This heading is probably something we don't like admitting to. Yes it implies criticism but I don't want to start looking for blame or scapegoats, just accept it and move on. The main issue in my mind is the "Pezet" experiment.....it hasn't worked and the future has to be now.....if its not then it is a pointless exercise.
Back to Pezet. It occur's to me that just about everyone is in concurrence that he is not up to the 5/8 role.
The fact that our Reserve Grade side is struggling and do not have a proper half, it is a good opportunity to let Pezet fill this role and see what he can achieve, and how our long term 5/8 potential reacts to having a "proper" half!....????. After all the real point of having Pezet was a backup half for Moses and the developing of our junior 5/8 talent. Well the 5/8 role ain't working, he has no speed. defence is poor and he show's me nothing as a link?
I believe all the rhetoric and dislocation, not to mention the poor form of Moses is directly related to covering the Pezet shortfalls..... this included the positioning of Williams at lock and the dropping of JDB to provide cover defence for the Pezet shortfall.
We are in a remarkable good position with 2 out of 3 games, whereas we could be zero and 3 and in deep shit.
Lets not abuse our good fortune and act now. there is no way we will beat Penrith going forward with this current make up!
Finally I expected with our back up and juniors coming through that we were good things for Reserve Grade.....we are now showing shit there and our junior's are struggling as well.....our upcoming 5/8's are not exactly killing it!....... maybe we have totally overated our position and personell ?
How does this happen, well we (Parramatta) are total optimists, with the exception of a few and we always want to see the positives.
I continue to believe in Ryles and our coaching staff and the reality is he is still learning as well.......
Just a smokey to end this discussion..... and lets not get lost on it, as I do not know the contract implications, but we have a cap rest on Hopgood, how about making an offer for Bevan French to take the 5/8 position....he hasn't played for Wigan yet this season and I would be not against making an offer he "can't refuse".Obviously this could simply be too hard, but we are a long way short of what we want to be!.....please don't bring up the "french" defensive issues, he is now one of the best players in the world and a lot stronger defensively than when he was with us.
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I did not like the pezet deal from the beginning and nothing has happened to change my mind, quite the opposite.
I think papalii looked better in the 6 role last season in the couple of games he got there and I would like to see him get another crack with pezet playing 7 in reserve grade and being moses insurance policy.
Here's one for you Pops I've already put the line through us for this year as currently constructed.The middle has been exposed already in all 3 contests We have half a spine and we just don't have the talent to go with the best not with standing Pezet.
Nothing JR can do here.The only thing that he can do is squeeze the lemon harder ringing every last drop.Fark I hated losing DB hated it and now I see what we've got to look foward to R & R kick stones.
If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
We are 12 months since DBrown signed with Newcastle and over 18 months since Takagi left for the Panthers.
The Pezet thought bubble was an idea by a rookie coach that should have been knocked on the head 2 minutes after it was floated by our very experienced GM of Football.
There is no scenario where the Pezet idea ends well - he either plays well and we've just ushered in new talent for last year's Premiers, or he plays average or poorly and we've just wasted a year and helped the Broncos identify the areas that need fixing.
The fact that this thought bubble was the best plan that we had is very, very, very telling.
French would be crazy to come back - his career has been fantastic in the SL and it was not great in the NRL. Unless he had a dire need to uproot his life and come back to Aus, I have no idea why he'd even contemplate it.
We really need to stop doing kneejerk reactions and figure out why our player recruitment planning is doing poorly and fix the actual problem.
Pezet was very poor on the weekend. He's an elite ball-player, but the rest of his game is non existent. He was a speed bump in defence, whilst the dragons had 3 line breaks past him. He seemed to get his head down and went missing for the rest of the game.
The only question is whether talataina or papalii are any better at the moment.
I was prepared to give the Pezet experiment a go due to the lack of options but it's failed. There is no upside from here with him.
"He's young and we need to expect mistakes and work with him to make him better" - ABSOLUTELY NOT. He's here for 12 months only, we owe him nothing. That's not personal at all it's just business. He can't deliver what we need today, so if we are going to persevere with mistake riddled rookies, then let's put that investment into one of our own. Or alternatively give the 6 to Dylan Walker and let him and Moses have some fun together.
Agreed we've had 18 months to solve this 6 problem and have done sweet FA. Just like when Mahoney left.