Same coach, same assistants, no Fergo or Lussick, and no new signings. Is it just me or will we finish around the same spot next year or worse? I wish I had TCTs confidence. One final question. How the hell have the dogs squeezed all these new signings into the salary cap?
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All will be revealed in the fullness of time. Be at peace
I hope you're right!!!
Wait until Semi signs with the Roosters
If this comes to pass i suggest that us good folk from 1EE pass 'round the collection plate, then spend it on getting Semi whacked.
Yes, it is a bit spiteful, but it would serve as a warning to others
Firstly, you're not taking into account internal improvement, which was always going to be more important than recruitment this year.
As for the Dogs, they've stripped back their cap this season, they've turned over nearly half their roster, and besides, who have they really signed ?
Matt Burton, a guy they've signed to play 5/8, but hasn't played there in nearly a year. But OK, at least they he can play in the centres if nothing else.
JAC, great finisher, but he won't have Munster, Papenhuysen & Olam setting up tries for him.
Brent Naden, decent player, but has barely played a game in two years.
TPJ, talented but undisciplined.
Paul Vaughn, handy more than great these days
Matt Dufty, talented but contact shy
It's a lot of froth and bubbles rather than actual improvement. I'm betting that of those, only Matt Burton & JAC will still be there in 3 years time.
" Firstly, you're not taking into account internal improvement, which was always going to be more important than recruitment this year."
Bretto you said the exact same thing before a ball was kicked this season when I said we lacked a genuine rep level game breaker. As I said then , you also get internal decline.
We don't have the money to buy a game breaker in the spine unless we let Gutho go and a good forward around 400k go (perhaps Lane). That frees up around 1.2M for 2 spots which can be spent on the game break and a bottom dollar contract.
Personally, I am with Brett and think we can reach that level to win the premiership with the squad we have. We need to make sure we our fit come finals time. If you look at the last 4 remaining this year, none of them had key players missing for the finals.
Our spine needs to continue to develop. We have Reed who was our best player along side Papa to start the year. He was bound to play origin before getting injured. Despite the hate Moses gets, he is really developing into a good halfback. People argue that he provided no attack against Panthers but you have to realise that Panthers were strongly focusing on him. They are already the best defensive side in the NRL. Then you have to see we had no threat at dummy half so panthers could focus their defenders elsewhere. Gutho was playing injured and was no real threat. Papa was in the middle where he has less X-factor in attack. Lastly, Dylan has not hit the level where he can create tries by himself. So really Moses had to carry the attack big time. Anyway for next year, Gutho just needs to do his role and not overplay his hand. Importantly, Dylan is the one who needs to really find a couple of extra gears to help our attack.
Agreed Coryn.
We actually improved our attack significantly this year to last year. Last year we scored a pretty poor 3.4 tries a game and this year we upped it to a much more respectable 4.1 tries a game.
Our defense stayed stable conceding 2.9 tries a game in both seasons.
For reference, in 2019 in a slower ruck speed, we scored 3.9 tries a game and conceded 3.3 tries a game.
So in 2020 our defense improved (that's why we made top 4) but our attack went slightly backwards.
In 2021 our attack improved again to even better than 2019 and we maintained our tough defense.
It's a pretty good improvement, if we could concede even less it would put us in a strong top 4 position.
Defense is the ticket to the top 4 and often premierships. Panthers were the best defensive team, but not the best attacking one.
Reed took the leap to another level this year. If he didn't get injured our final record would have likely been better and we may have stayed in the top 4. Plus having him in the finals may have made us survive a game or 2 longer.
Gutherson and Moses are already elite - despite what the haters say. They are easily top 5 players in their respective positions. Gutherson took the leap in 2020 - he was good in 2019 but he became truly elite in 2020. He maintained his form largely in 2021.
Moses was already elite in 2019 - go back and look at his stats and he has something like 30 try assists, his kicking game is excellent. He had a slightly down year in 2020 (I'm guessing from carrying the calf injury most of the season) but he rebounded statistically in 2021 to be back to his best.
Sure it would be nice of both of them to go to an even greater level. I think Moses can go to another level if he runs the footy more. I'm not sure if Gutherson can be much better than he already is - I guess it's possible if you surround him with more guns.
Dylan Brown is the next guy we need to take the leap. I love Dyl and am very bullish on him, but there is no doubt he has some noise in his head. His stats are actually better in 2019, his form declined in 2020 and 2021 in attack, although his defense got much stronger. If he can take the leap and become elite like the other 3 we are in a terrific position for a title run.
Our team is mostly young, mostly on the right side of 30, most of them can still improve as much of our squad are in their early 20s or even teens.
We have not a single player contracted for 2022 who is older than 29 next year. Rankin (31 in 2022) and Smith (30 next year) are off contract and weren't in the official farewells, so if they've re-signed they would be the only ones.
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