The team could've just as easily come 12th as 4th. Seriously we had one of the softest draws of all time, and won a lot of games by under 6 points. We played the Storm and Roosters once each and the time we played Melbourne they had nobody. We got anihilated by the Roosters. We played the Cowboys when they first lost JT and beat them, played them with him and got destroyed.
Our F/A was in the negative most of the season and we played something like 14 of our last 15 at ANZ. The FA got a huge boost when we thrashed the Titans who fielded an absolute turd of a team in the last couple of games of the season. Everything draw wise seemed to break our way and we snuck into 4th, despite losing at home to the Knights who won about 3 games all season when our destiny of a top 4 finish was in our own hands.
We dropped games against teams like the Titans and got pumped by the Warriors and Raiders. Almost every other game was a complete scrap where the side won through some individual brilliance (Usually by Semi or Gutho) along with 90% of the time showing up with a good attitude and reasonable discipline.
Easily our best performances of the season were round 2 vs St George and our semi final loss to Melbourne.
So we come into this season thinking we're sh!t hot and a genuine contender off the back of 2016 and more time together? This isn't a team of 20 year olds developing together. This is a team that performed pretty much to their max in 2016 and any hopes of a better 2017 were based on Hayne being able to do as well as Semi, and Moses taking a jump to a rep level player. There's been no blooding of young players, no pathway for kids to get into the team. The recruitment has been disgusting. We've known Semi was leaving for a year now and we've entered the season with ZERO specialist wingers. There's still time to do something this season but I think a lot of people, including the coach, have seriously overrated the squad coming into this season. We've known for a year we're an undersized pack so we bought the biggest heap of shite we could find. Unbelievable.
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my bad (edited)
Great points Girth, The Sharks , Broncos Manly and St.George all fell,of a cliff in the last 6 weeks which helped us. We couldn't even beat the lowly knights at the end of the season.
We concede too many points under Arthur but every parra fan knew that when the cowboys knocked us out we got out muscled by their big pack.
For sure B.A. Would know this and buy players we needed. Sterlo bagged signing Hayne saying we didn't need him.
The game plan hasn't evolved we are as boring as the 2017 Bulldogs and Arthur won't change a thing because he can't adapt to change has no clue. The electric eels are dead and buried.
Sadly, I think the wooden spoon is headed our way in 2018. I’ve see enough to say we can’t compete with any sides, not even a mediocre Sharks team missing a few of their best players. We might scrap the odd victory, but I can’t see us winning more than 2-3 games at this stage.
Sometimes spoons are a good thing. It forces change which we desperately need.