Rowe sadly is going to be a necessity, unless we can obtain a better fullback who is willing to sit in reggies for most of the time and wait for Tedesco to get injured.
He's young and playing in a side in abysmal form. He took about 4 weeks to start playing well and then he was dropped. if he can go through a lot (and I mean a lot) of training focusing on catching and positioning, he'll be okay.
Sironen is an issue. The kids has talent. But it's talent as a five-eighth. He's got the body of a barnstorming back rower, but the brain of a 6. That's his problem.
He needs to be given dedicated training on being a back rower, running hard, straight lines, running angled inside lines when his half is drifting towards him, running decoys etc. At the moment, he's trying to do what he's told to do, but his instincts as a #6 take over, and he just stutter steps everywhere.
Young blokes I'm willing to give a chance. Older players shouldn't need that chance. Blair and Galloway, for the money they are getting, are holding us back big time.
We could cut those two and buy a very decent prop and back rower to replace them. I'll take a guess and say that Galloway and Blair combined are probably paid around the 700-800k mark.
Out the back, simply put, Lawrence needs to lose weight because he has clearly bulked up during this season. He looked a lot lighter and faster at the start of the year. I'd have him doing sprints all off-season. When the new season starts, if he isn't in any way improved, he can play reggies.
We need an NRL quality centre who can replace Lawrence. It will give him the kick in the arse he's never had but sorely needs. Lift your game or lose your spot.
Our back row is a big issue. We have no presence on the finge of the ruck in attack or defence. We are now holding our own for the first time ever in the middle, but the edges are just disgraceful.
Thompson and Paterson can go, bring in at least one top quality back rower who knows how to defend more than anything. We're going to have possibly the most inept defensive halves next year, we cannot have shit defenders in the back row standing next to them on the defensive line.
I'd seriously consider moving Simona to the wing too. He has been starved of decent ball this year, at least on the wing, the opponents will kick the ball to him.
Buchanan has to either improve immensely, or go. Lodge already appears a much better prospect, along with Brown. I'd be expecting both those two to feature in a lot more games in the NRL side next year.
We're stuck with Richards. Teach the big bastard how to defend as a centre. It baffles me how a human his size is so easy to dispose of in defence. And he's always been average under the high ball. he can get up there, but his hands or his positioning let him down.
A fully fit squad next year should look like
1 - Tedesco
2 - Nofoaluma
3 - Richards
4 - Lawrence
5 - Simona
6 - Moses
7 - Brooks
8 - Woods
9 - Farah
10 - Seumanufagai
11 - new second rower
12 - new second rower
13 - Sironen
14 - Gavet
15 - Taupau
16 - Lodge/Brown
17 - Austin
18 - new left centre (young)
19 - new right centre (young)
4 signings in one off season. Big ask. Doubt it will happen.