I think that Bellamy is the best coach going around but Cleary is better than Bennett at this stage of his career. Bennett took over a top 4 side at the Rabbits and despite adding some seriously good players, wasn’t able to get them over the line. What was most disappointing was a) his failure to really develop the juniors and b) the difference between their best and worst performances (which led to them not being in the right spot come finals time). Cleary has taken a team of players that had a lot of promise but horrible structure and terrible inconsistency, and made them in to the most consistently excellent team in the comp, that wins game through outplaying you over an 80 minute performance. It’s tough to game plan against.
In terms of the retention decisions the club has made the right decisions, shown by the fact we are back-to-back champions and the amount of players we have in the WC and SOO. In particular;
- signing up the 6, 7, 13 of this team on longer term deals. Individually brilliant players but amazing as a group. In particular, the decision to anoint Luai at 6 has been shown to be spot on. What he does for the team might be unseen by the untrained eye, but he is a great foil for the other two given what he can do in the final 20 (being dangerous through the run, pass or kick) and his edge defence is first class. He is also amazing for culture. There is a reason he is first choice SOO.
- deciding to go softly at Burton (which they understood meant he would go). Burton might be good in the future but I would argue he is barely living up to his 500k price tags at the moment and isn’t worth 1m, because when you are being paid that much you need to have no weaknesses in your game and able to win matches on your own. Burton needs to a) become a better defend (some of his decisions the other night against Italy were putrid. I would give him a pass saying that he was defending at centre, but his efforts with the Dogs are little better), b) improve his tactical kicking game and c) learn to play both sides of the park.
c) let Api go given he wanted a longer term contract. We all agree Api is great but given what we all saw at the end of the back end of the year it is obvious he is slowing down and not able to be a 80 minute player; that is no negative given his age as he was due to slow down at some stage. Paying someone 800k to come off the bench for the next three years is how you get your salary cap out of whack and I am glad the club is taking a long term view.
- I feel the same about Kiks. Along with Api will be a Panther legend; but while we didn’t see it this year, for a human of his size that relies on athletisicism I see his drop off over the next two years being precipitous.
- I think anyone watching the last 3 months of football that sees Martin as anything but a back rower has probably been drinking a few too many long necks during the coverage. The guy has been an animal and his effectiveness would have been blunted in the middle.
The one mistake I do think the Panthers have made is Fish’s contract. Love him to bits, but the contract size and length for a front rowers really worries me. I fear in 20 months time we will be talking about how we regret that contract, particularly if we have lost Spencer in the interim.
