For the last couple of years when everyone and their dog were awarding us the Spoon I said no effing way do we get the spoon, we'll never get the spoon. We came close, very close. Next year though, unless we make some major signings in crucial positions and get Hunt to do his job 100% we are going to get the Spoon or runner up.
If we run out the same team with only a couple of like for like replacements we're doomed because every other team in the comp already knows what it takes to beat us, they just spent 2023 doing just that and it wasn't that hard. Our forwards put up a reasonable fight for 30 minutes a half but while you're waiting for them to tire you can just attack us out wide and find an almost free passage to score in the corners or bomb away and watch us watch the ball bounce or drop it.
Seriously, who are we going to beat ? The Bulldogs and Tigers have made more good signings and appointed new (and likely better) coaches. The Titans underachieved dramatically this year, look at their forward pack, how they finished so low is a bloody mystery. The Dolphins, Manly, Cows are likely to hover around the same level on the ladder as they did this year.
If you're relying on Flanagan Snr, he's got his work cut out for him but he'll be busy trying to make his son a star and trying to win over Hunt and get him to co-operate on the coaches' terms not his own. While also trying to make Lomax a fullback - good luck with that. M:I-7 Hunt Is Missing.
Luai or Mam could help and maybe Cogger and Jordan McClean type signings in the forwards but all unlikely and we'd need all of them (at least 3) to be any hope of improving and even then we'd still have the flimsiest backline, defensively, in the comp. Without a major improvement in defence across the park, we're going nowhere, least of all higher up the ladder.
Verdict - bottom 2
