2023 Forwards

Kapow I would take at $ 450 1 year with 1 year option CF Or
Fafita 1 year at $ 250
plus couple pommy Back rowers and a prop who want to have a crack in NRL.
land I would Chas e the number 4 from Penriths team on the weekend , kid played well and is a centre
another one from Penrith is young Henry who come of the bench.
 
our depth in the front row and back row is horrendous. I'd say we need at least one of each, ideally two. Matt Doorey and Jack Murchie for back rowers and I'd be giving Eisenhuth a lifeline and looking at either Fifita or Taupau.

this is what I've put together with what we have currently.

Firsts

8. Ofahengaue (assuming he stays)
9. Koroisau
10. Utoikamanu
11. Blore
12. Papali'i
13. Hastings

14. Brown
15. Pole
16. Twal
17. Tumeth (pending re-signing)

Cup

8. Musgrove
9. Simpkin
10. Seyfarth
11. Kautoga
12. Talau
13. Matamua

14. Ngaitkaura
15. Freebairn
16. Dias/James
17. Fainu
 
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IMHO, we need at least 2 props e.g.
J W-H, Fanua-Blake, Jr Paolo, J Papalii, Hass, Saifiti

2 x 2nd rowers
Taukeiaho. A Crichton, A Murray, Fa'asuamaleaui, Yeo, Nathan Brown
 
Seyfarth is currently too much of a lightweight to have impact- most of our pack are and consequently they get hammered when they take the ball up and run over when they try to defend. I remember one tidbit that Madge said in a presser after one of our big losses - we have a “bunch of guys who need to find their shoulders”!!
 
This is what I reckon. If they play to their potential and we get basically no injuries they'll go okay. They won't be great but it might work.

Hastings at 13 means we lack go forward. Is it worth it ?

Injuries will kill us.

I still reckon the spine is more of a mess.
The resigning of Joffa and the signing of Api and Papa plus interest in Bateman, indicates to me Sheens wants a mobile pack. Signs of 05 maybe.
It worries me though that we don't have one big mongrel bopper that can bend the line.
 
The resigning of Joffa and the signing of Api and Papa plus interest in Bateman, indicates to me Sheens wants a mobile pack. Signs of 05 maybe.
It worries me though that we don't have one big mongrel bopper that can bend the line.
Need more than one I’m afraid
 
The resigning of Joffa and the signing of Api and Papa plus interest in Bateman, indicates to me Sheens wants a mobile pack. Signs of 05 maybe.
It worries me though that we don't have one big mongrel bopper that can bend the line.

Joe O is a big resigning for us. He is a quality player. I really hope we don't make a play for Bateman.

Stef and Musgrove are our big boppers. I think our edge backrow is weaker than the big guys.

The pack is still weak and we will get rolled at times but I think more depends on the new style we play with. If Hastings at 13 and the 2 halves running off him perform maybe it'll work.

We are basically trying a new style of footy because we can't compete period in this comp.
 
Joe O is a big resigning for us. He is a quality player. I really hope we don't make a play for Bateman.

Stef and Musgrove are our big boppers. I think our edge backrow is weaker than the big guys.

The pack is still weak and we will get rolled at times but I think more depends on the new style we play with. If Hastings at 13 and the 2 halves running off him perform maybe it'll work.

We are basically trying a new style of footy because we can't compete period in this comp.
Musgrove was terrible this year but who wasn't.
If he can get that passion he showed when at Souths he may make more runs and bend the line.
I'm not as confident as you Earl on this one.
 
Musgrove was terrible this year but who wasn't.
If he can get that passion he showed when at Souths he may make more runs and bend the line.
I'm not as confident as you Earl on this one.

I'm not that confident.

I am probably the only punter with no issues with Musgrove. I think he is a bench impact prop and he can do that job. I think Stef is the guy who really has to step up.
 

All good points. I don't know that there will be a new style but there are signs that is what they are trying to implement.

Hastings at 13. Brooks and Douiehi in the 6 and 7.

I've already posted I'm not sold on Hastings at 13 and Hastings to 13 is basically the central piece of this approach.

It's extremely risky because we consistently get rolled in the forwards and Brooks and Doueihi consistently perform below top tier standard.

I wonder if they move Hastings to 7 and push Doueihi into the centres if this approach doesn't work. They could then play Matamua or Joe O in the 13 spot. If we lose Brooks or Doueihi it might be a good thing.
 

The new style was very evident in the Cowboys and Broncos games. Unfortunately we then lost Hastings and Brooks. The new style only works with those two in the team. It's very effective, and we can beat anyone with it, but it's concerning how reliant we are on Hastings for it to work. But i guess a lot of teams rely heavily on one player.
 
All good points. I don't know that there will be a new style but there are signs that is what they are trying to implement.

Hastings at 13. Brooks and Douiehi in the 6 and 7.

I've already posted I'm not sold on Hastings at 13 and Hastings to 13 is basically the central piece of this approach.

It's extremely risky because we consistently get rolled in the forwards and Brooks and Doueihi consistently perform below top tier standard.

I wonder if they move Hastings to 7 and push Doueihi into the centres if this approach doesn't work. They could then play Matamua or Joe O in the 13 spot. If we lose Brooks or Doueihi it might be a good thing.
Most combinations you mentioned Earl would work if we had forwards who could get the defensive line backpedaling hence what we were talking about.
Practically all this year the opposition had a straight defensive line and we were easy pickings.
If we attack more we defend less.
 
Most combinations you mentioned Earl would work if we had forwards who could get the defensive line backpedaling hence what we were talking about.
Practically all this year the opposition had a straight defensive line and we were easy pickings.
If we attack more we defend less.

I partially disagree. Brooks is constantly criticized for making poor decisions. Doueihi was considerably worse. Our forwards weren't outgunned every game but we won so few games.

We had Liddle, Jake Simpkin and Nu Brown as our dummy half throughout the year. Brown was the best but is he even a first grade hooker.

Laurie had one game where he was something special but overall he was poor.

Maybe Api will make a massive difference.

I completely agree that if we attack well we defend less. I think though poor decision making and defense in those key positions though killed us.
 
Seyfarth is currently too much of a lightweight to have impact- most of our pack are and consequently they get hammered when they take the ball up and run over when they try to defend. I remember one tidbit that Madge said in a presser after one of our big losses - we have a “bunch of guys who need to find their shoulders”!!

If we are banking on Seyfarth we are in serious trouble.
 
Too many times this year we were kicking inside iur own half and under pressure. Poor decisions were made in the attacking zones because we didn't build up for that final play. We didnt break up the D with a couple of damaging runs and quick play the ball. We either kicked badly or ran across field because we didn't set it up properly.
 

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