You can call Chris Smith a plodder but he's better than geyer and the others this year.
Hassett is way to small and under developed..
It's very concerning the lack of quality particularly in the forwards..
I think marto coming back fit and finding form on the left will help us a lot.
Personally I think there's not a whole lot of changes we can make..
Kenny and Luke are the best hookers at the club atm... we have shit 2nd row depth... and we lack a bit of X factor.
Even tiny offered that bit of X factor last year.. some of the tries he finished were incredible that he had no right to score...
I think at full strength we can give most teams a run... but our attack and skills and X factor is nowhere near what the bunnies is.... our defence would need to be at its absolute best to even have a chance
Chris Smith at 29 is never going to be a regular. So that is plodder
Ball and Flegg have quality so long term we are fine, Short term though you are right to be concerned. Origin time we will play some ordinary footy. That is why losses like last week were bad
There isn't on a whole but players individually have still got a few gears to improve.
If he has been plodding all year than it doesn't say much for the rest of em.. he's been one of the best and most consistent
There was no one in NSW Cup today whose performance would put any pressure on the current players being selected in the top grade. They tried hard, but Jets were always in control. Disappointing again, particularly from some of the players touted as having a bright future, just not happening at present.
No the dire all round depth is slightly worse.
Full strength we can still carve up most teams even with Kenny/Luke
I don‘t think depth is something we had much control over. Our bones have been picked over after winning two premierships, plus there’s been a new club added to the mix.
We needed better focus on who we retained. We should’ve let Crichton walk earlier and keep Api.
Because that is his level, He is the perfect guy for that. Just we wasted a FT spot on him
Looking back on this era in the future the only time we won comps will be with ApiI don‘t think depth is something we had much control over. Our bones have been picked over after winning two premierships, plus there’s been a new club added to the mix.
We needed better focus on who we retained. We should’ve let Crichton walk earlier and keep Api.
We upgraded 3 Flegg players on the eve of the season. Surely a development deal keeps them and we can bring in some fringe guys
Looking back on this era in the future the only time we won comps will be with Api
I'd say we wasted a ft spot on garner... if we paid anymore than 200k for him I'd be furious at Matt Cameron.... at least Smith is on minimums.
That extra 90k on garner might have kept Spencer..
Matt Cameron imo has a lot to answer for atm.
A huge amount of loses... one thing I haven't really seen from him is the ability to identify a young gun..
Gus got his man in kikau.. we need something like that from Matt Cameron.
It's all well and good to develop your own juniors and that's great but he needs to understand what we are lacking across the board and its just not there atm.. so he needs to identify a kid or two to bring in..
Look at everyone we've lost over the last 3 years... capewell, Burton, momo, Staines, api, kiks, soon to be critta and Spencer.. there's others. Tamou was on good coin etc.
I know we've upgraded blokes but we've lost a he'll of a lot more players than other top squads who still seem to be able to recruit well...
Difference is we lose players and replace with a junior on bare minimums. Other top clubs lose top players and than sign other good players.. chooks lose suali and probs jwh but sign Spencer and Dominic young...
We lose Spencer and critta and we will replace Spencer with Lindsay Smith and critta with Taylan may or Jack cole etc..
It's great to replace them with juniors... but Matt Cameron has to realise and pick up where there is difficiencies in the junior ranks and go to market for a few gun kids.
Well Spencer wanted to start, That wasn't going to happen here. Though needing to replace him adequately is what the club controls.
Well the whole recruitment committee. I doubt we have a player here that Ivan doesn't want.
Certainly for depth reasons. You still need multiple FG ready players in the squad.
Cole could be the number 1 option which is fine BUT not if he is the only option and that where we sit now.
Garner admitted he took a decent paycut to come here. So did Peachey, both would of been fine to round out depth. Especially as older heads in a young NSW Cup side
The issue is. We had a hooker unavailable and Peachey was next up. Now is our 3rd choice centre.
Whereas Garner came here as starting 2nd rower not the depth player he should be.
Then you are adding Eisenhuth, Smith, Cogger and co behind them and that is why there is no depth
Who in particular?
The halves we lost to the dolphins left for opportunity to start FG. Doubt we could’ve kept them.
Jack cole is a long way of fg mate
I wouldn’t give up hope just yet. We beat Souths and then only just lost to them, i think we were the better team in that game. And we only just lost to the Broncos.
We can win the premiership this year, but it’s going to be a fair bit harder.
Exactly. Yet is likely next up if Critter or Peachey go down
He is signed for 3 years so the club needs to continue to play him, If they hedged their bets and had multiple options.
No he isn't. Jenkins will play centre before he does.
Not that I necessarily think Jenkins is better.. cole offers more but he has been carved up a few times in defence this year and is just not nrl standard.
I don't necessarily think Jenkins couldn't handle nrl... he's just not going to be a star.. he's just solid