I'm actually looking forward to Glen Turner appearing in the mighty lime green. I think he could be an outstanding buy for us. I've never seen Pamatangi play, but by the sounds of it he could be a good prospect. Irwin could also prove to be a good pickup, but my hopes (along with most of us) are for guys like Frawley and Best to step up in the threequarters where (on paper) we look the weakest.
As always, the key will be the halves/hooker combination. Dobbo looked to be a quality player before he left for the ESL and from all accounts he's carved it up over there under a fair bit of pressure - but I've seen a lot of "quality" ESL players come over here and look pretty ordinary, so I guess we'll wait and see.
2006 was one of the most frustrating on record. IMO there were guys in PL that should have got a chance in FG and we only got into the finals because of a miraculous golden point record. Being in the finals was nice - but choking big time with a sh!thouse gameplan was pretty ordinary. Our strongest asset was the committment the boys had for each other, but having said that, we've also had a large exodus at the end of the year. On top of that, the Schif debacle was nearly the worst thing I've ever seen at the club in 25 years.
We had a good side that often took advantage when the opposition weren't at their best (partricularly the wins against the Dogs, Eels, Dragons, Broncos and Roosters), but we also got hammered a couple of times when we were under the pump and also managed to get smacked by Souths (nearly twice I might add). I had a good time watching them play each week, but other than the emergence of my Tonguey and Carney, 2006 certainly won't go down in my record books as overly "successful" - beating the wooden spoon predictions of the arrogant Sydney media isn't something to be overly happy about.