We are making the 8

[Vic Mackey]

Well one thing we have going for us is that it seems like the bottom 6 teams are already done for the year.

However there’s 12 games left and 9 of them are against sides 9th or higher. The sharks for instance have 6. We’ve been royally screwed over with the new draw, gone from what was considered the 2nd easiest to the hardest. That and injuries/suspensions will likely see us just miss out....again

 

[Fordy20]

Well one thing we have going for us is that it seems like the bottom 6 teams are already done for the year.

However there’s 12 games left and 9 of them are against sides 9th or higher. The sharks for instance have 6. We’ve been royally screwed over with the new draw, gone from what was considered the 2nd easiest to the hardest. That and injuries/suspensions will likely see us just miss out....again

Agreed. We have a theoretical chance of playing finals football, but I'm not confident of grabbing one of the two remaining spots in the 8, especially given we have the hardest draw in the comp. Manly have a pretty hard draw as well and without Tommy Turbo they look a bit lacklustre in attack, so they will probably miss out, meaning we'll end the season in our traditional spot of 9th

 

[Vic Mackey]

Agreed. We have a theoretical chance of playing finals football, but I'm not confident of grabbing one of the two remaining spots in the 8, especially given we have the hardest draw in the comp. Manly have a pretty hard draw as well and without Tommy Turbo they look a bit lacklustre in attack, so they will probably miss out, meaning we'll end the season in our traditional spot of 9th

Manly will struggle to beat any top 8 side without Turbo

Raiders are down on form and losing more and more players each week

Souths havent looked like beating a top 8 side, however you would expect them to click into gear at some stage

Sharks arent that good and to me are clearly the worst of the top 10 however have the draw from heaven

Teams like the Panthers and Knights are probably already home yet could fall apart with an injury or two (they've had a blessed run so far)

So yes we're a chance, however we're going to need a shitload more luck then we've had so far

 

[super_coach]

If we had taken our chances we would have just made the eight, but with the draw ahead, injury toll and JL suspension we will probably finish 10th

 

[BrotherJim05]

Our run home is hit and miss, Knights and Penrith will be very tough but winnable at full strength. Warriors, Broncos, Bulldogs are all beatable, Manly will be touch and go depending on Turbo's fitness.

The real glaring concerns are Roosters, Storm and having to play Parra twice.

I think we can win 5-6 of our next 11 games, putting us on 18-20 points by end of season. Given the shorter draw I think that will be just enough to scrap into 8th-9th.

Knowing us, it will come down to a final playoff against Parra who will flog us and we will finish 9th...

 

[Das Hassler]

Plus...no SOO weakened teams this year ...not that it ever helped us much

 

[Vic Mackey]

Knowing us, it will come down to a final playoff against Parra who will flog us and we will finish 9th...

my hope is that Parra are safely in the top 4 and the last round means nothing to their final ladder spot, so they rest a shitload of players

we also play storm in the second last round and Bellamy traditionally starts resting key players a couple of weeks out from the finals

Of course this will all mean nothing if we’re not in finals contention

 

[Marshall_magic]

At the moment there are 6 “good” teams, 6 “bad” teams and 4 “okay” teams. The 6 good teams are all looking nailed on to make the 8 (storm, roosters, eels, knights, panthers and raiders) the bad teams all look likely to miss out unless they flip their form on a dime (Titans, broncos, cowboys, warriors, dragons and bulldogs).

That leaves us, manly, Souths and Cronulla fighting it out for two spots. Any game against these three sides is a must win. I feel like we are stronger than Souths and Cronulla, and with Manly’s injuries and suspensions I can see them dropping games they should be winning. This is probably our best shake at the 8 in five seasons, so long as we don’t throw away wins like the titans. Unlike previous seasons when we are coming up against bad teams we seem capable of putting them away like a top 8 team should.

 

[Tigerm]

At the moment there are 6 “good” teams, 6 “bad” teams and 4 “okay” teams. The 6 good teams are all looking nailed on to make the 8 (storm, roosters, eels, knights, panthers and raiders) the bad teams all look likely to miss out unless they flip their form on a dime (Titans, broncos, cowboys, warriors, dragons and bulldogs).

That leaves us, manly, Souths and Cronulla fighting it out for two spots. Any game against these three sides is a must win. I feel like we are stronger than Souths and Cronulla, and with Manly’s injuries and suspensions I can see them dropping games they should be winning. This is probably our best shake at the 8 in five seasons, so long as we don’t throw away wins like the titans. Unlike previous seasons when we are coming up against bad teams we seem capable of putting them away like a top 8 team should.

Not crying doom, but IMO if we don't win tonight, we probably don't deserve to be in it.

 

[BrotherJim05]

Not crying doom, but IMO if we don't win tonight, we probably don't deserve to be in it.

Not sure if that's fair, we have a buttload of injuries. If we had BJ, Twal, Musgrove in the side we are much much stronger

 

[Tigerm]

Not sure if that's fair, we have a buttload of injuries. If we had BJ, Twal, Musgrove in the side we are much much stronger

That's true, but every team has injuries. We have a squad, so we should have depth to cover it.

I mean Madge let CT go and has put our backline in the shit. We have some good forwards who need to aim up as well.

 

[stryker]

I saw nothing tonight to suggest we play finals.
We run around like headless chooks with the ball.
Our outside defence is too uncertain.
No leadership.
We’ll win a couple more this year but not enough.

 

[Fordy20]

That's true, but every team has injuries. We have a squad, so we should have depth to cover it.

I mean Madge let CT go and has put our backline in the shit. We have some good forwards who need to aim up as well.

Letting CT go is definitely to our detriment, but I admire the fact that our club did the right thing by letting CT go to Gold Coast to be their starting fullback for the rest of the season. Our backline depth was always going to be a problem until we freed up some cap space and that was never happening until next year. The good thing is that blokes like Talau and Hoffman get some first grade experience.

 

[Mario chalmers]

The cap space tied up in Reynolds, Mbye and Packer leaves us too light on for talent at the other end of the roster. Given their salaries those 3 players should be our best contributors.

The deadline for player movements is August 3. I would tell these guys tomorrow that they are not going to be offered new deals and hopefully the message prompts them to explore other options.

ET
Eiso
Clark
Lawrence
McQueen
Jennings

There are guys on minimum wage at other clubs who would walk into our side. Lachlan Timm has dominated ISP for years and cannot get a run at Saints. Im sure there are others. If we can't beat Souths tonight with a number of the guys above playing central roles we may as well try our luck with recycled / untried players.

 

[Tigers Tale]

No we aren't....and I doubt it will be 9th either.

 

[Tiger05]

The cap space tied up in Reynolds, Mbye and Packer leaves us too light on for talent at the other end of the roster.

Plus McQueen. It's slowly being fixed but it's hard to compete when you have guys that are borderline first graders taking up huge chunks of your salary cap.

 

[Vic Mackey]

So with the raiders losing and playing Easts next week, then souths missing some players and playing Newcastle

Believe it or not if we beat the Broncos there’s a good chance we could be in 6th

 

[Fordy20]

I'm sure we'll be floating there abouts all season, but come finals time we'll be in our traditional position of 9th or maybe 10th. Our run home is too hard especially with all the injuries.

 

[BrotherJim05]

Injuries have killed us. This is the time we want players playing with the same teammates to build combinations.