Our immediate future

[Munk]

No-one could've predicted this kind of player movement in the off season. Although I do expect one more signing before the start of the season.

Really? You believe no one saw the upheaval coming from the signing of the game's most experienced and credentialled halfback? A guy who would easily deserve north of a mill per season, squeezing into rosters who were already set, can only be achieved by moving on current players. The smart clubs were waiting for this to begin.

 

[TrueTiger]

A dominant pack equals wins. We will have a dominant pack next year and we'll win more than we lose.

Only one thing wrong with your thoughts sidey…people forget that Brooks has to step right up to the plate and guide this team around the park and finish the sets off well...if he doesn't then someone else has to take control of the team,he has had enough chances for mine...he has to shape up or ship out..sick of hearing about potential,now all I wont to hear is competitiveness for the whole season,he has had plenty of time,chances and excuses...Ivan will make him or break him next season and I hope for Brooks sake he does come good..he was doing well towards the end of last year and should really improve... :astonished:

 

[sideline_eye]

A dominant pack equals wins. We will have a dominant pack next year and we'll win more than we lose.

Only one thing wrong with your thoughts sidey…people forget that Brooks has to step right up to the plate and guide this team around the park and finish the sets off well...if he doesn't then someone else has to take control of the team,he has had enough chances for mine...he has to shape up or ship out..sick of hearing about potential,now all I wont to hear is competitiveness for the whole season,he has had plenty of time,chances and excuses...Ivan will make him or break him next season and I hope for Brooks sake he does come good..he was doing well towards the end of last year and should really improve... :astonished:

Yep,TT, you are correct but my optimism is partly based on Ivan's remarks late in the season that he rated Brooks quite highly and was more optimistic of the team's success with Brooks than without him. I don't have the exact quotes but that was how I took his meaning.

 

[Chris]

Im looking forward to Ivan changing the culture of our club. Fans included.

 

[hodgo]

I disagree.

We have had a boys club that have basically run the club for years. The team being put together by cleary may not be as talented however it is a team of hard nosed vets that will hold people accountable. This with our juniors we keep producing will result in a culture shift that will benefit us for years to come.

Will we win a comp next year probably not. will we be embarrassed by a team that quits etc i doubt it. We will have a team that will grind and that teams wont want to play, definitely.

I am looking forward to having a forward pack that doesn't consistently get out muscled.

Im looking forward to a year based around a team not a couple of players.

And hopefully no Drama

Hodg

 

[Telltails]

Have never bought the boys club excuse for years of mismanagement. A " boys club" only runs a club if the management allows them to. There are what is referred to as "boys clubs" at every team - thats what men do when they develop freindships and if anything it can be beneficial to a team if managed correctly.

 

[cqtiger]

We were very competitive towards the end of this season so I see us being better next season with the improved roster we have.

Half of this season was sabotaged by the “lousy three”. For the latter part of the season we had a reserve grade NZ winger playing five eight and a crippled half back with suss hamstrings.
We brought in a couple of no nonsense forwards like Twal and Eiso who plugged defensive holes and ran straight. We brought in another reserve grade winger who did the job.

We lost the “lousy three” but I see this as a plus for our team/club because all our eggs are no longer in the same basket. $1M a year for Tedesco, $900K a year for Woods and $850K a year for Moses only allows us to mainly fill the rest of the team with nuffies. Only teams like the Bulldogs, Roosters, Broncos, Storm and Cowboys can pay top dollar to 3 or more players and still fill their roster with talent. Whether it be TPAs or plain brown paper bags of cash - we can’t compete at that level.

Cleary knows this and has bought decent talent at decent rates and is building an overall stronger squad. To me, this is phase one of Cleary’s plan, next year will build on this and then again the year after.

I had my doubts with Lolohea but Cleary could see something in him and he got better and better as the season went on. I’m told his preferred position is fullback. I’m happy to have him there.

Cleary has often mentioned the need for a full off season to implement his own structures. The improvements he made to our team this year, on the run, were there for all to see.

I’m not expecting a top four result next year but I would be surprised if we don’t end up fighting for a finals berth.

 

[Glennb]

For mine we can massively improve our success simply by improving our last tackle options on the back of good go forward from an improved pack. I'm not sold on Reynolds providing this although from memory he has a decent long kicking game. I hope Cleary has Brooks grubbering between witches hats the whole of the summer

 

[Spud_Murphy]

I disagree.

We have had a boys club that have basically run the club for years. The team being put together by cleary may not be as talented however it is a team of hard nosed vets that will hold people accountable. This with our juniors we keep producing will result in a culture shift that will benefit us for years to come.

Will we win a comp next year probably not. will we be embarrassed by a team that quits etc i doubt it. We will have a team that will grind and that teams wont want to play, definitely.

I am looking forward to having a forward pack that doesn't consistently get out muscled.

Im looking forward to a year based around a team not a couple of players.

And hopefully no Drama

Hodg

Our forward pack supposedly being outmuscled each week was a myth. If you look at the rankings from last season, our forwards held their own for the most part. It was just that we had no one in the team creative enough to capitalise on it, and we still don't.

 

[Spartan117]

Following an ordinary couple of days I woke up wearing brown coloured glasses. I think that our recruitment may not only produce an ordinary season next year, but lock us in to the bottom on the table for years to come.
We have signed experienced first graders who are nothing special and will not improve much (Reynolds, McQueen, Matulino, Packer etc) for a lot of coin over a lot of years.
At the same time we have given fringe first graders like MCK extended deals for at least 2 seasons.
This means that we have locked up a large proportion of our cap meaning younger players with some potential (Aloiai, LoLo, Brooks etc) may be picked off by other clubs if they step up

I have similar thoughts about 2018 and beyond TBH.

Then again we put all our hopes in the Big 4 and three punted us.

I wonder what and where we would be if the RObbie thing never happened… He would be gone by now as a club legend.

 

[hodgo]

I disagree.

We have had a boys club that have basically run the club for years. The team being put together by cleary may not be as talented however it is a team of hard nosed vets that will hold people accountable. This with our juniors we keep producing will result in a culture shift that will benefit us for years to come.

Will we win a comp next year probably not. will we be embarrassed by a team that quits etc i doubt it. We will have a team that will grind and that teams wont want to play, definitely.

I am looking forward to having a forward pack that doesn't consistently get out muscled.

Im looking forward to a year based around a team not a couple of players.

And hopefully no Drama

Hodg

Our forward pack supposedly being outmuscled each week was a myth. If you look at the rankings from last season, our forwards held their own for the most part. It was just that we had no one in the team creative enough to capitalise on it, and we still don't.

Dude surely you dont think stats measure up when it comes to forward dominance. There were a couple of games were the boys stood up but on the whole we did not compete physically with the big forward packs. We hardly ever dominated a tackle, we very rarely bent the line consistently and we for sure never made teams wonder where the hit was coming from. They are all things that dont show up statistically but make a huge difference on the paddock.

 

[goldcoast_tiger]

Im very nervous and given what we have spent we need to improve.
Although we have added some depth we have also lost our two biggest draw cards - love them or hate them - in Woods and Teddy.The last few days reinforces that real good players seem to head to clubs with other real good players unless of course they are seeking the big paycheck to see out their career.
I have faith in the coach, but the recruitment of some of our competitors in recent days has me revaluating my level of expectation.

Woods is a dud. I think we are much stronger in the forwards without him there especially on a dollar per player basis. Moses and Tedesco are the big losses but hopefully someone will come through and provide the spark that we need.

Don't agree that he is a dud, but he's not a spearhead( such as Hargreaves, or klezmer,
But working with someone like those two, he would be a lot more effective.
He's had to carry a very ordinary pack for a long time.
His work rate is good, he can offload when he's allowed toand can play big minutes when needed to.
Certainly better than a lot of props going around in the NRL

 

[Tigersmurf]

In the past a large chunk of our salary cap has been spent on a handful of players who couldn't deliver consistently, and then blamed their teammates for the clubs poor form. We got many of the players we were chasing, and the money is much more evenly spread for 2018\. I expect that to result in consistency.

Brooks will have protection he has not had in the past and that will give him time to make decisions and control the game. I disagree that the dogs were better without Reynolds, they lost some spark without him there and only turned their season around when there was talk of Des getting the chop.

I think we are missing a couple of key players, and a RTS would fill that void. Otherwise we wait until other players become available or we steal the best from the lower grades at other clubs. I hear the lower grade fullback we poached from the Sharks really has some potential.

 

[earl]

Im very nervous and given what we have spent we need to improve.
Although we have added some depth we have also lost our two biggest draw cards - love them or hate them - in Woods and Teddy.The last few days reinforces that real good players seem to head to clubs with other real good players unless of course they are seeking the big paycheck to see out their career.
I have faith in the coach, but the recruitment of some of our competitors in recent days has me revaluating my level of expectation.

Woods is a dud. I think we are much stronger in the forwards without him there especially on a dollar per player basis. Moses and Tedesco are the big losses but hopefully someone will come through and provide the spark that we need.

Don't agree that he is a dud, but he's not a spearhead( such as Hargreaves, or klezmer,
But working with someone like those two, he would be a lot more effective.
He's had to carry a very ordinary pack for a long time.
His work rate is good, he can offload when he's allowed toand can play big minutes when needed to.
Certainly better than a lot of props going around in the NRL

I reckon he is a dud. You see him play for Australia or NSW and he just plods up, turns his back and does basically nothing. Yep he gets consistent metres and he has a great offload at times. His hit-ups though often leave the team on the backfoot. His defence can also be lazy. He does have a great work rate.

He just isn't the right player to lead a pack and he is getting paid as as you call it to be a spearhead. I think we are better off without him. I think our pack next year will be better without him.

 

[goldcoast_tiger]

A dominant pack equals wins. We will have a dominant pack next year and we'll win more than we lose.

Only one thing wrong with your thoughts sidey…people forget that Brooks has to step right up to the plate and guide this team around the park and finish the sets off well...if he doesn't then someone else has to take control of the team,he has had enough chances for mine...he has to shape up or ship out..sick of hearing about potential,now all I wont to hear is competitiveness for the whole season,he has had plenty of time,chances and excuses...Ivan will make him or break him next season and I hope for Brooks sake he does come good..he was doing well towards the end of last year and should really improve... :astonished:

Yep,TT, you are correct but my optimism is partly based on Ivan's remarks late in the season that he rated Brooks quite highly and was more optimistic of the team's success with Brooks than without him. I don't have the exact quotes but that was how I took his meaning.

Whatever Cleary may think about Brooks, he's not silly enough to bake him in public.

He can't come out and say that he can't tackle to save his life, or that his short kicking game is on the nose. Clearys thoughts probably won't be seen until about round six next year.

 

[notarealtiger]

Even though our forward pack hasn't been the best in recent years, the losses can't fall on them. I think we've all noticed a lot of missed opportunities due to not being able to build pressure i.e. the short kicking game of Brooks has been left wanting.

Our forward pack has overall gotten better so the biggest problem we have next year is we don't have a recognised kicker. Decent amount of running in the squad but nobody to build pressure. Ironically Brooks wad quite good at this in 2014\. Let's hope he recaptures that form.

 

[steve-o]

Luke Brooks has two years (max) to prove he belongs in the NRL. If he can't step up, he'll become a punch line like Daniel Mortimer. Let's hope he can do it.

 

[earl]

Add me to the list that wants to see Brooks kick on. If he turns into a quality player we will go well. If not then we may struggle.

 

[Tigrr]

The facts are that Cleary improved this side who were a demoralised rabble to a side that began playing consistent football. He gave players like Eiso,Twal etc a chance and so improved the clubs depth no end,not to mention the improvement in Grant,Aloai,Marsters, Kev,MCK,MWZ and even Brooks defence. With the addition of some quality signings and cutting of deadwood, I see a much brighter future. Compared to recent years there is a lot to look forward towards.

 

[MG1962]

Change is a good thing and could see our new players reap the reward. Our biggest issue is how our combinations gel, but our biggest plus which far outweighs any negatives is there are no more divas in the team and the players know Cleary is in charge. We just need a good run with injuries and I see us pressing for a top 8 spot.

This, I would rather follow a champion team than a team of champions. With the exception of fullback every signing so far has been an upgrade on what we had