alas it never really happened. Nick Williams falls into a similar category.
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues 2019:
I think with Peter Saili it was one of those deals where people were constantly enticed by the physical ability/potential and assumed they could fix him/he would figure it out. Alas it never really happened. Nick Williams falls into a similar category.
Sione Lauaki
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It's a shame about Saili as he was a dominant force in some pretty weak St Peter's sides when he was there and looked destined for big things in the game in his teens and was the same when he turned out for Marist. I also found it strange with the off field trouble he and his brother would get into as their father was a very strict individual who wasn't afraid to dish out criticism to not only his own, but anyone else performing badly too. Lets just say he had no filter haha
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@African-Monkey I remember Saili had the next MJ tag from some journos when he started out. That's a bit of pressure to live up to really.
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when the blues were looking at 8s to pursue, they were 2; Sai'ili and Fritz Lee.
I liked Sai'ili, thought he had huge potential, showed moments of his potential, but mostly failed to deliver, not too disimilar as Tevita Li.
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Today's hot topic for Blues supporters looking ahead to 2020: Pat Lam's number 8 selections.
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@taniwharugby said in Blues 2019:
I liked Sai'ili, thought he had huge potential, showed moments of his potential, but mostly failed to deliver, not too disimilar as Tevita Li.
This could be applied to brother Francis also.
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@Tim highlights issues around talent identification and player development since way back when.
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@Tim Any ideas for tomorrow's topic? Maybe we could talk about who was worse out of John Senio, Grayson Hart or Toby Morland to kill some more time?
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@African-Monkey Well we do seven months to go!
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@Tim why did the Blues let Nick Evans go, first to the Highlanders then overseas?
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@Tim said in Blues 2019:
@African-Monkey Well we do seven months to go!
Until we are disappointed again, or is 2020 our year?
Personally i think we should go down the road of the other thread and discuss butchers (people who sell dead animals - not the rugby players from the Blues) in the Warkworth, Mangawhai area.
Talking about failed blues selections is going to be a loooooong thread.
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Better late than never
Blues board chairman Don Mackinnon confirmed to Stuff that they had enlisted former Black Sox captain and coach Eddie Kohlhase from High Performance Sport NZ to head a piece of work they hope will transform them from mediocre to "world-class" in this vital aspect of professional sport. "Eddie is leading a project across the Blues and our three provincial unions to look at our whole talent identification, recruitment and development system out of school where we've been poor, partly because we've not been aligned with our provincial unions. "It's an incredibly important project to get us up to world-class in that space, and we're not [world-class]. The great thing about it is the three provincial unions are totally on board and want to create a system where, alongside the Blues, we are retaining our best talent." Mackinnon confirmed Kohlhase's work had begun on the project and he was currently in the interviewing and information-gathering phase. "We're hoping to have a preliminary report back for our July board meeting and finalisation by August. We're moving on this as quick as we can because it needs to be fixed." Asked if he expected the Kohlhase review to produce structural change, the Blues chairman replied: "It's not a talkfest. I'm hoping it will lead to concrete recommendations around how we align the four organisations so that we're getting the best players and keeping them and spreading them across our regions.
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Just had so info passed on to me regarding Sam Nock, apparently he was offered a 2 -3 year deal with the Blues, but has only signed for 1 year with the option re committing after next year..
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@Steven-Harris nice! Good news for all involved I reckon.
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@KiwiMurph yep, he has shown more than a glimpse of his skills this season, he now needs to step up and show that more consistently...starting in the real Blue jersey later this year
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@taniwharugby said in Blues 2019:
he has shown more than a glimpse of his skills this season
An awful cameo, followed by a good game and a half. Sadly that's better than the other two halfbacks.
Hopefully the 3rd spot goes to a rookie
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I'd rather a halfback spot stay open until Mitre 10 Cup.
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@Nogusta so Christie is confirmed?
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@taniwharugby yea apparently announced at the Cake Tin last week during the semi final
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@Nogusta said in Blues 2019:
@taniwharugby yea apparently announced at the Cake Tin last week during the semi final
Oh I am sorry
He was really really bad for the Canes this year.
So have to say thanks for letting us swap him for Scrafton! -
@taniwharugby said in Blues 2019:
@Nogusta so Christie is confirmed?
Not in a media release, social media post, or anything like that.
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@Stargazer they did a leavers tribute about 10 mins before the quarter final and the stadium announcer mentioned Christie was going to the Blues next year. I don’t think they would have said that if he wasn’t.
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@Canes4life Nothing in my reply to @taniwharugby contradicts that. However, it may have been announced in the Cake Tin by a stadium announcer, some of us would like to see it confirmed by the Blues and/or Hurricanes as well, because an official media release may contain more information. For example, is Christie a direct replacement of Augie Pulu, or is one of the other halfbacks also leaving? For how long have they signed him? Or, have the Hurricanes already signed one or two halfbacks to replace Christie and Judd? Are they expecting to sign one or two halfbacks soon, or will they look at what talent may emerge from the Mitre 10 Cup? Personally, I'd be very interested to know whether they're going after Fakatava, considering the Highlanders still haven't announced their signings for 2020.
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Christie move confirmed by the Blues - awaiting derisive comments.
Ta$man and Hurricanes halfback Finlay Christie will move back home to play for the Blues starting from the 2020 Investec Super Rugby season.
The 23-year-old, who is the back-up to TJ Perenara at the Hurricanes this year, has signed with the Blues for two years, joining Jonathan Ruru and Sam Nock who have both extended their contracts with the club.
The 23-year-old Christie, who was born in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, moved with his family to Pukekohe before attending Saint Kentigern College. He played for Counties Manukau U-19s before heading to the University of Canterbury and after excelling at club level, took up a contract with the Ta$man Mako in 2016.
His form with Ta$man led to him playing eight games for the Chiefs in 2017 before moving to the Hurricanes the following year.
Christie’s move north will re-link him with Blues coach Leon MacDonald, who guided him at Ta$man, where he will continue to play his Mitre-10 Cup rugby.
“I was impressed with his skillset and attitude at Ta$man and now he gets the chance to return home to play,” Leon said. “Finlay will complement both Sam and Jonathan and give us three quality halfbacks all with different styles and different strengths. This will allow us to select a halfback that best fits the game plan each week.”
Blues high performance general manager, Tony Hanks is pleased with the signing.
“It is great to have a good mix of halfbacks, all now with experience and success at Mitre-10 Cup and Investec Super Rugby level,” said Tony.
“Sam has come through our system from the age grades and is now a senior player who has played a key part in the rise of Northland rugby, yet he is only 22 years old. He will reconnect with Christie after the pair played together at Saint Kentigerns.
“Jonathan has settled well with us since moving here last year and became a key part of the success for Auckland in the Mitre-10 Cup.”
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That's a good thing - Leon's building the squad he wants.
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Jeez I hope Nock plays with some confidence next year. Finally stopped looking like he was afraid of the ball.
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