The Way too Early Team 2026 Thread

[ryan.a87]

Brailey wasn’t that bad was he? He was just overpaid imo

 

[Knight Tales]

Brailey wasn’t that bad was he? He was just overpaid imo

I think he was average at best. Had zero feel for momentum.

 

[perverse]

Just reading over the recent contributions to this thread...

Sharpe may be too much of a talent to waste away on the wing. Both from an internal perspective of having your best players close to the ball, and an external perspective of the pressure that will be felt when external clubs start sweet talking him with bigger offers and better positions to play. We're not the Roosters and we can't play a Joey Manu out wide like they could. We don't have that kind of clout or rizz.

Are we really going to offer Sharpe big money if another club comes knocking and offers him a better position than wing or centre?

You can say we've got him locked down, and that's fine, but the contract is a cheap one comparitively to his talent. One way to keep him happy would be to play him in important positions. Do you really think he'll hang around to play wing on shit money for the next few years? I don't, and if the coach wants Sandon at halfback then I think one of Ponga and Sharpe is not here long term.

 

[HarVeeGee]

I think he was average at best. Had zero feel for momentum.

Yeah. But if you're going to be charitable to the players, difficulty with transitioning between just working through yardage into more enterprising play has kind of been an issue with us a lot under AOB no matter who's been in what jersey. He may instantly look better elsewhere. Or he may just not be the best reader of the game. Guess we'll see.

 

[Grandpa Joe]

Why not just play Sharpe on the wing? Keep Gagai there and drop Marzhew?

Where's that extra 12-15 metre going to come from out of our danger zone?

 

[mozza91]

Brailey wasn’t that bad was he? He was just overpaid imo

He was shot the last few years. Not his fault after so many injuries.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Just reading over the recent contributions to this thread...

Sharpe may be too much of a talent to waste away on the wing. Both from an internal perspective of having your best players close to the ball, and an external perspective of the pressure that will be felt when external clubs start sweet talking him with bigger offers and better positions to play. We're not the Roosters and we can't play a Joey Manu out wide like they could. We don't have that kind of clout or rizz.

Are we really going to offer Sharpe big money if another club comes knocking and offers him a better position than wing or centre?

You can say we've got him locked down, and that's fine, but the contract is a cheap one comparitively to his talent. One way to keep him happy would be to play him in important positions. Do you really think he'll hang around to play wing on shit money for the next few years? I don't, and if the coach wants Sandon at halfback then I think one of Ponga and Sharpe is not here long term.

On the "too much of a talent to waste away on the wing" point, is this also true of Mark Nawaqanitawase? Brian To'o? Josh Addo-Carr? Picking very different winger archetypes for a reason there.

The guy scored 9 tries in 7 games on the wing last year and found extra ways to impact the game from the wing besides scoring tries because he's a great footballer. He also arguably saved that season by being the only player who could replace Dom effectively all year. Also wingers can have a huge impact in a negative sense too: How many tries did players like Schiller (especially) and Greg bomb this year via butterfingers or being horribly out of position? This wasn't the only issue with the attack obviously but we left a lot on the table via, for example, Schiller just constantly being too flat with his centre to receive a pass, or too far back - just never seemed to learn.

Would it seem like as much of a waste if we literally get +10 tries from whatever wing Fletcher is on instead of Greg or Schiller?

It's also not just the Roosters who have aspiring fullbacks playing elsewhere, there's Sea Eagles, Dragons, Titans, Rabbitohs, Tigers, Dolphins... are these all on the Chooks' level? I don't know, compromising with a wannabe fullback by playing him at centre is one of the most common things in the sport, the idea we can't do it with a local junior who loves the club seems absurd to me. What a state we would be in.

And yeah I am absolutely assuming Ponga is just going to play out his contract and then go. That's all the commitment he's given us. I'm not even positive he'll be here in 2027 tbh. And it may be the case it's for the best if he does go if a lot of our juniors keep coming along - if we need to extend Hopwood, McEwen, Lucas, Sandon Smith, all on decent to good money, we need to come up with cap space - moving out a $1.4 million fullback, securing Fletcher with a pay rise (let's say a bump from the 4-500K he might be on now to about 900K) and then lock down the very talented squad of mostly internally developed players we have hopefully built over the next couple of years.

What does my head in is people who advocate Fletcher moving to 9, 13, 14... there are so many examples of very impactful outside backs, I don't understand the urge to overthink it like that. He's a strike weapon. Play him in a strike weapon position.

Get the best players into the team into the configuration that best suits that talent and then evaluate as we go. And at the end of the day I would say something which would help keep Fletcher is if the team is good. It's harder to be good with spine players who have real difficulties with the demands of their position.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Where's that extra 12-15 metre going to come from out of our danger zone?

Are Dom, Bradman, Gagai & even Fletch all shit in yardage? They all put up numbers.

Greg is one of our few guys who are regarded as key players where we actually have a better record over the last two seasons when he wasn't playing, is it possible the value of his yardage vs his bad points is a little overstated?

 

[Apey]

I can't see Ponga leaving before 2027.

If he does he'll need to quick access to a beach, hes there every morning.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

I can't see Ponga leaving before 2027.

If he does he'll need to quick access to a beach, hes there every morning.

Rumours going about that if the London Broncos get a ESL spot that they want to offer Ponga a big deal to get him over there

 

[perverse]

On the "too much of a talent to waste away on the wing" point, is this also true of Mark Nawaqanitawase? Brian To'o? Josh Addo-Carr? Picking very different winger archetypes for a reason there.

The guy scored 9 tries in 7 games on the wing last year and found extra ways to impact the game from the wing besides scoring tries because he's a great footballer. He also arguably saved that season by being the only player who could replace Dom effectively all year. Also wingers can have a huge impact in a negative sense too: How many tries did players like Schiller (especially) and Greg bomb this year via butterfingers or being horribly out of position? This wasn't the only issue with the attack obviously but we left a lot on the table via, for example, Schiller just constantly being too flat with his centre to receive a pass, or too far back - just never seemed to learn.

Would it seem like as much of a waste if we literally get +10 tries from whatever wing Fletcher is on instead of Greg or Schiller?

It's also not just the Roosters who have aspiring fullbacks playing elsewhere, there's Sea Eagles, Dragons, Titans, Rabbitohs, Tigers, Dolphins... are these all on the Chooks' level? I don't know, compromising with a wannabe fullback by playing him at centre is one of the most common things in the sport, the idea we can't do it with a local junior who loves the club seems absurd to me. What a state we would be in.

And yeah I am absolutely assuming Ponga is just going to play out his contract and then go. That's all the commitment he's given us. I'm not even positive he'll be here in 2027 tbh. And it may be the case it's for the best if he does go if a lot of our juniors keep coming along - if we need to extend Hopwood, McEwen, Lucas, Sandon Smith, all on decent to good money, we need to come up with cap space - moving out a $1.4 million fullback, securing Fletcher with a pay rise (let's say a bump from the 4-500K he might be on now to about 900K) and then lock down the very talented squad of mostly internally developed players we have hopefully built over the next couple of years.

What does my head in is people who advocate Fletcher moving to 9, 13, 14... there are so many examples of very impactful outside backs, I don't understand the urge to overthink it like that. He's a strike weapon. Play him in a strike weapon position.

Get the best players into the team into the configuration that best suits that talent and then evaluate as we go. And at the end of the day I would say something which would help keep Fletcher is if the team is good. It's harder to be good with spine players who have real difficulties with the demands of their position.

You spent a lot of words here shadowboxing, and then basically agreed with me that you don't think Ponga and Sharpe will be in the same team long term? Which was the point of my post.

Do you really think he'll hang around to play wing on shit money for the next few years? I don't, and if the coach wants Sandon at halfback then I think one of Ponga and Sharpe is not here long term.

But you chose to hyperfocus on how I started it. It feels like you wanted to disagree with me from the get-go, honestly. So be it, but regardless - your answer appears to be that Sharpe will be the long term fullback, because you think Kalyn will move on. Ok, that's fine. That's an answer to the problem. Not sure which one I prefer at the moment, I'll make that decision once I see how we go next year (as I'm sure the club, the coach and the players involved all will as well).

 

[Yosh]

Where's that extra 12-15 metre going to come from out of our danger zone?

From Cogger not kicking the ball. Won't be as pinned back any more.

 

[HarVeeGee]

You spent a lot of words here shadowboxing, and then basically agreed with me that you don't think Ponga and Sharpe will be in the same team long term? Which was the point of my post.

Do you really think he'll hang around to play wing on shit money for the next few years? I don't, and if the coach wants Sandon at halfback then I think one of Ponga and Sharpe is not here long term.

But you chose to hyperfocus on how I started it. It feels like you wanted to disagree with me from the get-go, honestly. So be it, but regardless - your answer appears to be that Sharpe will be the long term fullback, because you think Kalyn will move on. Ok, that's fine. That's an answer to the problem. Not sure which one I prefer at the moment, I'll make that decision once I see how we go next year (as I'm sure the club, the coach and the players involved all will as well).

Geez, okay, sorry.

Also don't think it's totally impossible he may just stick around for a long time playing centre or wing and Ponga extends. Who knows? My point is more I think the club should just optimise the configuration of talent in the best spots next year rather than burn another season on positional experimentation and massive roster overhauls. I'm sure when I was in my feelings earlier in the year I just wanted Kalyn shot into the sun, now with time and distance I just lean: Hey let's see what happens when we get Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Brown - who I've always been a big fan of, I confess - linking together, in the positions they've both been playing for years. Sharpe is a guy who will find ways to impact the game no matter where you put him so let's play him outside our International class 6 & 1 as a weapon for them to go to. I think it could be box office. Absolutely shit hot.

Have just seen a lot of comments to the effect of, we're basically ruining Fletcher's career and life and wasting his talent if he's not in a spine position and has to be a mere, pathetic, centre or winger. The thing more guys than not who really want to play fullback are doing. The thing Herbie Farnworth is about to get a million dollar deal to do. If I've read too much into that aspect of it, sorry. But I'm honestly just really perplexed by that aspect. It's not a personal attack.

So yeah "let's see how it goes". We agree, ultimately. Lol.

 

[Zoidberg]

Sharpe at 14?

Also, just saw a (probably click bait) story saying the Dogs are sniffing around Ponga.

 

[macavity]

Still think we end up playing Sharpe at 6 or 7.

Wonder if Brown can play 9.

 

[Woody90]

Still think we end up playing Sharpe at 6 or 7.

Wonder if Brown can play 9.

He was pretty average there for the Eels in that one game this year. He actually looked really dangerous when he ran but it was like once lol

 

[macavity]

He was pretty average there for the Eels in that one game this year. He actually looked really dangerous when he ran but it was like once lol

Reckon we can lock in

1. Pong

3. Gags
4. Braddy

6. Brown

8. Saf

11. Lucas


And literally every other spot is up for grabs.

 

[Knight Tales]

Sharpe at 14?

Also, just saw a (probably click bait) story saying the Dogs are sniffing around Ponga.

Not with Smith and Brown arriving. He’ll give it another year before deciding to sign his life to the place or leave. The thing to remember is if KP’s game goes to another level with two quality halves around him, the Sharpe positional puzzle gets a lot harder. Unless of course Smith turns into a quality 9.

 

[Woody90]

Reckon we can lock in

1. Pong

3. Gags
4. Braddy

6. Brown

8. Saf


11. Lucas


And literally every other spot is up for grabs.

Yep agreed.

I actually like our team for next year tbh. The spine is weird and might not work but individual talent wise it’s a clear step up on this season (not hard I know).

I like our forward pack a lot better too just given we have some genuine middle forwards with size compared to this season where we mostly had to rely on second rowers there. I like Croker and Jones enough but when they’re depth we’ll know we’re in a good spot.

 

[HarVeeGee]

While he wouldn’t have an ironclad guarantee and can’t just loaf through pre-season and still expect to have it, you can lock in Trey Mooney as a starter too I reckon. And Dom on one of the wings.