Quote BrisbaneRhino="BrisbaneRhino"Gallen's attitude is my problem with him (ball-hogging is an issue but less of a concern). He's trying to carve out a place in the media post-playing days, which is fine, but he's incredibly arrogant. He helped destroy the Sharks caretaker coach last year by announcing midway through the season on radio that players would not respond to a coach that wouldn't be there for the long-term, and he's also claimed that every name player to join the Sharks has done so due to him personally. He's one of those people who thinks that heightened "honesty" (bluntness) is always good. The problem is some people can do it well, others come across as tools. He's in the latter camp.
From what I can gather he'd like to stay in the NRL. He's no doubt shopping around, and I suspect the main issue at his age is the length of his contract.'"
I found this post really interesting, as it highlights to me how important peoples perceptions are when forming an opinion, as I have almost the polar opposite opinion of Gallen - I'd say his honesty is absolutely one of the things that makes him such a champion player - his honesty towards the team and his own performances are what makes him train as hard as he does, put in a shift on match days like he does, recover from injuries and play injured like he does - what you can guarantee with Gallen is a whole hearted and honest performance. If he can get himself onto the pitch - which invariably he does, he'll put in a performance. Already this year he's played a game after zero sleep the night before as his new born daughter was in hospital with a serious illness, and he's played a game after being in hospital himself for the 2 days prior to the game with an infection. He sacrifices everything for the game and his team, whether it be NSW or Cronulla.
His professionalism and attitude towards training and the game in general is something that nearly every player in the world could learn from.
As for his media work - yeah he's straight down the line honest, and that will sometimes be a positive, sometimes a negative, but you'll always know where he stands. The thing with Peter Sharp again I have no problem with, Sharp had openly said he didn't want to be caretaker coach, and the Sharks were waiting for Flanagan to come back, all Gallen said was that the players weren't doing as they should and weren't listening to Sharp - he used an analogy of kids playing up when they have a substitute teacher. I think it was more a sig at his players attitudes and the whole ASADA situation.
For me, even at 33, Gallen would be an immense signing both on and off the field. He's not been as much of a ball hog recently, through clearly you don't get through the amount of work he does without demanding he ball often, but I don't think that's to the detriment of the team, he's the ultimate workhorse, with a bit of skill too.
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