Our current depth for 2027;
1. Jack Attard
2. Tino Tavana.
3. Max Taotua
4. Patrick Herbert
5. Junior Tupou
6. Javon Andrews
7. Jock Madden
13. ???
12. Phoenix Godinet
1. Ethan Roberts
10. ???
9. Jared Haywood
8. ???
This is currently much worse depth than this year.
We probably don’t lose much when replacing Turuva with Tavana, but that’s not saying much.
I love Tavana’s attitude and love his effort and anticipation to at least try and contest every high ball, but he is short and has very limited speed past 30 metres which makes it very hard for him to compete against the attributes that most opposing wingers now possess.
Tupou was good yesterday and if he continues to play with that intent he will at least challenge Makasini for the left wing starting spot.
Attard is a decent prospect given more time to develop, but has not done enough to be confident he will be a NRL quality back up in 2027.
Herbert has shown he will rip in and do his best, but is small, slow and a long way short of an NRL quality centre.
Max Taotua has always shown promise and is a big imposing figure at right centre or potentially right wing, but he has had an average type of season dropping back from NSW Cup to Jersey Flegg early in the season and not doing enough to earn a recall. He continues to be a threat with ball in hand, but is a defensive liability even at Flegg level, so how can you be confident of him being NRL ready in 7 months time? He has not shown near as much as Solo Saukuru who we have not yet bothered to re/sign.
We should have decent depth in our halves as it’s hard to tell which of the 4 contenders will be our best NRL pairing at this stage, but it also doesn’t guarantee we will have enough quality in our halves.
The signing of Jayden Brailey looks to have improved our hooker depth along with the emerging Jared Haywood.
We have no genuine back up 13 currently signed and no genuine NRL 13 either.
Our two back up edge back rowers are Ethan Roberts and Phoenix Godinet.
Ethan has a big frame and has shown some good signs with ball in hand, but needs big improvement on his defensive reads
Phoenix is a player with good potential and good work ethic, but he has struggled to nail down a starting spot in our Jersey Flegg team this season and does not look to be even close to NRL level just yet.
Mitch Taotua who is Max’s twin brother has been much more impressive during his Jersey Flegg appearances and a few NSW Cup appearances this season, so it’s ironic that his lesser performed twin brother has been given a top 30 position.
We currently to have no depth props signed which is a major concern and we desperately need to recruit one or two that are performed and not simply rely on what we have within, unless one spot goes to Tony Sukkar who I think has deserved it.
