Honest assessment on 2018

I believe we are better than Warriors, Titans, Dogs, Souths, Newcastle. We have good depth and there is always 1-2 good teams on paper that have injuries or buckle each year.
I can see us finishing 10th at best.
Positives I can see is the front row, good leaders, good coach, powerful outside backs.
Weaknesses unproven 1, 7, 9\. New squad, lack of fire power in the back row.
 
I honestly think we are an outside change of a top 8\. Our forwards are honest to goodness NRL class forwards, for the first time in a long while. I haven't been this positive about brooks since his rookie year and can't wait to see how reynolds influences our culture. The backs, although publicly slighted, will definately benefit from platform laid by the forewards and I'm keen to see how that goes.
My personal tip Tui will surprise all, Brooks will start to realise potential and, Twal will establish himself as our domiant forward.
 
@ said:
I believe we are better than Warriors, Titans, Dogs, Souths, Newcastle. We have good depth and there is always 1-2 good teams on paper that have injuries or buckle each year.
I can see us finishing 10th at best.
Positives I can see is the front row, good leaders, good coach, powerful outside backs.
Weaknesses unproven 1, 7, 9\. New squad, lack of fire power in the back row.
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Agree with this. Injuries will have a massive part to play this year. Those teams just outside the 8 won’t be separated by much. If we can grab a couple of wins early when the favourites are finding form we could be a chance.

Personally I’m hoping the mumps keeps ripping into the east for a few more weeks
 
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
 
@ said:
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
Click to expand...

I know you are new here, so let me give you a friendly heads up. This is a pretty emotional place, particularly when results aren’t great. People are honest, they vent. That won’t change.
 
@ said:
We will go on a good streak mid- late season and finish 7th and then win the grand final by 12 points.
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Well, there's our season gone! You should have put up a spoiler alert!
 
@ said:
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
Click to expand...

I think you are reading too much in to other replies. The OP asked for honest assessments and as far as i can see that is what people are providing and backing their assessment with reasons. I haven't seen one reply " bagging" the team or saying we have a " bunch of no hopers". I'm sure everyone on this forum is hoping at worst we make the 8 and at best we win the GF.
 
@ said:
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
Click to expand...

The title of the tread was a honest assessment, and that what people are doing, nothing to do with being negative.

I have seen lots of teams in the past who have introduced a lot of new faces to their playing roster have very poor season, but than have had very good second years. The teams that come to mind are Parra,Manly and the Dogs. With our draw it is going to be even harder as we play so many of the better teams early.

Now if you post a thread titled..what I would love to see in 2018…..I will give you plenty of positives
 
@ said:
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
Click to expand...

As others have said, it’s their honest assessment. Instead of telling them they should not be negative, ask them why and have a discussion. It’s what the forum is about.
 
The backend of the season showed we will be a lot more competitive. There is no way we will get the wooden spoon barring a terrible run with injuries. The players that debuted last season had an incredible impact on our performances I can't remember the last time new players became accustomed to the NRL so quickly. With the depth we have players will be hugely motivated to perform well knowing they will be back in reggies if they don't. There is a lot of to be excited about. Can't wait for the season to start.
 
@ said:
Just trying to lift the spirits of everyone

To many negative people
If the Wests Tigers supporters continue to bag our own team what what hope do we have

What message is that sending to the star signings we are looking for

All of my posts have been about trying to be positive towards the team
I don't get on here being negative towards our team and say we have a bunch of no hopers

I know no one has used those words but it seems like that's what some of you are saying

Anyway
Season starts in a few weeks
I hope we get a few early wins so the mood changes on here
Click to expand...

Mate! You are the eternal optimist - however everyone does not have the same opinion.

You keep shoving positivity down our throats - positivity is great, but truth is even better.

i.e truth in the form of a posters positive opinion on a situation. Everyone is allowed their own personal opinion especially when the thread says "Honest assessment."

You remind me of the "Seventh day Adventists" or "Mormons" who persistently come knocking trying to convert you to the only way of thinking - Theirs!!!!

Give the positive a rest - it is becoming a real NEGATIVE!!!!!
 
I expected WT to finish top six last year, building on the ninth in 2016, so maybe I should just keep my opinions to myself, but the way things unfolded with a few 'star' player's actions is most likely what ruined our hopes the most. Despite the disruption and changes, with the addition of a few new players, the boys finished 2017 playing competitively as a team and defending as one.

With the addition of Mats and Packer to compliment the emerging talents of Eiso and Twal, we should have our best ever middle and one which matches most, if not all the competition, to lay the foundation for our season. It starts and finishes in the middle, which without a lot of class or finishing ability amongst our backs, is where I expect us to be on the table come September.

Hopefully just making the eight and getting to watch at least one game of WT in the finals.
 
Honestly.
Our front row looks better than last year by Packer and Matolino replacing Woods and Ava. However in comparison Ava has gone to the sharks and can’t get a start. Woods has gone to the dogs and with Klemmer shifting from lock only the most one eyed would not agree that the bulldogs now have a better front row than us as a result of that.
Secondly.
We have one senior player in our spine.
If you look through all other teams name me one other team that has only one senior player in their spine. I can’t.
Brooks doesn’t play like a senior player yet.
Thirdly, we don’t have prop/backrowers on our edges like a lot of other teams do. Our backrow is quite similar to the roosters and the knights but both those sides have more experience their.
Lock is a mystery. Both players between Eiso and ET has strengths and weaknesses. And both decisions impact greatly on the make up of the team.
Our backline has a lot of power but not much speed. We all so the difference a player like ciotric or Ado Car made to their sides.
These are the factors that bookies and experts consider when looking at a side and ranking them, and on paper ours is probably the worst despite all the changes.

With that said games are not won on paper and some of the negitives above could turn to positives depending on the way we style our game and structures.
If our powerful backs are hit in holes instead of of our backrowers we’ll make more line breaks. The backrowers will be used to keep the defencive line in tact as both Chris’ have good line defence. In attack these guys would be used for more dirty hit ups in the middle third but you can’t expect them to break the line in that part of the field ala a Critchon or Josh Papali, these guys will be more your mannering, auberson types.
Our props have a lot of upside, Packer is still building his reputation and Ben wants to prove to everyone that he can once again be considered the best prop in the game.
Tui has a point to prove as does Brooks, Reynolds and either of our 2 hookers.

This will make us hungry and fighting for every play as long as we learn to grind out games we will have the right ingredients to go well this year.

My thoughts on how we go is middle rung. Better than we will go on paper but worst than what we can go on potential.
 
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Just want the forums thoughts on how they think we’ll go with the season under 3 weeks away now…..

I’m usually really optimistic about our chances each pre season, but this season I just don’t think our squad has what it takes to make the finals. I think our spine is quite weak, we just lack that x-factor and creativity in the spine imo. However our forwards are probably the best pack we’ve had in about a decade....

I think we’ll show a lot of hunger and passion for the jersey but just miss out, hope I’m wrong but it’s an honest assessment.
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No doubt we lack a game changer, and our spine needs to improve.

In saying that, on the back of a reasonable pack with depth, if say Brooksy doesn't fire, expect Benji to come to the rescue and help us into the 8\. You may laugh but it would not surprise me!

Re the lack of pace in our backs, if the coach prepares the team to play to their strengths (instead of trying to change their style of play to suit his coaching as happened recently) we might be a bit harder to handle than many think.
 
I think we will finish between 8-12, some really positive movements forward in our development as a team but like many have said the squad will need some time to gel and I think we are 1-2 out and out quality players from giving it a real shake up.

We have some good depth this year so injuries shouldn’t cruel us as much as they have in the past, I think if we cop an injury the players we will have to cover will be of a similar level unlike the past when we have relied on players such as Littlejohn and Rankin.

Our first 5-6 games are scary though and watching Storm last night I can’t see us coming within cooee of them. Normally I would think meeting the top teams at the start of the season is good before they have clicked into top gear but geez storm may click early this year!
 
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@ said:
Top 4 easy. We will win the comp.

x2

Away with the doom and gloomers Earl..

P.S. fixed your OP..
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Thanks for fixing my post. I've changed my mind a little and I think the thread title is a little incorrect. We should be thinking how many games we lose all season.

I say 5 in the regular season and none through the final season.
 
Interesting comments.

At the moment I am unsure where we will sit. But there are two clear elements that will guide my opinion and those elements might take a few rounds to gel.

Firstly is the performance of our pack and in particular whether we can dominate the ruck and move forward. I was pleasantly surprised toward the end of last year so I have optimism that Ivan will address this point.

If our pack is on the front foot in attack then I can see our big back line boys and Tui come into play and create some real damage. Let's not forget that Reynolds is a typical support player who can run off Packer etc Let's hope.

Secondly the real test will be our defensive structure and particularly out wide. All teams know that we are vulnerable in that area so if Ivan has addressed that weakness then I think that we have the forwards to be successful.
 
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