First a bit of proverbial house keeping. Unfortunately we didn't win our multi bet of a couple of weeks ago, stumbling on the final hurdle after the Raiders were disappointing in going down at home to the Cowboys, encouraging signs though after correctly tipping the Sharks to just beat Penrith in Penrith (Sharks won by 1 point) and the Storm over the Knights. As promised to our Asian drinks boy Jay Way Ling though in the next edition he will be able to give his bet of the week, although I'm not sure how good it be as Jay makes his tips based on the mascot of each team, for example Parra will beat Melbourne as Eels live in water and are not affected by a Storm, or North Queensland will only just beat Newcastle as Cowboys and Knights are both on horses but the Cowboy's gun beats the Knights lance!!! In saying this he is a fair bit higher up on the tipping comp ladder than me so maybe he is onto something...........
The next thing you need to do is 'like' our Facebook page, just search Loving League with Lavers and you will find our page. After you 'like' us our status updates of when there is a new edition posted should appear on your feed so you are guaranteed not to miss an edition!!!! This is important because I reckon this website is probably the 2786th best website on the internet in the world, keeping in mind though 2776 of them are porn related sites..........
The big Issue today is the Manly Sea Eagles resigning of players, we know they have resigned Daly Cherry Evans and keep hearing speculation they are close to resigning others, in my opinion they cannot also sign Kieren Foran, Brett Stewart, Glen Stewart, Tony Williams, and already have Anthony Watmough.....HELLO we have a thing called a salary cap!!!!!!!!!!
Manly have no less than 11 internationals with another 2 that have played state of origin!!!!!! Granted quite a few of them are former rep players who probably won't play rep footy again, the likes of David Williams, Jamie Lyon, Brent Kite, Joe Galuvau, Jason King and Matt Ballin but still these players don't come cheap. Plus all of Manly's players get bonus's after winning the competition and can command more money from rival clubs which is why the last team to go back to back was Brisbane in 1992-93!!
The more expensive players are the current internationals or marquee players such as-
Cherry Evans- Probably only behind Cooper Cronk for QLD and Austrlaia for half back.
Foran- NZ representative who would start at every other club.
Glen Stewart- One of the best back rowers in the game, N.S.W and Australian representative.
Tony Williams- Played for Australia on the tour at the end of last year, would have played for N.S.W in game 1 this year if not for suspension but will probably play in game 2 and 3.
Watmough- Been playing for N.S.W and Australia regularly the last few years.
Brett Stewart-Hasn't played much reps of late but still a marquee player and in the top 5 fullbacks in the game at the moment.
That's 6 Marquee players compared to other top clubs
Storm- Slater, Smith, Cronk
Brisbane- Hodges, Hannant, Thaiday
Souths- Burgess, Inglis, Taylor,
Tigers- Marshall, Farah, Blair, Ellis
Those 6 for Manly are around the peak of their careers and should be getting their biggest and best contracts so if Manly resign all of them I will be loading up on them to win the wooden spoon next year from a salary cap deduction of points Storm style!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On a positive for Manly though I was down at Brookie Oval on Monday night to watch them beat the Panthers and it was an impressive debut from Liam Foran, brother of Kieran who filled in at five eighth for his injured brother, he didn't look out of place or over awed in the top grade and has a really good kicking game. Perhaps it could be a repeat of a few years back when Manly lost Trent Hodkinson to the Bulldogs only to have a far better replacement in Cherry Evans!!!! (who was outstanding in that game too!)
I think we should now look to the Lookalike Wall and today it is Ryan Noble, we have former Melbourne and Manly center Steve Bell, Titans center Steve Michaels or former Bear, Northern Eagle, Bulldog, Rooster and Hull front Rower Marke O'Meley, what do you reckon?
I think it is time to have a seat in the Light Hearted Lounge!!!!!!
Last Saturday night on the long weekend at a Manly pub I was fortunate enough to meet one of our favourites here LLwL in big Keiffy Galloway!!! Unfortunately for big Keith I was on about my 3rd............................night of drinking that is and was pretty excited to see him at the bar, a big hand shake and a conversation as follows
Me- 'G'Day Keiffy!!!! I'm a big Tigers fan!!!!!'
Keith- 'Really? in this part of town??'
Me- Yep, best of luck in the next few games, and indeed the season'
Keith- 'Thanks mate'
Luckily for Keiffy he walked away at this point so he wasn't subjected to me reminiscing with him about an under 16's game at Brooky Oval between myself for Manly and big Keiffy for the Cronulla Sharks at the time Big Keiffy was almost as big as he is now and broke through the line about 10 meters out from our tryline, Lavers at fullback needs to come up with something special to stop him this close to his line with Galloway having a full head of steam!!!! Lavers goes in low and Galloway steam-rolls him and uses him like a speed bump on the way to a try!!!! Not just any old speed bump though but one of those small flat ones that you don't really have to slow down for!!!!
I can report however that Keiffy was well behaved and also that he declined my request film him on my phone saying 'I'm loving league with Lavers', this was possibly because he couldn't understand what I was saying!!!
We have another inductee into the 40/20 club, a player in his twenties but by just looking at his head you would swear blind in front of a nun that he was in his 40s!!!!
I give you Terry Campese, aged 27.
That is all for now, as always your input is not only welcome but encouraged so tell us what you think on anything from this edition or even something you would like to see in the next edition.
I'll tell ya what, I'm not sure about big Keiffy Galloway but I'm Loving League with Lavers!!!!!!!!
