The problems with the Raiders sqaud

[TiTTieS_[CNTDN]]

My belief is that the spread of players over each position is way too eratic. Look at positions such as the halves and we are never ever short for qaulity players. Fullback we are fine with Schif, Graham and Mogg all capable of playing there. Wings we have plenty of quality there. Back rowers are also more than counted for. Prop forwards, hooker and centres are going to be our main concerns next year - hooker only if Germ gets injured.

The way I see it is that we have two major problems:
First, if the team is lacking reasonable quality in two key positional areas such as centres and props, then the team won't function quite as well as it would otherwise.

Second, the positions where we have more than enough players will cause the problem of the self-fullfilling prophecy leading to the players getting a lower self-efficacy. In plain english, this means that those who are good first grade players but not getting a regular run will think that they are not good enough to play first grade where as in reality they could play at several other clubs and be in the starting line up.

The other day I was interested to see how McFadden was going down at the Storm - but it turns out that he isn't. I looked in the starting line up for the Panthers game but he obviously wasn't there so I checked the injuries but he wasn't there either. I thought, ok, maybe he is in the line up for a feeder club and hey presto, he was at hooker, not half back, for Norths in the QLD cup. The point to raise here is that if we wanted him back, what would we do with players like Carney and Campese? It seems to me that for the last few years at least that management has been bolstering the wrong areas. Look at this year, we have tageted Brent Kite, Matt Orford, Amos Roberts, Brett Firman, Johnathan Thurston and Frank Pritchard. The only one of those that we could use is Roberts. The rest are either Forwards or halves. Then there is Kidwell who we targeted - another forward. We bought Smith for next year who is another forward/half.
It makes you wonder a bit about management's strategies on a different level, doesn't it?

 

[I Bleed Green]

Kidwell, Kite or Pritchard would have been great signings for the positions that we need... in the forwards. Same with Webb.

Orford, Thurston and Firman were spoken about as possible buys, but then management pulled out of the race when they realised Carney was the future and they wanted to get a veteran hand to help build the bridge to get to Carney on a full-time basis.

Roberts was talked about as a replacement for Monas, but he signed with the Roosters before Monas left.

Talking about centres, the only real quality centre in the market was Cross (even though I don't rate him that much), and even then he re-signed with the Roosters before June 30.

IMO I don't think we have a problem with identifying who to buy, because we've targeted some very, very good players. The problem is getting their signature. This is what management needs to focus on. How they can improve their chances to actually sign someone decent.

 

[VictorTheViking]

Brett Howland wouldnt be a bad replacement for monas until milne is up to the task, he is fast, can find the try line (even though he doesnt get much of a chance at penrith) hell even if we could convince girdler to play a year or two with us it would be decent, he is experienced, but the only other one on the market worth really targetting would be lyon, and he isnt really on the market unless elliott could talk smith around.

 

[BAY72]

We still have the problem of players not wanting to move to Canberra because they fear that there chances of playing for a rep team is decreased. Sadly I think this as well, we are going to have to do something about this, before we have any chance of buying top grade players.

 

[TiTTieS_[CNTDN]]

Maybe I need to clarify??? The point I was trying to make is that management doesn't go after the wrong players because they are shit, but because they are in the positions where we are already strong. E.g. Firmin and Orford are both brilliant players at halfback, but we already have a brilliant half back in McLinden.

When we keep bolstering areas that we are already strong in, it means that somebody is going to miss out on playing NRL footy - even though they should rightly be there because they are good enough.

 

[Freddo]

we cant go screaming at the managemen tand calling for there heads like germ said something needs to be done. i dont think a total restruture of the organisation is the answer. and the rep player side of things. we had davico ,mongahan and ohara in country origin ohara the only one to play cus the other 2 got injuried but he mad a blues jumper at least. joel is abit of a cry baby if he had played country origin he would have more than likely got in but he would have had to play alright too.

we dont need to buy players its just a waste of money unless we get some value out of them. IE brad drew we bought him did well for a bit now hes back to playin crap. compare that too adam mogg we didnt pay too much for him he took abit to find his feet but hes going great guns now.

and that was the same management we have now.

we have good quality players but injuries suspetitons have cost us.

 

[chopper]

IMO joal screwed canberra while he was off watching his brother play and talking to ricky leaving us in the dark making us think he might sign again we lost a chance to sign one of the decent players on the market now they are all gone there is no-one left. :x