I remain very, very underwhelmed by the current squad for 22. Admittedly, we still have 3 or so spits to fill but we are weak in centres and strike second row. Plus we are carry question marks over Tamou and Liddle continuing and mid season medical returns of Doueihi, Talau before the whistle has even been blown. I would not be surprised to see a 1 year offer to Corey Norman to provide additional halves cover.
The club needs to quickly decide / resolve the Hodgson question and Brooks future. Pre season training is starting and we need to get going. New combinations take a bit of time. More than anything we need to settle the spin with decisions pretty much now.
Good post on many fronts.
Personally I hope we stay away from Hodgson. 32 with bad knees - just too much of a risk.
Also it seems that Brooks was never leaving with talk now moving on to Scott drinkwater being wanted at newcastle. Kind of weird that the story has just died out?
I watched a replay of the golden point game against Souths earlier tonight. Its actually a different experience watching matches so far after the fact when you are much less emotional!
Your point about centres and second row being weak is spot on. In the souths game we ran Roberts as right centre. He got monstered by Gagai all night. Found out in defence a few times also. Just too small for the modern game.
On the left we played AJ Kepaoa - He made far less errors than he normally would on the wing but he is still so far short of NRL standard. Misreads the play in attack and defence and showed no interest in running the ball out of our end.
If Roberts and Kepaoa are potentially our best centre options then we are in serious trouble
Back row v Souths it was Joffa on the right edge. He is just not big enough nor fast enough. Gets smashed most times he carts it forward and slow to move laterally in defence. Replaced by Garner midway through who is also not big enough. When these guys take it up and get hammered we lose any hope of winning the battle for field position.
The positives on the flip side from this Souths replay
Musgrove has a strong carry
Luciano so much better on the left side
Laurie can only get better (its hard to believe this was his first year)
Simpkin is NRL quality at 9. Should never have been thrown in for 85 mins in his first game mind you!
No idea who the 3 spots go to but the fact we have not signed anyone yet is fairly concerning? Arent all remaining players returning to training next week?
