1. No representative rounds. Big gain for teams with many rep players. Think we come out about even here as we could have lost three or four players.
2. No bye. This is an advantage for the teams in the top four or so as they will have a buffer to rest some players for the finals after 18 games straight. If we can stay clear of the cut-off we can benefit. BA gives me the impression he always has the pedal to the metal, hope he considers giving key players a rest if possible. Also less opportunity to recover from injuries during season.
3. Shortened comp. We gain a bit since we are two-up. But this small advantage can disappear quickly. Suspension and injury becomes relatively a bigger loss - Brown suspended for two games is a bigger percentage of the season. And we will be without a specialist hooker for a couple as well. Will be important who we play twice (five teams instead of nine means more chance biased sample).
4. Finals at Bankwest will be a bonus if we are still there.
Overall the reduced competition is about even for us. Main negative is that we will find it difficult to stay in the top 4 with increased competition from the teams stacked with rep players. Main positive is reduced time without Mahoney.
Bottom line is we need to win nine more (from 18) to be sure of making the finals (8 more wins we have a chance if we keep a good for and against)
Replies
Biggest problem is again what teams do you get to play twice and what teams you only get to play once. The other advantage is we wont be playing Melbourne in Melbourne, Canberra in Canberra, Cows in Townsville and Warriors in NZ
Good point - hadn't heard about the ground changes - where will Interstate games be played?
I guess the other loss is no crowd at Bankwest
Hopefully only out for a few weeks. Agree a big loss but would not move Guth.
Ray Stone was apparently the man BA had given the job for round 3 before the season went into hiatus. So if he's fit, it'll be him.
Hope he has been practicing his passing
Well I assume he has.
Well his delivery was a 1/10 last year. At the start of this year it was a 5/10. So if he can keep the rate of improvement up he may be repectable by the time the season starts.
I get your point and agree. But still think it is best not to weaken fullback if possible. I would use two hookers (9 and 14; half a game each). Two out of Stone or Smith or Davies or Salmon. Which two depend on how they look at training.
Your final line is probably our biggest positive. With a 20 round competition the likely points cut off is around 20 points. With four points already in the bag we are already 20% there.
I think a shorter season also benefits us because of how physical we play. It's a tough thing to do playing as direct as we do and the four fewer games could really see us finish the year strong.
Not sure on how long Mahoney will be missing, there's a possibility it may only be one or two games given the comp is scheduled to resume about 12 weeks after his injury and it generally is a 12 week injury. Brown's suspension isn't great but like you said we have other locks and I actually wouldn't mind seeing Matto play there for those two weeks. His ball playing ability is better than Brown's and Niukore is a good line runner on the edge. I don't think you miss too much with that change. I really don't want to see Terepo starting at lock.
Is Matterson a lock or edge forward?
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next