kit66
Bench
- Messages
- 3,620
Any analysis of the team will show that on paper we're weaker than last year. Three main reasons for that being 1) the loss of Widdop a far superior 5/8 to Norman, 2) Very weak recruitment, 3) McGregor is still the coach.
The outlook isn't good, there's no sugar coating it, we'll be lucky to beat our dismal 8 from 24 wins last year. If you doubt it just look at our last 10 games in 2019 of which we won only 2 , both against eventual Wooden Spooners the Titans. It's not just that we lost, we had no direction and had different line-ups each week including 4 different fullbacks, 5 or 6 different halves, the wingers were similarly chopped and changed, front row and lock were also experimented with. The only constants were our bloody centres who are the 2 men most likely to get voted off the island if you and I had any say in it.
So, what will / has changed to cause any optimism ? Well there's Merrin, not a bad buy, lots of experience and smarts but no saviour. There's Isaac Luke who's addition to our squad I completely fail to understand when we have Cam McInnes who's arguably among the top 3 hookers and who is coming off a great year personally and probably full of confidence - well up until Luke appears I'd say, he must be wondering WTF just like me. Luke just means more experiments, more disruption, a wasted spot on the bench and for what, an occasional good game off the bench from an aging grub while young Lovodua is stuck in CC looking at NO game time in firsts.
Our other recruits I'd never heard of until I read the news, not a good sign.
Lomax to fullback at the expense of our only strike weapon and top try scorer ( ? ) Dufty , another experiment but probably worth a shot I guess. What else ? On the wing Saab could prove handy, Ravalawa could surprise us but I expect Mary will change the wingers every week to try to accommodate other candidates like Sailor or just out of desperation.
The only shining light I see is Flanagan as assistant coach with the possibility of taking the reins should Mary continue to do what he does best.....fail.
The outlook isn't good, there's no sugar coating it, we'll be lucky to beat our dismal 8 from 24 wins last year. If you doubt it just look at our last 10 games in 2019 of which we won only 2 , both against eventual Wooden Spooners the Titans. It's not just that we lost, we had no direction and had different line-ups each week including 4 different fullbacks, 5 or 6 different halves, the wingers were similarly chopped and changed, front row and lock were also experimented with. The only constants were our bloody centres who are the 2 men most likely to get voted off the island if you and I had any say in it.
So, what will / has changed to cause any optimism ? Well there's Merrin, not a bad buy, lots of experience and smarts but no saviour. There's Isaac Luke who's addition to our squad I completely fail to understand when we have Cam McInnes who's arguably among the top 3 hookers and who is coming off a great year personally and probably full of confidence - well up until Luke appears I'd say, he must be wondering WTF just like me. Luke just means more experiments, more disruption, a wasted spot on the bench and for what, an occasional good game off the bench from an aging grub while young Lovodua is stuck in CC looking at NO game time in firsts.
Our other recruits I'd never heard of until I read the news, not a good sign.
Lomax to fullback at the expense of our only strike weapon and top try scorer ( ? ) Dufty , another experiment but probably worth a shot I guess. What else ? On the wing Saab could prove handy, Ravalawa could surprise us but I expect Mary will change the wingers every week to try to accommodate other candidates like Sailor or just out of desperation.
The only shining light I see is Flanagan as assistant coach with the possibility of taking the reins should Mary continue to do what he does best.....fail.
