Do you expect much improvement in our defense?

[Moedogg]

We pretty much leaked the most points last year, how do you think we will go this year? Do you think the players we recruited will help fix our D? I know Kurt Mann and Critta are good defenders, haven't really paid attention to Curran's defensive game, though I've heard he's been killing it at training.

My biggest worry is Burton and Mahoney, maybe Turpin or Mann will come off the bench for Mahoney with Critta and a fit Kikau helping Burton on the left edge.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

No, not really. Team might have a better understanding of the system but I doubt the chemistry is there with the high turn over of players. Middles are also going to get cooked unless they've been on some freaky Mount Olympus shit.

 

[CQDog]

Nah cause Burton is literally Dan Burn in defense. The entire team could defend well but he could still be so bad that it doesn’t matter and results will be shit

 

[Psycho Doggie]

It is going to be a looooooong season if there isn't some improvement.

 

[Bitemarks]

Well we got rid of two turnstiles in the centres, so hopefully that will be a step in the right direction.

 

[King Gus]

There definitely will be an improvement in defence.
For one they have addressed it and worked on it all pre season.
*2. Big change in attitude
*3. Majority of the players have been an upgrade.

 

[bowleggedwog]

Based off last season there has to be some improvement, there is no way they replicate that again. This squad has a few more veterans, professional footballers and that should help alone. The talk and attitude in defence will improve.

 

[Bad Billy]

If they don’t, this season will go pretty much the same way as last.

 

[dawso047]

I doubt they would carry both Mann and Turpin on the bench. Mann is a utility, so he possibly comes on for Mahoney. The other 3 bench spots will probably go to larger bodies, Hughes, Knight, Patolo, Sutton, Salmon, Edwards and Morrin.

 

[Baseball Furies]

The arm grabbing centres have departed, so yes!

 

[Dingo]

Better be some improvement

 

[Suave]

Almost impossible to not improve on last season. My worry though is if our forwards lose the battle most games (which on paper they probably will), we’ll run out of puff in the last quarter of games and leak points.

 

[PeteHazz]

There definitely will be an improvement in defence.
For one they have addressed it and worked on it all pre season.
*2. Big change in attitude
*3. Majority of the players have been an upgrade.

Agreed. I will be shocked if there isn't a marked improvement. Something else might be broken, but I'm pretty sure the defense will be better. Maybe not excellent, but definitely better

 

[TwinTurbo]

If we remove the 3 shit games where we played a multitude of non NRL players then our fore and against doesn't look that bad. If we saved just 1 try and conversion per game we would have a positive fore and against. Same if we scored 1 more try and a conversion per game, positive fore and against.

I always keep reminding myself that we used 36 players last season, that's a record for us. Very hard to develop defensive systems when that number of players are used week to week. Hopefully we won't face that situation again this season.


Always a Bulldog

 

[Scoobs]

I think it improves without a doubt. IMO they put critta at centre next to burto, immediately fixes our leaky edge on that side and we carry a quality 14 (mann,turpin,hutch) to give reed a spell and hopefully reduce his misses. These 2 things alone should provide a noticeable uplift. Then we have another pre season learning the system and also improving fitness. Quietly optimistic

 

[Nate DAWG]

I think it will be difficult to improve our defence as we will be in the back foot due to our lack of middles. I’m hoping we are playing fast in attack and being tenacious in defence but I think our middle gets dominated by anyone

 

[Micko]

There should be a huge difference.

Generally the most important defenders in every team are the back rowers and centres. Critta, Tracey, Curran and Mann all are much better defenders than we had last year. The standards these guys set should push the others to be better.

More importantly we have moved on a lot of our poorer and lazy defenders. Averillo and Pangai being the two obvious ones. Hopefully the turnover of players is a lot less this year. We need to keep the same 17 on the field as long as possible.

 

[maroondog72]

TPJ,Thompson RFM etc etc etc all gone, it cant help but improve.

 

[Freakzilla]

We have signed the best defensive centre in the NRL. Just him alone will improve our defense big time.

Also we have way better depth so that means we don't have to play deadwood like Okunbor & Perham which will help our defense also.

 

[Cappuccino]

Optimistic there will be some improvement
Also waiting for the stories about how we turned Crichton into the worst defensive centre going cause of the junk around him