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A coach being close to his players can be a huge positive, but there is a fine line in potentially becoming too loyal to some who may not be performing up to their contract value.
For the record I don’t think Benji coaching us is our problem.
Getting the right playing roster with the right...
I don’t think Sheens will pick up Benji’s calls just quietly.
Nothing sticks out to say Benji is doing anything wrong from a tactical or coaching messages and instructions point of view.
Our playing style definitely improved in the latter part of the 2025 season, so that’s a good sign to...
I know we haven’t got much cap space available and that’s a major problem within itself as it clearly shows we are over paying and/or overspending on some of our currently contracted players.
Which of our 1-7 particularly our 1-5 make either two of the teams playing today ?
As for our 1-5 I rate Taylan May as a better player than Shibasaki and very even with Casey McLean and Jerome Luai is still a better all round player than Blaize Talagi at this stage of their careers, but not as...
It has to be a gee up mentioning Sterlo.
Brilliant player in his day, but he has not been actively involved in coaching and would not be up to date with the modern structures.
I know we were perusing Cooper Cronk, maybe we are not willing to pay what he is asking ?
I don’t think Stef and Papali’i were as bad for us as some think, both walk into our top 13 if we still had them.
However we have a Salary Cap to balance and the figures I have seen mentioned are Stef was being offered 800k per season by us, signed with Storm for 750k.
Papali’i was being paid...
Welll that’s zero chance of happening for 2026 and its very unlikely there will be a difference making forward available for us in 2027.
Quite a few difference making backs available for 2027 if we want them and make some tough calls to make room for them.
Neither do I, but do you see us making the top 8 with the playing roster we current have for 2026 ?
Yes there are areas where we have good scope for improvement such as the natural improvement you could expect in combinations gelling better and improvement in players, particularly our younger...
That’s correct we need a couple of genuine good standard or better players who are automatic selections in our top 17 to allow us to make the top 8, but we have missed the boat, no more of those players available.
Therefore a couple of depth insurance type of players might at least allow us to...
No they won’t move the needle, but they are insurance value type of players who could be part of our top 17 and not be any better or worse than a couple of players likely to be part of our best 17.
It’s highly unlikely we will have as few injuries next season as we had this season, so we better...