So hypothetical conversation. Maloney does move on in 2020. We run Cleary/Luai in the halves. Assume the Blake and DWZ moves have us under the cap for next year. What do we do with Jimmy’s ~$800K?
Looking at our potential 17 for next year:
1. Edwards 2. Mansour 3. Naden 4. Whare 5. To’o 6. Luai 7. Cleary 8. Tamou 9. Kenny 10. JFH 11. Kikau 12. Martin 13. Yeo 14. Egan 15. RCG 16. Leota 17. Winterstein/Sele/Cartwright/Hetherington/May...
Guys outside with potential to be better than depth:
Crichton, Burton, Staines, Leniu, S. Blore, Burns, Hopgood, Lou-Toso.
I feel reasonably confident based on the core squad we have, and Ivan, that we’ll be a pretty solid defensive unit and generally match it up front. Leniu and Blore feel like guys that could push our pack into dominant territory while I think RCG, Kikau and JFH are existing guys that will get a fair bit better.
With Blake moving on I think we lack a dominant ball runner in the backline, although To’o is nice. Ideally Crichton will fill this gap and free up some money via Whare. Outside of that we are solid defensively, have an aerial target now, good finishers on the wings, strong back 3 to kick start sets while being susceptible to cross field kicks.
Burton and Staines appear strong options if we’re not happy with what Edwards/Luai are delivering in the spine.
That leads me to the obvious, upgrade hooker. The Kenny/Egan tandem is starting to look good but it’d certainly be an area we could invest in for a quicker upgrade, particularly if the other elements look like coming together for a run.
Looking at the options that would actually be upgrades or long term high ceiling guys I think Brandon Smith or Koroisau would be my key, somewhat realistic, targets.
Thoughts?