possm
Coach
- Messages
- 15,909
You have analysed the situation pretty well however, in my honest opinion the remedy needs more attention. SGI has for far too long just ambled along putting loyalty and conservative measures ahead of good management. For me:
1. Dufty was given a good go showing his great attacking skills but also a number of critical skill shortages over a full season in 2018. He MUST rectify his weaknesses to a suitable first grade standard in the PRE-SEASON in order to maintain his spot at fullback. For this reason I remain hopefull that we can recruit a top grade winger/fullback ASAP so that he can be part of our pre-season program. If Dufty come through positively then this winger/fullback would occupy the right wing and be backup for fullback.
2. I would dearly love to see Pearson come through the pre-season as our number one choice for left wing. At the moment it is a hope and frankly over the past few years SGI has gambled far too often on players stepping up to fill a void.
3. The Aitken v Lomax showdown will be the most interesting selection for me. From what I see, Lomax is the better centre however, given that SGI signed Aitken long term when they could have given him a two year contract and extended later, it would be difficult to justify having so much salary cap wallowing away in the ISP. For me it is Lomax at right centre but I really don't have a clue on what to do with Aitken. His defensive reads are a terminal hazzad for our NRL team and he has had 3 years to correct the problem. Lomax showed in just 4 games how a player should defend at right centre.
4. Lafai is a different situation altogether but he too was signed long term by SGI when it would have been more prudent to sign him on a two year deal. when he is on, his attacking skills can be a winner and that goes for his passing game as well however, far too often he is not on-song. In addition he has slowed up a lot; a problem that limits opportunities for his outside winger. If Mann stays, I would prefer Mann to be selected as first choice left centre which may just jolt Lafai into performing at his best.
5. With the exodus of Macdonald and Nightingale, SGI have not seen fit to recruit recognised first grade wingers. Pereira performed adequately as a substitute for an injured Nightingale however, with a new full season at right wing up for grabs, I'd prefer to see a top grade winger/fullback recruited to replace Nightingale with Pereira as a good backup in ISP.
6 & 7. I believe we have two of the best halvesin the competition who play very well to Mary's A plan - power game where our forwards dominate through brute force. I suppose most halves would play well under those circumstances. The need to have a B or even C plan in which they create scoring opportunities for their team mates even when their forwards are not on top. I feel that we shold have co-captains in 2019 - Graham and Widdop. This may free Widdop up a little when Graham is on the field.
8 - 17. Our forward pack is great however, I believe we are still missing one top first grade prop. Yes we can hope that one or two of our young props will come trough during the off-season or Latimore will perform off the bench in 2019. However, I believe if one more top grade prop is not recruited for 2019, we may very well find ourselves in the same position as we were in the past few years; the forwards with injuries and fatigued by around the half way point of the competition. So if the current forward squad is it, I'd be moving Frizell to the middle, T Sims to the right edge and promoting Leilua to the left edge in our run on side. If this were to happen, I would be promoting Robson to the triangle position on the bench.
Let's see how members of our squad perform in the off-seasn and for a change, hope that May selects players on merit.
