If only we didn't lose Moses at the beginning of the year we could of won this comp this year. The form we were in. The quality of the finals from all teams this weekend has been the most average I can remember. Please anyone but the Broncos win it. Can't stand them, they are that far over the cap its not funny. They are stacked like the Dallas Cowboys in the 90's. When your able to lose Reynolds and Mam and replace them with backups like Hunt and Walters its just rigged. Plus Haas, Carrigan, Staggs and Superstar (G.R.U.B) Walsh they should flog every team. Seibold plus another 500 coaches could win it with that team. Lets hope we make it next year and these teams are still average, but I reckon its the Broncos for the next few years (sigh)
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I think the Panthers will beat the Broncos at Suncorp in 2 weeks. Defensively, the Panthers are still very good. The defence of the other teams looks very ordinary.
Fingers crossed we give it a good nudge next year. Makes you wonder if it's a requirement to spend a billion dollars on your spine (or at least your halves) to be a success.
Don't think we are up with the best but I really thinkwe could have given the top 8 a nudge.Next year I hope we are in or knocking on the door.The issue with us is we are to reliant on Moses if he's out we are done we've seen enough of that.
For us to be successful we need to show more without him.
I don't really know you Comedian but stick to Comedy and give football a miss....
like Hunt and Walters (?) its just rigged. Plus Haas, Carrigan, Staggs and Superstar (G.R.U.B) Walsh they should flog every team. Seibold plus another 500 coaches could win it with that team
That team is not that different to the same team for the past 20 years and 4/5 coaches could't win it.
I find your reference to "rigging" up there with Parra blowing the salary cap in the post 2010 period and winning the wooden spoon in the process. I wonder what 500 coaches could have done for us in that period.
My views are obviously tainted but I aknowledge its the "orf seezun"................ for us anyway!
Which is why our cap needs to be more evenly spread. With Moses and Brown I'm guessing we were somewhere near the top. I'd be curious to know the combined salaries of the halves for each of the teams playing in the finals. Of course there's the storm but several of those teams have a cut price halves combo.
I have been thinking this too Adam - the spines making the finals apart from the Storm are MUCH weaker than previous years top teams.
Not sure whether it's just generational change kicking in or whether it's a deliberate strategy by most teams to spread the cap over other positions.
For mine it just makes sense to as far as practicable spread your cap as evenly as you can - diversification equals risk mitigation.
Coryn has also spoken about it being easier to lift your floor rather than raise your ceiling which is completely true. The extent of improvement to be found in Moses is negligible - he's pretty well at the peak of his powers. On the other hand the extent of improvement to be found in Papalli as an example is enormous. This is the principle of diminishing returns, once you get closer to the top the gains are smaller and smaller. How do you lift the floor? Pay your lesser players more.
Evenly spread is subjective to the "actual spread" this coming year we seem to be a well balanced side with "maybe" no killer punch? We also seem to be liquid enough to afford a marquis player if one arose!
Moses is seen as the "killer punch" but it becomes a question of how often he plays and his subjectiveness to injuries.
I reinterated another "killer punch" in Ponga, which will cause much discern in discussion because many will see him as "failed" in that role with Newcastle. I think that has some truth to it, but we need to understand a number of aspects that would come out when he is chased/interviewed and costed by Ryles. Lets assume the first 2 hit the mark but the last one doesn't. That is a decision we are not in a position to judge. The cap is a composition of a number of factors.
In putting my own opinion on it we could win a competetion with both of them or even if only one survives the rigours, whereas if we only have one "killer punch" that may be not enough if he doesn't play!
I might add that I believe Ponga to be the most talented and natural footballer in the game.....does that mean he is better than Cleary, Walsh, Munster and Hughes.....that is subjective to the team around them.......I believe Parra under Ryles can actually make that position stand with Ponga and that's how I would be selling it to him and not "just" on his pay packet. If Ponga approached purely as a mercenary then I would not want him. He is a genuine 1.1/1.2m player who could probably demand more.....I hope he is considering more than just his pay packet. He is also maybe a possibility of being a margin cheaper than he was 12 months ago. Given the negatives that will arise over his past year with Newcastle.
PS Without Ryles, I would give him buckley's chance of him wanting coming to Parra.
Hunt is overrated, at least at club level (apart from kicking the winning field goal, he was atrocious yesterday), and Walters, please!!! When you take out Haas, Walsh, and to a lesser extent, Carrigan and Staggs, then it's an average line up to say the least!!
If Melbourne somehow manage to get Hughes back and they play like the storm of earlier in the year, well it's still theirs to lose!!
I know we finished the year strong, but I genuinly don't think we are good enough to beat Panthers, Sharks, or Raiders in the finals. We would definitely give Broncos, Bulldogs, and Roosters a nudge, but beating the other 3 would have been optimistic to say the least. I think we're short of 2-3 guns to seriously begin competing in the finals. Our rookies need a couple of more years experience.