It's pretty clear with the defection of Israel Folau to the AFL that the Broncos are in an excellent position to snare Inglis. Whether the Storm will need to shed more than 1 of its superstars to remain under the cap remains to be seen but if they do, I suggest we go all out for Cooper Cronk.
Cronk would be a superior acquisition to Inglis for the simple reason that having two amazingly gifted centres is useless unless they receive quality ball. Remember when Nigel Vagana was top try scorer for two years in a row on the back of good ball from Braith Anasta?? Then he went to the Sharks and couldn't buy a try. Same deal will apply with Inglis.
We have committed ourselves to DM so like it or not, he'll be playing in the team somewhere. At present we lack direction and despite the fact that KK is most likely the best option we have at 6 presently, a leader like Cooper Cronk would vastly improve the side as a whole. He would unlock Tahu, make Reddy look better than he is and allow Hayne the freedom to attack in a more traditional fullback role (a la Brett Stewart).
I'm not great at maths but unlike some people on this forum who seem to think we've a bottomless pit of money available to us, I understand that with back-ended deals and contract upgrades, the gross cash injection from the loss of Cayless, Inu and Mateo is probably more like about $300k-$400k net. Cronk would be on close to $500k at Melbourne (with one of his two contracts) so it would require a massive offer to lure him away. The Storm have a very good young halfback in NYC named Luke Kelly so might consider that Cronk is expendable (as there's no way they're going to let go of Cameron Smith) so should we not retain KK, Eric Grothe and possibly one other (e.g. Humble or Horo) we might have the cash to throw at Cronk.
I've been accused of being a KK (and MK) apologist in the past simply because I recognise that he isn't the sole reason why we lose. I also accept that whilst he plays to his capacity, his capacity mightn't be enough to win us a title.
So, to state the bleeding obvious, I reckon that if we snare Cronk, our problems are solved.
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I can give you equally good examples of halves being red-hot one year, then they go to another club and they're shit-house because they don't have the same go-forward and options of a smooth running, talented football side.
You only have to look at Jeff Robson. Looked like a reserve grader when he first came into the side and we were going poorly. Then the forwards got going, our second-phase play got going and he suddenly had a bunch of space and everyone loved him. Then we started the year like bums and he looked ordinary again.
Cronk would have gone no better in that side on Friday night. The side was not on their game and no matter who were in the halves we would have got towelled.
What made us look good last year was almost manic second phase play - brought about by our position on the ladder 2/3rds of the way through the season. This season it isn't working - one reason why is that the opposition are aware of it and are actively shutting us down (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/dragons-to-target-eels-o...).
We had several opportunities in the first half deep in attack to breach the Dragons line and we couldn't. Again, you can't blame the forwards for that. We looked disorganized and confused. DA has said that DM is slowly developing the skill to lead the team around while KK is definitely a running half (as per his comments in an interview with Warren Ryan). I'm not blaming KK - as you know I believe him to be very talented - but think we could do with a little more structure.
Humble and morts cant be the halves pairing cause they both kick worst then each other, keating must stay in the team for the rest of the year cause he has are better kicking game then both morts and humble and that’s one of the things thats been killing us.
However you are right in that if the oppertunity was to get a player like cooper cronk to steady the Parramatta ship and let Morts develop alongside a proven very succesfull and great halfback we would see better results in consistency for attack, and would see Hayne get more comfortable to develop a more supporting ( Billy Slater ) type fullbackrole which i think he is stifled in now due to the unorginised nature of our attack at the moment.
For me its a tricky situation, Ive been an advocate that Hayne should develop more of a Five eight role within the club because he is just a player that needs the ball in his hands in attack as much as possible. Thats not to say he should become our number 6, but I would like one of our halves to take a back foot role in attack when Hayne is at fullback so he can direct our attack a little more. At the moment as i have stated before in other blogs, with the 2 developing half backs in the sqad they are both trying to do as much as possible at 1st and 2nd receiver, and arent producing enough in attack, this is forcing hayne to get less involved as im sure the team are letting the halves of morts and kk try and run the ship and fair enough, but we are struggling when this happens.
I feel parras 1, 6 and 7 strengths when accomidating a fullback like Hayne would come from one ball playing directional halve ( Cronk ) one supportive ball runing halve ( Morts ) and Hayne simply becoming the go to man in the attacking zone in both ball playing and running.
Right now although i agree it needs time to develop, and cnt take all the blame, parra have a support ball runner at 7 ( Morts ) another supportive ball runner type player at 6 ( KK ) and Hayne trying to do what i have suggested from number 1... BUT,
due to the position parra find themselves in atm, in trying to develop a halves combination with these two young kids, Both our 7 and 6 ball runing halves are trying to share the ball playing and directional roles aswell, which is to be expected as its a combination that is developing, but its hurtiing our abilityto put points on and not getting Hayne enough 1st and 2nd reciever options at times in the game. Im not saying he should always be our 1st and 2nd receiver option, he does it a fair bit now, but it just seems less effective when its being set up by kk and morts. LIke ive said before when KK was out against Manly and Humble played the link man type halves role, Hayne ran riot. just my honest opinion. But i have faith in kk and morts i just want some more consistency and want it sooner rather than later. I dnt want to come off as a KK basher coz i actually like the guy as a player,
there might just not be room for him in this team when we need to accomidate for some other players
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