Rumoured and Confirmed signings - Part 4

[herbert henry1908]

The 1 to 5 has a very good chance at being better than the backline that won most of our games last year. The forwards are improved, our biggest need in the spine has been addressed. We brought in an attacking coach. There is no reason to expect us to not make improvements on a particularly woeful season.

Our centres will be close to if not, the worst in the comp.

That doesn’t mean guys like Chricton & Naden don’t have potential, but it’s going to be a rough ride.

 

[betcats]

A woeful season where a final 10 minutes collapse against Cronulla was directly responsible for us not making the 8. We were shocking, and we still got so close to the 8. There's no way there isn't improvements from our entire team this season, especially with the kids who debuted last season, even the slightest improvements should get us to 7th place mediocrity.

Exactly how I see it. People talking about bottom four are way off. Look at some of those losses in the first ten rounds. We lost games to the titans, the dogs and other teams below us.

 

[age.s]

Happy with that. Capewell is a good player, just hitting his prime years who probably wouldn't have broken the bank. You cant possobly be too disappinted with that. Yes we have a fair few backrowers but we don't know how Yeo will go and fair few of them can a switch between middle and edge.

Pick up a decent centre (say, Lomax) and we're in a good place imo.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Waqa was a flawed centre and he still managed to improve a couple times prior to this year. He looked like one of the best centres going round last year. His defence wasn’t that good in 15 or 16. He also bombed a f**kton of triesin his rookie year. If you are talking about points Naden has already shown he provides more than Waqa.

Naden bombed a heap of tries too, and is worse in defence than Blake. Much worse.

Disagree he’s shown he provides more in attack. He’s shown he provides about the same at Blake circa 2018. Yes it was only one season for Blake, but so far it’s only half a season for Naden.

 

[franklin2323]

We never challenged the top teams, Hook’s record against the top 4 was terrible. Whilst it was better to make the finals than not, we were just making up the numbers.

when did we ever have our top team on the field? Blake, Whare and RCG in that 2016 finals side I would rate as a chance. So too Moylan in the 17 finals team. Alot went wrong not all of it was due to coaching

 

[OldPanther]

Only Penrith fans could complain about signing somebody good enough to be origin 18th man in a position where we have very little experience.

I think the issue for those who have it is the numbers. Everyone would have been expecting Martin, Burns, Kikau, Cartwright to be enough for the second row. We now have 5 for 2 positions and that's not counting Yeo.

 

[herbert henry1908]

when did we ever have our top team on the field? Blake, Whare and RCG in that 2016 finals side I would rate as a chance. So too Moylan in the 17 finals team. Alot went wrong not all of it was due to coaching

Every season things go wrong, that’s footy. The point is we weren’t really challenging the top teams, whatever the reason.

 

[betcats]

Naden bombed a heap of tries too, and is worse in defence than Blake. Much worse.

Disagree he’s shown he provides more in attack. He’s shown he provides about the same at Blake circa 2018. Yes it was only one season for Blake, but so far it’s only half a season for Naden.

Waqa has had four or five NRL preseasons and years in the top grade to improve that defence, he wasn’t always that good defensively. My point about the bombed tries was Waqa displayed similar issues in his rookie year, then he got better.

Naden in his rookie year after being called into the side halfway through the year on a second tier contract provides as much in attack as Waqa did in his fourth and best year to date in the league. He absolutely left 2019 waqa for dead when it comes to scoring. A bit more experience and he probably converts a third of his bombed tries also. I’ll back him to be a better scorer again next year.

 

[franklin2323]

Every season things go wrong, that’s footy. The point is we weren’t really challenging the top teams, whatever the reason.

Instead of saying decent year considering it was all negative

 

[franklin2323]

I think the issue for those who have it is the numbers. Everyone would have been expecting Martin, Burns, Kikau, Cartwright to be enough for the second row. We now have 5 for 2 positions and that's not counting Yeo.

how many forwards become instantly good though? It may happen but likely won’t... so in that time we have an above average solid footballer to fill the void

 

[herbert henry1908]

Instead of saying decent year considering it was all negative

We’ve made the top 4, four times in the past 25 years. That’s the point I was making.

 

[Zampaa]

Our centres will be close to if not, the worst in the comp.

That doesn’t mean guys like Chricton & Naden don’t have potential, but it’s going to be a rough ride.

You can't genuinely believe that the cowboys, dogs, titans, nights, and even tigers have centres that would crack first grade here? There's a worldwide centre shortage, and there's about 15 good centres to go around. When a washed up chambers, and Justin Olam were running out for Melbourne every week, that shows how few centres are going around.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Waqa has had four or five NRL preseasons and years in the top grade to improve that defence, he wasn’t always that good defensively. My point about the bombed tries was Waqa displayed similar issues in his rookie year, then he got better.

Naden in his rookie year after being called into the side halfway through the year on a second tier contract provides as much in attack as Waqa did in his fourth and best year to date in the league. He absolutely left 2019 waqa for dead when it comes to scoring. A bit more experience and he probably converts a third of his bombed tries also. I’ll back him to be a better scorer again next year.

I don’t remember Blake’s technical deficiencies being as bad as Naden’s. At some points he looked completely lost at centre. He looks like he’s been shoehorned into a position that’s far from natural. That doesn’t take away from what he brings in attack, but he looks like a winger to me.

 

[OldPanther]

how many forwards become instantly good though? It may happen but likely won’t... so in that time we have an above average solid footballer to fill the void

In a salary cap competition with minimum spots that's somewhat irrelevant. They could all have 1 game each but they are still taking a top 30 spot.

Yes I'm playing devil's advocate partially because I agree with both sides weirdly enough.

 

[betcats]

I don’t remember Blake’s technical deficiencies being as bad as Naden’s. At some points he looked completely lost at centre. He looks like he’s been shoehorned into a position that’s far from natural. That doesn’t take away from what he brings in attack, but he looks like a winger to me.

Watch Blake next season and keep a tally of the two handed passes he throws. If you need more than one hand to count them for the year I’ll be suprised. He cannot pass with two hands, the few times he is forced to it is always a shoddy looking pass. He can pass one handed alright within a few feet which make up 95 percent of his passes, anything longer than that and he is struggling. He can only carry the ball in his left hand which is a bigger limitation than any Naden has. Naden can switch the pall in his hands and run with the ball in two hand which is an essential skill for attacking players to keep defenders guessing and not telegraph play. Waqa was very limited in the air as well, poor timing and catching. Waqa is really the epitome of a brilliant athlete who lacks genuine footballing instincts and skill.


Defensively he wasn’t as bad as Naden but he certainly wasn’t near his 2018 ability.

 

[herbert henry1908]

You can't genuinely believe that the cowboys, dogs, titans, nights, and even tigers have centres that would crack first grade here? There's a worldwide centre shortage, and there's about 15 good centres to go around. When a washed up chambers, and Justin Olam were running out for Melbourne every week, that shows how few centres are going around.

Marsters would play centres here. (Another one we missed out on)

Hopoate would

oneill

There’s a few.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Watch Blake next season and keep a tally of the two handed passes he throws. If you need more than one hand to count them for the year I’ll be suprised. He cannot pass with two hands, the few times he is forced to it is always a shoddy looking pass. He can pass one handed alright within a few feet which make up 95 percent of his passes, anything longer than that and he is struggling. He can only carry the ball in his left hand which is a bigger limitation than any Naden has. Naden can switch the pall in his hands and run with the ball in two hand which is an essential skill for attacking players to keep defenders guessing and not telegraph play. Waqa was very limited in the air as well, poor timing and catching. Waqa is really the epitome of a brilliant athlete who lacks genuine footballing instincts and skill.


Defensively he wasn’t as bad as Naden but he certainly wasn’t near his 2018 ability.

Naden just flat out refuses to pass, that’s a huge problem in itself. His defence & lack of passing to his outside man makes him a winger in my view.

I take your point that Blake also had technical deficiencies, but I genuinely think Naden’s are worse. His instincts in chasing kicks & taking the high ball are however very good, and could easily be used on the wing.

 

[Zampaa]

Marsters would play centres here. (Another one we missed out on)

Hopoate would

oneill

There’s a few.

Forgot masters made the move up north,
Hopoate is a fullback, who will be back at fullback when Dean pay shifts DWZ back to the wing like every other coach DWZ has ever had,

And O'Neill was playing Queensland cup Because of how bad he's been, and that's saying something for a club that had Javid Bowen and Coen hess in the centres for large parts of the 2019 season.

 

[age.s]

Marsters would play centres here. (Another one we missed out on)

Hopoate would

oneill

There’s a few.

No. Just no.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Brent Naden’s tackle efficiency was 70%

He made 138 tackles and missed a whopping 45. Almost 4 missed tackles per game.

of course this could improve, but going off what we know right now, that’s a scary number. It completely nullifies the good he does at the attacking end of the field.