2020 season

[chrisD]

We went from a good roster capable of winning a premiership in 2017 to a mediocre team in 2018 and the media didn't notice and is now playing catch up.

 

[martielang]

Not sure how mediocre we really were. We were sitting first at the half way point of the year & absolutely hammered the then competition leaders & favourites. All this with a heavy injury toll & a young side.

We had a poor run of 4 - 5 weeks just after origin (which is pretty normal from a young side with little experience leading the pack) where we still won a couple of games & the knives came out from those who didn’t rate the coach from day one & from Gus who was looking for a reason to punt someone who didn’t want to march to his beat.

Still amazes me how even after this year people still think Hook did a poor job. Would we have won a comp under him? I don’t know, but we were a f**kload closer then we are now.

 

[chrisD]

Not sure how mediocre we really were.

Very.

 

[10Grand]

We had a host of players who were always below the top notch,We hardly beat the topsides even in 2017 and 2018.

 

[Pomoz]

2018 we were mediocre? The table doesn't lie. We were equal second and fifth on for and against. One win behind first place. And 2019? I will do a proper comparison on key metrics when w have finished our last game, but suffice to say we have gone backwards in every key measure under Dave's mate.

 

[chrisD]

2018 we were mediocre? The table doesn't lie. We were equal second and fifth on for and against. One win behind first place. And 2019? I will do a proper comparison on key metrics when w have finished our last game, but suffice to say we have gone backwards in every key measure under Dave's mate.

Tables and metrics nonsense. There was a gulf between the top four and the rest, it was blatantly obvious. At the end of the season we were not in the hunt, the season before we very well would have been had the Moylan saga not occurred. We went from contenders to making up the numbers, and only the blind couldn't see it.

Half the problem is the media and fans thought Cleary was a Cronk and RCG a Sam Burgess, when really Cleary is Sezer and RCG is Latimore if Latimore didn't have an offload.

 

[CCJohnC]

I find it difficult to compare each season as the scheduling is always different. One of my pet hates is this continual change in fixtures. It was again raised in the week that a conference type of system should be considered. My idea has always been all Sydney teams should play each other home and away every year. You then play outside Sydney team only once home one year away next. In addition Thursday night games should be scrapped with two on Fridays and three both Saturday and Sunday.

 

[OldPanther]

I find it difficult to compare each season as the scheduling is always different. One of my pet hates is this continual change in fixtures. It was again raised in the week that a conference type of system should be considered. My idea has always been all Sydney teams should play each other home and away every year. You then play outside Sydney team only once home one year away next. In addition Thursday night games should be scrapped with two on Fridays and three both Saturday and Sunday.

That doesn't work though because the interstate teams get screwed.

 

[Kilkenny]

2018 we were mediocre? The table doesn't lie. We were equal second and fifth on for and against. One win behind first place. And 2019? I will do a proper comparison on key metrics when w have finished our last game, but suffice to say we have gone backwards in every key measure under Dave's mate.

Agree, Ivan has somehow managed to turn a talented roster, not perfect, but talented and more than capable of making the semi finals into a very poor side who could easily have finished much lower if not for a few fortuitous wins during the seven game winning streak.

 

[mxlegend99]

Not sure how mediocre we really were. We were sitting first at the half way point of the year & absolutely hammered the then competition leaders & favourites. All this with a heavy injury toll & a young side.

We had a poor run of 4 - 5 weeks just after origin (which is pretty normal from a young side with little experience leading the pack) where we still won a couple of games & the knives came out from those who didn’t rate the coach from day one & from Gus who was looking for a reason to punt someone who didn’t want to march to his beat.

Still amazes me how even after this year people still think Hook did a poor job. Would we have won a comp under him? I don’t know, but we were a f**kload closer then we are now.

We started off 2018 great. But once Peter Wallace was forced into retirement from injury our side was just not the same. We all thought we could be better off with younger healthy legs at hooker and ultimately Wallace was a bigger loss than anyone expected.

We had a few good games still. But IMO the second half of 2018 goes very different if Wallace wasnt forced to retire.

We probably scrape into the finals this year with him aswell. We've had 3 hookerd show glimpses of talent, but none look worthy of keeping a spot for more than 2 or 3 games.

 

[Exsilium]

Half the problem is the media and fans thought Cleary was a Cronk and RCG a Sam Burgess, when really Cleary is Sezer and RCG is Latimore if Latimore didn't have an offload.

I’d take Sezer and Latimore over both of them.

 

[Kilkenny]

Half the problem is the media and fans thought Cleary was a Cronk and RCG a Sam Burgess, when really Cleary is Sezer and RCG is Latimore if Latimore didn't have an offload.

Not all the fans, I was very vocal on here we needed to be very careful about our approach to resigning RCG. He was a one trick pony and his supposed aggression masked what he clearly lacked in other more important areas. He got his 5 year deal probably 650-700K a season when in reality his true value was much less. If he was only on 500K a season I wouldn’t mind so much, while he hasn’t really reached great heights this season he is capable of more. I think he needs a change because clearly Ivan doesn’t rate him and wants him gone but then again Ivan doesn’t seem to rate any of our players the way things are going.

 

[Abacus]

but then again Ivan doesn’t seem to rate any of our players the way things are going.

One might almost think there was a rift with Gould that turned personal and now those in power want to remove as much of Gould's influence as quickly as possible.

Then again, it is footy and everyone has different opinions on how footy should be played and what players are needed to make that style effective. Undoubtedly Gould was building a team without Ivan's footy style in mind.

 

[tripster]

Not sure how mediocre we really were. We were sitting first at the half way point of the year & absolutely hammered the then competition leaders & favourites. All this with a heavy injury toll & a young side.

We had a poor run of 4 - 5 weeks just after origin (which is pretty normal from a young side with little experience leading the pack) where we still won a couple of games & the knives came out from those who didn’t rate the coach from day one & from Gus who was looking for a reason to punt someone who didn’t want to march to his beat.

Still amazes me how even after this year people still think Hook did a poor job. Would we have won a comp under him? I don’t know, but we were a f**kload closer then we are now.

Completely agree with this. The level we reached when we beat Saints last year was a level we have not come close to this year. We didn’t just beat the Saints, we physically dominated them into the ground. We had incredible line speed and our pack played with aggression and ferocity. I was at the game and was blown away with what I saw. It was not a performance you usually associate with a Penrith team.

Sterlo said a few times throughout the season that he thought we had the best pack in the competition.

We also played some incredible footy in other games, including when we beat the Tigers and Warriors at home - again forward dominant performances.

We had the best second half record in the comp for points conceded.

We were one field goal away from the preliminary final.

We have not come close this season to matching our performance against Saints. We are not as fit, and Cleary must not be as good as motivating our forwards to play in a super aggressive way.

I expect us to match Cleary’s long term average and win 45% of our games over the next 4 years.

 

[Kilkenny]

One might almost think there was a rift with Gould that turned personal and now those in power want to remove as much of Gould's influence as quickly as possible.

Then again, it is footy and everyone has different opinions on how footy should be played and what players are needed to make that style effective. Undoubtedly Gould was building a team without Ivan's footy style in mind.

I agree 100% there is clearly agendas at work here.

Regardless of whether you liked Gould or not he had the interests of the players at heart, he loved the players.

I’m in the I don’t think we ever had a premiership team camp, we were always a couple of match winners short, particularly in the outside backs. I don’t think Gould ever quite address this deficiency but he did his best.

Gus wasn’t perfect, but I have absolutely no faith in the three wise men now running our club, this season has been a disaster and frankly I think we are in for more pain in 2020 and I don’t even want to go beyond that.

 

[Big Mick]

Not sure how mediocre we really were. We were sitting first at the half way point of the year & absolutely hammered the then competition leaders & favourites. All this with a heavy injury toll & a young side.

We had a poor run of 4 - 5 weeks just after origin (which is pretty normal from a young side with little experience leading the pack) where we still won a couple of games & the knives came out from those who didn’t rate the coach from day one & from Gus who was looking for a reason to punt someone who didn’t want to march to his beat.

Still amazes me how even after this year people still think Hook did a poor job. Would we have won a comp under him? I don’t know, but we were a f**kload closer then we are now.

He had a stacked roster. He had a shitload of depth.

2017 was our best chance....2018 we lost a couple of old heads and it killed us after the referee crackdown.

Griffin imo under-delivered with the squad he had.

Same as Cleary has under-delivered with this one...and now we are in re-build.

This season...all I'm left wondering is....how would we have done under Wayne Bennett?

 

[franklin2323]

One might almost think there was a rift with Gould that turned personal and now those in power want to remove as much of Gould's influence as quickly as possible.

Then again, it is footy and everyone has different opinions on how footy should be played and what players are needed to make that style effective. Undoubtedly Gould was building a team without Ivan's footy style in mind.

Not guarantee Gus wouldn't of done the same thing.. The shiny new players were always preferred in the top grade

 

[franklin2323]

He had a stacked roster. He had a shitload of depth.

2017 was our best chance....2018 we lost a couple of old heads and it killed us after the referee crackdown.

Griffin imo under-delivered with the squad he had.

Same as Cleary has under-delivered with this one...and now we are in re-build.

This season...all I'm left wondering is....how would we have done under Wayne Bennett?

How was 2017 the best chance? We had a halves pairing consisting of 2 players in their 2nd year of FG. We had a captain off in rehab come finals time.

Compare our side compared to top 4 teams every year we had issues in key positions

 

[Big Mick]

How was 2017 the best chance? We had a halves pairing consisting of 2 players in their 2nd year of FG. We had a captain off in rehab come finals time.

Compare our side compared to top 4 teams every year we had issues in key positions

The roster we had in both 2017 and 2018 were great. This year we lost a lot as well as the fact the coach is seemingly incapable of getting to the players. Only need to look at our bench this year compared to 2016-2018 to know where our depth was this year.

Not disagreeing all those sides had issues in the spine....just the mere fact that our entire squad was so much better.

 

[franklin2323]

The roster we had in both 2017 and 2018 were great. This year we lost a lot as well as the fact the coach is seemingly incapable of getting to the players. Only need to look at our bench this year compared to 2016-2018 to know where our depth was this year.

Not disagreeing all those sides had issues in the spine....just the mere fact that our entire squad was so much better.

Spine is what wins games though. Storm in 2017 for example had 1000 games plus in the spine..

The one thing during Ivan's 1st stint and Hook's time. Even now is spine issues most other positions we stacked up well.. That is why I can't say we underachieved