Rusty was awful this year. I don't give a rat's arse how much he tried, he never broke the line and never looked threatening in attack. His defense was sometimes decent, but that's not really enough to keep you in the run on side. At least the likes of Carmont, Quinn etc. can break the line from time to time.
Witt hasn't been as good in five eighth as he needs to be. Maybe some time training with Joey in the off season could improve him, Lord knows it did wonders for Kidley.
I don't know where you get the idea that MK isn't worthy of his spot in the top seventeen. Like Richo, he tries his arse off, and unlike Richo- he achieves something by doing so. His defence is consistently good, and while he could do with some finesse when carting the ball up, at least he's made an impact in the time given to him by Hagan. Price as one of our more consistent top tacklers when he was still playing starting football for us too.
I do, however, agree that we can't sit on our backsides and expect this year's side to fire. Full strength, maybe, we're a top four side without BK, Tahu, Robbie O, and Ennis. In another year, with most of our squad getting older and most of our young guns either too young or too mundane- we'll be screwed.
I'm not sure whether or not Franze, Stringer, and Bird provide us with an answer- but I'm sure we need somebody. We haven't made a decent signing since BK/Parsons at the end of 1999- while almost every other side is always active in their recruitment. We need to be too, and we can't just rely on our young guns and Seage/Witt maturing into world class footballers.
