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2019 Discussion

Fangs

Fangs

Coach
Messages
14,339
Leadership completely absent in the team. New Captain. Even if it means recruiting a new one.

Have been an advocate of moving Cleary from the 7. We are all talking about our problems in the 9...

6.Maloney/May
7.Luai

9.Cleary

Luai looks like a halfback to me, has a lot of things Cleary doesn't seem to have. Unlikely he could make Maloney take a back seat but I think it's what we need.

Cleary has size, decent defender. He does have a pass in him, we just don't see it that often. I think he would make a fine 9.

With that said I'd still be happy with Cleary in the 7 for next year. Have seen some positive signs in his game this finals series.

Maloney...up until last night we won the trade. But he was very poor. We need his experience so I think he needs to stay but no issues with an early release in 2019 if we have a poor start.
 
mxlegend99

mxlegend99

Referee
Messages
23,334
tripster said:
We finished 5th after a horrendous injury toll, and having our coach sacked a few weeks out of from the end of the year. We then lost to the Sharks by 1 point.

I am confident about next year.
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Why though?

2016: 6th. Eliminated week 2 of finals
2017: 7th. Eliminated week 2 of finals
2018: 5th. Eliminated week 2 of finals.

We havent built off the 2016 and 2017 seasons. I agree we should have a great platform to build off. But im not confident we will.

Every piece of the puzzle we have gotten hasnt really changed much. (Ie. Mez. Then Tamou. Then Maloney)

In 2016 a rookie Nathan Cleary and Bryce Cartwright were as successful as the Origin winning halves this year.

As much as people hate to admit it. Moylan was a huge loss and while Maloney was a huge gain, the team didnt get better for it because we just traded sideways.

We lost our best playmaker to sign a great playmaker. But we ultimately did just aswell with Carty at 6 in 2016, and TMM, Moylan and May in 2017.

That said we only had 4 weeks under a new coach to get the season back on track and find form. Which we sort of did. But not good dnough to beat previous seasons.

Now we have more questions... would we have been able to do better if Ciro took over earlier. If he has a full pre-season can we go to another level. Or is this our peak under him? Its a gamble to use him in 2019... we risk our team wasting another year of the premiership window under a coach who could very well have the same ceiling as Hook. Its hard not to think our real improvement was a result of the help he got and that a full season under him would be roughly as successful as the roster itself allowed.
 
T

The Realist

Juniors
Messages
1,891
I still think we persist with Katoa and let him have a full pre-season as designated Hooker. He has the ability, we just have to smooth the rough edges a little more.

Tamou we have to keep with a likely Merrin departure. He is finally playing well and improving with a bit more time on the field he maybe worth what we've paid.

Maloney we can get rid of. Our biggest problem is Illdiscipline and he is a big part of that. Poor defense and giving away penalties is just not going to cut it against well drilled smart and experienced teams who can and do capitalise.

We cannot lose Luai just to keep this plodder around for a year or two longer.

If we trade him away to keep Peachey all the better but seriously what do we do with Peachey. Surely we don't hope for injuries just so he can start? He certainly isn't worth the 600K being reported.

Also is it just me or did the injury to May send him backwards? Last year he was quick, agile and explosive. Now he seems like an overweight plotter. His lateral movement is gone and he is just slow. It is very disappointing to see.

As others have said our wingers are all messed up. You generally want height and SPEED on the wings. Good teams have exposed our slow and short wingers this year. I was shocked when Mansour was resigned hopefully it was a sub 400K budget deal but the other side has to be tallish and quick and I suppose DWZ sort of fits the bill. I'd like him to reunite with Waqa to be honest.

I still hold out hope for Big Sammy. People forget he was our best prop forward for years. I also think Timmy Grant will come good...certainly a better option than either Hetherington or Ellis.

Quite a bit to ponder for the management and coaching staff for next year.
 
P

Panfa

Juniors
Messages
1,266
It was a pretty disappointing end to a pretty good yr i was out there last night the penrith supporters in bay 38 were awesome lifted the boys in the 2nd half.We lost the game in the 1st half dropped too much ball a few soft tries and too many penalties 18-2 was too big a start to claw back.Im happy with ciraldo as coach i dont reallynwant ivan back either ciraldo or an experienced coach in mcguire or bennett
 
OldPanther

OldPanther

Coach
Messages
13,404
Hetherington is useless. I'm sure we've got guys who can fill the job better. He simply ruins it for himself with his attitude.
 
TheFrog

TheFrog

Coach
Messages
14,300
mxlegend99 said:
2016: 6th. Eliminated week 2 of finals
2017: 7th. Eliminated week 2 of finals
2018: 5th. Eliminated week 2 of finals.

We havent built off the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
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Every time in the second week we got behind. 18-0 in '16, 12-0 in '17 and 18-0 again this time. Comebacks in each and every one of them before falling short each time. This was the first time we got back level, so maybe you can call that progress. We might have won this if we could have controlled possession after the Blake try, but Holmes pulled off an audacious play and they got the shot. We got one too but it missed. That was the difference, it really wasn't much this time. They got us on experience.

While the first half was obviously poor, it was 20-all with 10 to play so I can't blame the first half. It was what happened in the last 10 minutes that decided this match.
 
T

tripster

Juniors
Messages
1,961
The Realist said:
Also is it just me or did the injury to May send him backwards? Last year he was quick, agile and explosive. Now he seems like an overweight plotter. His lateral movement is gone and he is just slow. It is very disappointing to see.
Click to expand...

It absolutely has affected him. Lateral movement (particularly powerful side stepping) is the thing most affected by an ACL injury. Some players recover that eventually (like we are seeing with Whare) but it takes a long time. Others unfortunately never recover it at all.

May came back mid season so it is too early to know. We will have a better idea by the start of next season.
 
franklin2323

franklin2323

Immortal
Messages
33,546
martielang said:
I thought we’d seen good signs from Cleary the last few weeks. Seems the shackles have been taken off & looks to be improving. In saying that, I think Maloney hindered him last night by taking too much ball, maybe next year he finds the confidence to become more dominate.
Click to expand...

Better pack and hooker will help him and all the backs.

If our roster stays as it is.. I can't see us getting any further in the comp
 
franklin2323

franklin2323

Immortal
Messages
33,546
ashton said:
Wingers too small. Most of the top sides have tall wingers with pace.
Need a class fullback with pace and that can tackle. DWZ didn't get a hand on Lewis last night. Poor defence
More pace in the back line.
Merrin poor.......show him the door.
Sam McKendrey needs to be moved on.
Katoa offers nothing from hooker. NSW cup standard. Still not sold on Egan.
Need to purchase a quality hooker. All the top 4 sides have good hookers.
Need at least one quality front rower. All of our front rowers have been average.
Our only signings for next year are Tim Grant and MWZ at least that strenghtens or NSW cup side.
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Agree with all of this.
 
P

Panfa

Juniors
Messages
1,266
I had egan marked down as the next cam smith a yr ago when he tore up the 20s competition he looked elusive dangerous smart this yr he looks slow lethargic and dumb.The guys gone backwards as a footballer your hookers need to be quick out of dummy half either passing or darting out thats why smith and cook are the 2 best
 
age.s

age.s

First Grade
Messages
7,841
Not sure about pinning too much hope on Grant. According to a Tigers mate of mine he's been lucky to hold on to his spot in reserves. Gone backwards big time. Maybe a change of scenery will do him good but I don't know that we should bill him as a solution to holes in the prop position.
 
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