As it stands right now, I’ll unfortunately say NO.
My reason for this decision is purely based on our spine.
a pack consisting of Vaughan, Thompson, TPJ, Jackson then Hetherington, RFM, Ava, Topine and possibly BBO as a 14 is decent enough.
a backline with the likes of JAC, Cotric, Naden, Allan is pretty solid also. Then there’s the potential Alamoti who we hope will be our next best thing. Also Schoupp is coming along adequately enough. Hoping Okunbor really gets trained on reading defense and making better decisions in attack as he has size, strength and speed.
our spine though is a real worry….
Burton currently is our only quality player out of 4 key positions. Not good enough for finals.
- Averillo still has plenty to prove for mine as a general with a crafty kicking game. He may be a centre or FB, I don’t know…
- Flanagan is a wipe
- Wakeham I hope is punted ASAP
- JMK should not be a starting 9 if we want to be top 8.
- Dufty, I’m sorry, he will be a let down and thankfully only signed for 1 year. He looks good in attack against lesser teams, but doesn’t stand up in the big games. He can’t defend and he can’t defuse a bomb under pressure. At least he’s on less than DWZ, that’s the only plus.
- BBO is a class act and can be anything, but to run a team I think will take him some time.
Im hoping JAC can surprise as a real class FB, but then that’s weakening the wing where he is close to if not the best winger in the world.
I know I sound negative, I’m not. I’m very pleased with how we’ve strengthened our pack and backline. Definitely the right direction. I just don’t think we are strong enough in the key positions of spine.
