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Benji was good to start the year. I think he was probably not expecting to play as much as he did with Grub basically becoming a permanent rehab resident all year. The wear and tear took a toll on him as the year rolled on.
Farah, well despite how I felt about him going and coming back I can't ignore that we are a better side with him in it, and he would be one of the first chosen next season.
Agreed. Problem is since 2012 we have found ourselves in the same position. After all the pain of removing them from the club and now bringing them back we find ourselves in the position of: if they or one of them plays well we have a chance! What a waste of 5 years! Nothing on the field has really changed
Exactly right!!!! The squad isn't improving at all. I don't see how people are blind to this.
I copped Benji as a stop gap for this year, which turned out to be fortuitous to start off with, and Farah was a better option than anything we had on the books.
If Grub manages to take five steps without tearing something next year I would expect we will see little of Benji, especially with the stark possibility of a new coach coming in with other ideas.
The signing and extension of Farah suggests that the club still sees the future with Liddle, if it wasn't they would have gone all out on an available hooker. This, as both you and Kiwitiger have alluded to, is that nothing has changed on field and we're still waiting on promising juniors to develop three or four seasons into grade. Might have paid off with Brooks, but more often than not we just seem to be a revolving door of kids who couldn't kick on, and the ones that do wind up leaving.
We have not wasted 5 years. Anyone who saw what Taylor left us with would realise that we were driving in reverse. Killing our culture and our team spirit. We wasted 4 years and then took on a real long term coach.
But still, I don't see a long term coaching plan!
We need now to look at a long term coach. If Cleary is gone (and I think he may well be still around next year with full effort.) then we need to look at Bennett, possibly followed by McGuire. No other unproven coaches unless they are assistants. Have a nice board approved structure on where our playing weaknesses are and how we will develop them:
Forwards… how do we stop loosing at the front.
2nd row, Do we look for speed or oomph?
Halves, we now have certainty. Brooks + Reynolds is a good combo. Marshall can now be the reserve he wanted to be.
Back row, We have certainty around 1 center, 1 winger and sadly around our fullback
:frowning: ... WHY WT why...
I think we are getting there, but I am worried that our front runs out of petrol quickly and our second row is very weak. Hopefully McQueen will be medically retired soon.
The coming back of Marshall and Farah is exactly what we needed. If they did not return, who would we get? A leftover at 5/8, with a hooking option of Elijah Taylor or worse. They covered gaps exactly when we needed them. Farah is an upgrade on almost every hooker we have had, Marshall is a great reserve/off the bench player. Think of Marshall as the spare tire you go 80 on, which is exactly where he is at his career now.