I believe Souths can do better because the backline was the issue in 2019, not the forward pack.
How a forward pack performs as a unit is more important than how each forward performs as an individual.
Cam Murray, Ethan Lowe and Tom Burgess are all rep players. Liam Knight and Junior Tatola progressed well last season and will have bigger roles this season. Jaydn Sua was a player that Souths fans were frothing over the prospect of signing 18 months ago.
The pieces are there to be a good pack, it's how they all come together that will matter.
We lost:
George B - taking into account suspensions and performance when he did play - minimal impact
Sam B - suspensions and playing injured negated a lot of the impact he was making compared with previous seasons. A loss but not devastatingly so
Kyle Turner - loss creates no impact at all
John Sutton - susprisingly this is where I see the loss as a significant impact. We lose his ball playing ability, offloads, passing at the defensive line, sidestepping evasiveness when running with the ball, extra kicker in general play to take the heat of Cody and Adam. I can't see anyone in the pack that wasnt getting regular playing time last season that makes up for these attributes