Probably the best thing was the buys seemed to add a bit of energy and look at how May tried at the end there...100% was the best player for us. Probably happy that we reversed the trend from last year of the young guys being the best thing about us. Today May, Twal, Hunt, Bird and to a lesser extent Luai looked good. Skelton and Turuva aren't exactly veterans but also clearly a better standard that what we've had.
Galvin has had it all said before, ive said it for most of his short career. He ran for 130 metres. Great if its effective, incredibly frustrating if its not....plenty of yardage in this team dont need him taking hit ups with May at 175 and Kelton 200+. The one that scares me for second year syndrome [I know he played a bit for Manly] is Sam Fainu....we can't have him regress. Pole also outplayed by guys who put in both sides of the ball. Love Fonuas hit ups but he has to see what real first graders look like and he doesn't have to look far now.
We need the young guys to keep playing with better first graders so they learn. I'm tipping Benji will have a totally different challenge this year, as he empowered the kids a lot last year but in NRL you have to earn it not rely on coach puffing you up. I was pretty happy with Tallyn, and to a lesser extent Faatape and Mason.
I think guys like Naden and Toa could look a bit more consistent in a team like this, but really one class centre and second rower would have shut down a lot.
Last point....multiple times the last couple of years I've tallied up the players I'd keep from our starting 17 and come up with about 5. Now we basically fixed 6 or 7 spots in one off-season which is amazing, but we are starting from so far back it isn't funny.
