Quade Cooper will join the Parramatta Eels after Rugby World Cup

[boxhead]

sorry to burst your bubble boxhead but 2005 is not as RECENT as ALL the teams i listed.

why not go back to 1986 while you're at it?

Well I'm sorry, but my idea of recent is different to yours

 

[mrpwnd]

If they lose this weekend or in the grand final it won't be because they choked; it'll be because they found themselves behind on the scoreboard (it happens) and lack the players to create something magical. There's Gasnier, who was awesome in his prime, and young enough to get back to that form, and there's Jamie Soward, whose confidence leaves him when he makes a couple of mistakes.

I'm not convinced that going the road of more depth, less stars is the right way to win a premiership. Too often it's the team with poor depth and a couple of match-winners who wins all their finals matches.

Of course this kind of team is susceptible to sucking arse big-time when their superstars miss games, but that's the risk you take.

Unfortunately it looks like a team of champions does better in finals footy than a champion team.

I won't lie, they definately lack creativity and genuine X-factors/gamebreakers. But there's no doubt that overall, they are the most balanced and ideal footy team in the comp atm. What other teams gain from creativity they lose in 80 minute consistency and poorer game plan execution.
If they don't play catch-up footy for the rest of the finals, then the premiership is pretty much theirs.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

so where's jono thurston in all that then?

let me see, grand final "winners" and runner ups in recent years.....

storm....na
manly....na (and here we are with some of you blokes bagging orford relentlessly today :lol
broncos...na
us......that's a slap in the face to the rest of the boys

.....not quite following this point you're trying to make given the line-ups for those teams above

The Storm had by far the best squad - both for depth and stars - which is why they made four consecutive grand finals. But as we saw this year they weren't exactly following the rules.

Manly had a pretty average team, with stars in Orford, Lyon and Stewart. Brisbane had Lockyer, Hodges and Karmichael Hunt. Otherwise they were a shadow of the side that dominated from the early 90's until 2000.

The Tigers, as already pointed out, had Marshall, Prince and Farah. The '04 Bulldogs won with the same squad that was over the cap 2 years earlier, and the Panthers in '03 were awesome through the spine - Wesser, Campbell, Gower and Priddis, yet had nuffies like Luke Rooney, Shane Rodney and Luke Swain in their side.

None of these teams were as strong across the board as the 2010 Dragons are, but all had more stars, especially through the spine.