It's obvious that Smith, Paulo, Fui, Kelly and possibly Tonga are not going to get any better. Yes, in short bursts they are great but with the '"new" speed of the game, short bursts are not of any long-term benefit anymore. It will not be enough to win most games. If I was Brad Arthur, I would be grooming more juniors into the top 17, players who have power, skill, size, agility and stamina and get them used to playing in the "new" speed of the NRL ASAP this year.
This is a VERY VERY different game to what we've had since 2002.
The game is ONLY going to get faster as this season progresses and what we now need is a bunch of players groomed for the "new" speed and stamina game.
As far as I am concerned if we don't address this faster game issue, starting this week, we will fall further and further behind as this season unfolds. Smith, Fui, Paulo, Kelly, are NOT up to this "new" speed game, they just don't have it in them to shift another few gears. What we've seen from them thus far this season is it. There is nothing else left in the tank for them. This includes Tonga unles he was injured last night or just needs time for his body to get used to playing 80 minutes of NRL to develop match fitness, to find a few more speed/stamina gears to shift into.
Yes, I've been a strong supporter of Kelly but after last nights showing he just does not have the power, stamina, skill and brains for this modern speed game. Kelly has to go.
I reckon a lot of teams with aged squads will fall by the way side this season. Teams with much younger squads, filled with speed, power, stamina and brains will excel and fight for the top 8. Unless we make changes NOW, we are f**ked, we'll fall too far behind to be able to catch up.
The good news is we have a bunch of excellent young ones READY to be groomed NOW.
Who controls the ruck and the ball controls the speed game and have the advantage of wearing down defenses quickly. Without lots of stamina in reserve many cracks will appear in defenses like ours (Smith, Kelly, Paulo, etc) and the game is LOST.
The Roosters beat us in the up-tempo power-speed game - most of our players did not drop off between-the-ears (give up) , they just ran out of petrol, were totally f**ked by half-time.
