Rumoured & Confirmed Signings - Part 5

[Disillusioned Tiger]

He’s not under my skin, I’m genuinely interested why he thinks we have a far weaker squad? I think we will be stronger.

Sure it’s weaker, but not far weaker. Your depth will be challenged but your spine is intact. Why do you care what he thinks?

 

[betcats]

Sure it’s weaker, but not far weaker. Your depth will be challenged but your spine is intact. Why do you care what he thinks?

Its a forum, discussion like this is why it exists.

 

[Luke Bowden]

Sure it’s weaker, but not far weaker. Your depth will be challenged but your spine is intact. Why do you care what he thinks?

We have more depth than we did last year.

Why do I care what anyone on here thinks? He made a statement and I’m interested to see if he can justify it, that’s all. I don’t believe he can.

 

[Jane Murray]

g

This is just an accounting trick. The cost of re-signing Crichton is 2.25 million for 3 years. That equates to 750k per year. As far as the cap goes you can offset some of this this year by upgrading his final year of his contract by 250k. If it makes you feel better you can say it’s only costing you 670k per year but in effect a three year extension is still costing you 2.25 million. No matter how you do your math, and whatever helps you sleep at night, that is a massive risk for a 1 year player who is a centre! Good luck!

No one other than Crichton, his manager, and the Panthers, know that monetary valve of his contract. I do not believe this regurgitated diatribe that the papers are spewing out.

 

[franklin2323]

People just look at the losses and just assume we are weaker without breaking it down further.

 

[mxlegend99]

Far weaker?? Please the squad has a season and will have another pre-season under their belt.
The spine will be better, our outside backs will be better.

How are we weaker?

Tamou and Tetevano are pretty big losses to the front row. A weaker front row will make it harder for the spine. It's not far weaker for our top 17. But it is definitely weaker. Our top 30 gets weaker a lot quicker though. We have a lot riding on keeping our top 17 on the field

Experience does not automatically mean improvement. There's absolutely no way to know any of our players will be better in 2021. Some will most likely improve. But some might have played their best possible footy and be looking at a decline in 2021. Our spine especially was so exceptional in 2020 that they set a standard that will be hard enough to match let alone exceed. Not impossible. But certainly not a given.

I think we are almost certainly going to finish lower in 2021 and not go as deep in finals. Luck was a big part of 2020 and that's something you cant count on. From injuries to the bounce of the ball at times. Plus we literally set a standard in the regular season that is nearly impossible to match ever again. Not that we need to match it to have a better overall season. I just think much of 2020 will be hard to replicate in 2021 along with a weaker roster.

 

[Fangs]

Remember that for us to finish lower someone else needs to finish higher.

At the moment I only see Souths improving their position in the 8. I don't see us dropping out of the top 4.

 

[betcats]

Tamou and Tetevano are pretty big losses to the front row. A weaker front row will make it harder for the spine. It's not far weaker for our top 17. But it is definitely weaker. Our top 30 gets weaker a lot quicker though. We have a lot riding on keeping our top 17 on the field

Experience does not automatically mean improvement. There's absolutely no way to know any of our players will be better in 2021. Some will most likely improve. But some might have played their best possible footy and be looking at a decline in 2021. Our spine especially was so exceptional in 2020 that they set a standard that will be hard enough to match let alone exceed. Not impossible. But certainly not a given.

I think we are almost certainly going to finish lower in 2021 and not go as deep in finals. Luck was a big part of 2020 and that's something you cant count on. From injuries to the bounce of the ball at times. Plus we literally set a standard in the regular season that is nearly impossible to match ever again. Not that we need to match it to have a better overall season. I just think much of 2020 will be hard to replicate in 2021 along with a weaker roster.

This is very negative look at it. Our spine will struggle to match what they produced last year? Based on what exactly? I see them improving.

Replacing Tetevano means finding a decent bench prop, that is not hard to do. Tamou is the only loss and Leniu may have surpassed him already.

 

[Jane Murray]

Tamou and Tetevano are pretty big losses to the front row. A weaker front row will make it harder for the spine. It's not far weaker for our top 17. But it is definitely weaker. Our top 30 gets weaker a lot quicker though. We have a lot riding on keeping our top 17 on the field

Experience does not automatically mean improvement. There's absolutely no way to know any of our players will be better in 2021. Some will most likely improve. But some might have played their best possible footy and be looking at a decline in 2021. Our spine especially was so exceptional in 2020 that they set a standard that will be hard enough to match let alone exceed. Not impossible. But certainly not a given.

I think we are almost certainly going to finish lower in 2021 and not go as deep in finals. Luck was a big part of 2020 and that's something you cant count on. From injuries to the bounce of the ball at times. Plus we literally set a standard in the regular season that is nearly impossible to match ever again. Not that we need to match it to have a better overall season. I just think much of 2020 will be hard to replicate in 2021 along with a weaker roster.

What luck did we have last year?

 

[betcats]

What luck did we have last year?

I think we had luck with injuries. That is the one thing that can hurt any team.

 

[Disillusioned Tiger]

What luck did we have last year?

Seriously? Other than Tic Tok boy your top 17 almost played the whole year! I can’t believe how injury free you guys were! At the end of the regular season i think you had all 30 players available to play.

 

[Disillusioned Tiger]

This is very negative look at it. Our spine will struggle to match what they produced last year? Based on what exactly? I see them improving.

Replacing Tetevano means finding a decent bench prop, that is not hard to do. Tamou is the only loss and Leniu may have surpassed him already.

Your spine was incredible last year, there is no way that can get better. Maintaining it is going to be tough. Most teams that finish runners up tend to drop a little the following year. You guys will be top 4 for sure so no major issue.

 

[WestyLife]

Seriously? Other than Tic Tok boy your top 17 almost played the whole year! I can’t believe how injury free you guys were! At the end of the regular season i think you had all 30 players available to play.

We lost Capewell and To'o for long periods of time and at one point had 7 players out.

 

[franklin2323]

Remember that for us to finish lower someone else needs to finish higher.

At the moment I only see Souths improving their position in the 8. I don't see us dropping out of the top 4.

This. No one seems to of dramatically improved or got weaker across the comp

 

[franklin2323]

This is very negative look at it. Our spine will struggle to match what they produced last year? Based on what exactly? I see them improving.

Replacing Tetevano means finding a decent bench prop, that is not hard to do. Tamou is the only loss and Leniu may have surpassed him already.

Leinu wasn't in the top 17 when fit. him in for Tetevano and set. Luai,Crichton and co will continue to develop

 

[betcats]

Your spine was incredible last year, there is no way that can get better. Maintaining it is going to be tough. Most teams that finish runners up tend to drop a little the following year. You guys will be top 4 for sure so no major issue.

Cleary and Luai have a lot of improvement in them I think, Luai in particular steadily improved over the season, I dont think he is even close to done. Api and Edwards I think are somewhere close to their best already but they are both fit and in their primes, no reason to suggest they cannot perform at the same level.

 

[Disillusioned Tiger]

Word out of Concord is Madge has refused a Momirovski release. The saga then continues!

 

[Jane Murray]

I think we had luck with injuries. That is the one thing that can hurt any team.

I wouldn't call that luck. I put it down to their fitness.

 

[Disillusioned Tiger]

We lost Capewell and To'o for long periods of time and at one point had 7 players out.

Capewell was replaced by Martin and To’o is a winger. No loss there!

 

[mxlegend99]

This is very negative look at it. Our spine will struggle to match what they produced last year? Based on what exactly? I see them improving.

Replacing Tetevano means finding a decent bench prop, that is not hard to do. Tamou is the only loss and Leniu may have surpassed him already.

Our spine was damn near perfect in 2020. A standard that is hard to maintain let alone improve on. Put them behind a slightly inferior front row with a target on them and I think it's very difficult to maintain and improve upon 2020 form. Not impossible. But it's an extremely unrealistic expectation to think they can improve and maintain that form throughout the 2021 campaign and into the finals. If they even match it they have done incredibly well.

Tetevano and Tamou would without doubt be in our top 17 if still here. Leota would be the expendable one to fit Leniu in... Who was already part of our top 17 most weeks.

What luck did we have last year?

As answered already. Injuries. Especially in the spine. Edwards being the only one to miss much game time and it was mainly at the start of the season.. the covid break even reduced how many games he would miss.

Compared to a usual season of injuries for our club that was basically winning the lotto for us. We also rarely faced having injuries mount in a position at the same time to end up with our 8th choice winger, 5th choice half etc. Although really our luck was more just not having our usual bad luck. We werent completely unaffected. We just weren't cursed like normal.