2020 season

[Perth Tiger]

I can foresee lots of courage. A few against the odds wins. A mid season form slump with a late season revival. A couple of unforgivable losses and with the current squad probably around a 10th or 11th finish.

In saying that, I expect a lot of player movement in the new year and if we come out ahead in that we might finally change our usual narrative.

 

[BrotherJim05]

The only way I can see us having any sort of a decent season is if we randomly sign a speedster or two either ASAP or mid-season, and Packer finding his old form and leading from the front.

If Benji goes down we are f**ked

 

[Magpies Forever]

The only way I can see us having any sort of a decent season is if we randomly sign a speedster or two either ASAP or mid-season, and Packer finding his old form and leading from the front.

If Benji goes down we are f**ked

This is where I hope WT have improved at succession planning. Benji's last year- we have recruited Walters as a somewhat utility capable of hooker but really a halves player and we also have Talau as a pretty good 5/8 currently slated to play centres / wing but in receipt of kudos from Benji and a recommendation that Talau is quite capable of replacing him. AND there is John Reynolds still lingering around (lord knows why he didnt try to go elsewhere)

OK- who is the #1 to replace Benji? They need to be getting time in that position either in CC or replacing Benji when needed. No sense in shopping the role around to these players. Pick one and thats it.

No point in referring to the weakness at hooker. Liddle is out for X amount of time and looks like we are making do for that X amount of time during the actual NRL 2020 season with competition points and position on the ladder at stake with a makeshift fill in for one of the four crucial spine positions in a league team..

I think our centres can be solid to good if we keep Mbye and Momorovski there but both wings dont inspire attacking thoughts. If Thompson remains at fullback again we will have an adequate player in the role but not inspiring.

Everybody knows my view on Brooks and his position / role at halfback so Im not going to rabbit on about it, beyond saying WT must ensure that his 5/8 halves partner after Benji remains a thinker and organiser and not just a runner.

For the first time in a long time I feel the forward pack (less hooker) is good and capable to holding opposition and dominating more than a few of these teams.

 

[Tigerm]

I think that most of the players have another season under there belt and the squad should improve because of this.
The forwards look like the group who will carry us.
The backs are tradesman like but too slow. Hurry up JAC.
The halves are similar.
So we need to play to our strengths, which is forwards dominating & astute kicking to assist our backs.
I'm still confident we can improve on last season.

 

[Shredder]

I reckon Mbye will be playing hooker for at least most of the season. Maybe with Walters off the bench as cover?

I read somewhere ages ago that Talau is being groomed to replace Benji.

Hooker and Fullback are my number one concerns. Followed by our lack of strike out wide.

Hopefully Momo has been practicing his kicking in the off season as well.

For mine, its middle of the pack again. Scrapping into the finals (current roster).

Its more about thinking backwards and about who I think wont make the 8. Ive got Newcastle, Titans, Penrith, Dogs, St George, Sharks and the Cows all missing out. Brissy are an each way bet.

 

[Tigerm]

Maybe Cronk will be a bigger loss then many realise. They bombed out of plenty of finals before he got there. Anyway that probably just means Melbourne win it...goody.

As for us, we will have our usual feel-good win at Leichhardt Oval then our mid season fade before losing twice to the Titans. But on a positive note at least Warriors or Saints will get the spoon.

I agree with Cronk and if they do toss LM out, then they are certainly are coming back to the pack.
But I don't see Storm up there either, they also have lost some players and CS is getting on and they really don't have any proven halves, do they? Both the wingers don't want to be there, so Bellamy will earn his pay this season I reckon.

Rabbits and Raiders for mine. Has Jack Wighton resigned yet??? He would be a great acquisition for us.

 

[Tiger05]

I reckon Mbye will be playing hooker for at least most of the season. Maybe with Walters off the bench as cover?

I read somewhere ages ago that Talau is being groomed to replace Benji.

Hooker and Fullback are my number one concerns. Followed by our lack of strike out wide.

Hopefully Momo has been practicing his kicking in the off season as well.

For mine, its middle of the pack again. Scrapping into the finals (current roster).

Its more about thinking backwards and about who I think wont make the 8. Ive got Newcastle, Titans, Penrith, Dogs, St George, Sharks and the Cows all missing out. Brissy are an each way bet.

Heaps of good points in all the posts above.

I also think that hooker is a massive problem and Mbye will be the guy they look to in order to fix it. I also think they will have to play someone on the bench to cover whoever plays hooker. I reckon Walters will probably offer more than Reynolds but let's wait and see.

Thompson isn't enough of a threat and we don't have many players in the outside backs who are threats. We also need a replacement for Benji.

Our forwards are pretty good but I think we still need some improvement there over the next couple of seasons. The club targeting quality juniors will probably lead to some turnover here over time.

I reckon next year without a gun signing at fullback is going to be a struggle. We need some class in that role and we don't have any area where we are dominant in. I reckon our halves are great and Reynolds is an awesome back-up but they need options and we lack top class outside backs.

I like the direction that we are going in mainly because we haven't stuffed our cap up for the next 5 years. If we can keep targeting quality juniors we will at some point have the chance to get a better team on the park. The juniors will either come on or we will purchase some better players.

 

[Shredder]

The bad news is that next years "official" player market doesnt look too crash hot

Just our luck, we have cash and there is f**k all available.

Pick of the fullbacks: Hiku and Kahu
Pick of the centres: Gerard Beale and Euan Aiken (Croker also off contract but no way Canberra lets him go)
Pick of the wingers: Sandor Earl.
Pick of the Hookers: None

If Holmes plays fullback Kahu might be looking for a new home. I cant see Melb letting Earl go given they have lost one first grade winger and are about to lose another.

I think we should stick with Juniors and try the UK.

 

[Rhyno]

The bad news is that next years "official" player market doesnt look too crash hot

Just our luck, we have cash and there is f**k all available.

Pick of the fullbacks: Hiku and Kahu
Pick of the centres: Gerard Beale and Euan Aiken (Croker also off contract but no way Canberra lets him go)
Pick of the wingers: Sandor Earl.
Pick of the Hookers: None

If Holmes plays fullback Kahu might be looking for a new home. I cant see Melb letting Earl go given they have lost one first grade winger and are about to lose another.

I think we should stick with Juniors and try the UK.

Kahu has returned to the broncos

 

[Magpies Forever]

I think since there is slim pickings amongst the NRL competition it would be silly not to explore the English Super League. Canberra has done well with recruiting there. The only problem may be Toronto team taking up player interest. We should also look at Islands, PNG and NZ. I'd have thought Maguire being NZ coach would spark some interest amongst islanders and NZ players. We could raid Warriors except there more of a basket case than us in terms of player performance vs expectations.

 

[Tigerm]

I think since there is slim pickings amongst the NRL competition it would be silly not to explore the English Super League. Canberra has done well with recruiting there. The only problem may be Toronto team taking up player interest. We should also look at Islands, PNG and NZ. I'd have thought Maguire being NZ coach would spark some interest amongst islanders and NZ players. We could raid Warriors except there more of a basket case than us in terms of player performance vs expectations.

I assumed Madge went over to UK earlier to look at a few players, though seems to have come of it?

 

[Magpies Forever]

I assumed Madge went over to UK earlier to look at a few players, though seems to have come of it?

Yes. I'm hoping we may hear something about this in the next week or so. Hopefully a good news signing.

Edit- yes i know,the optomist wins this time................ at least until the actual news comes out.

 

[macnaz]

Pommys are renown for tough forwards , at the moment we desperately need backs , I'd be looking for Fijian players who tend to have speed and Height.

 

[Magpies Forever]

Pommys are renown for tough forwards , at the moment we desperately need backs , I'd be looking for Fijian players who tend to have speed and Height.

Yep. Pity that linkage with the Fiji competition got waylaid, not sure what happened there but I thought that WT had the inside running on getting that sorted.

 

[Magpies Forever]

Pommys are renown for tough forwards , at the moment we desperately need backs , I'd be looking for Fijian players who tend to have speed and Height.

Mind you a tough forward or two would not go astray. We have Clark, Taylor, McQueen and Eisenhuth coming off contract at seasons end I think. I'd only really keep Clark from that list

 

[Tiger05]

I think we should stick with Juniors and try the UK.

We need to improve the squad but to do that we need gun players. We have a decent team. We just need to purchase or develop and retain some top tier players.

I consider Matterson a top tier player and he left after one season. We had Tedesco as well. Moses has also turned into a pretty good player. Woods when he started was a quality player. We will get a quality player soon. It will be retaining them and getting another couple.

I hate to be pessimistic but until we get some talent we have one of the weaker teams in the comp.

 

[macnaz]

Yep. Pity that linkage with the Fiji competition got waylaid, not sure what happened there but I thought that WT had the inside running on getting that sorted.

Not sure what happened?. . NRL V Weststigers should be enough to explain what happened.

 

[macnaz]

If we happen to land the fox and AJ who would you pick as 1 ,2 and 5 ?
5= Fox
2= AJ
1= CT
Leaves Jennings and Nofo in 2nd's as far as I can see.

 

[Tigerm]

Just got Kayo put on and have been looking at of some our last games from last year, I feel more than comfortable with the idea that Marshal & Reynolds will share the 9 & 6 spots, rotating as required. Depth could be an issue if one of them gets injured though.

I think Momo deserves first crack at centre (with Mbye).

I think we will have genuine competition in the backs and with a good kicking game (Marshal & Reynolds) we should be OK, but if we do get JAC, we will have the speed to really cause some upsets.

 

[super_coach]

Everything starts with the no9 and we don’t have one. We have some stop gap ones, but we don’t have a real one ready to go in round one. So I think to go one better than last year is basically not going to happen.