Which forward pack is better?

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Gingerbread Man

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So excited about our forward pack for the next few years especially with the signing of Klemmer for the next 3 years. Simple question - which forward pack would you prefer - 2004/2005 forward pack or present forward pack?

Present
FRF - Graham, Tolman, Kasiano and Klemmer
2RF - TRex, Pritchard, Eastwood, Jackson and Finucane
=WOW

2004/2005 Forwards
FRF - Price (2004), Asotasi, O'Meley and Nate Myles (2005)
2RF - Mason, Ryan, Grimaldi, Maitua and Sonny Bill

 

ElMagicElMasri

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2004 was the best club pack in the modern era
 

boggie23

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You need to have the team on the park at the same time. You cant say this player and that player when they have never played together.

Once we get the full pack on the park we can see how they perform.

Our 04 pack was amazing. Shame it didnt stay together for longer because they all would have been ring of champion players of the future (or what ever our hall of fame is called)
 

Sandra's Bollocks

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surely theres no contest? 2004-2006 we had such pure aggression coupled with skill. we lack that intimidating factor nowadays.
what i would give to have an o'meley-type player again. god i miss that bloke.
 

Bob dog

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It's closer than you think but it was interesting to see the Roosters buy our forwards with limited success, you needed the whole side, even Willie Tonga was feared, we had great backs with plenty in reserves.
The old adage 'you need to lose a GF to win one' will never ring louder in 2013.
They will walk in the shoes of former legends to become ones themselves.
 

cookieman909

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04 No doubt. That pack was mean! I'll never forget O'Meley running hard into Gibbs and knocking him out, then seeing big Willie patting O'Meley on the back. And the game against Dragons at oki in 06, we just bashed them the whole night!
 

Alan79

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So excited about our forward pack for the next few years especially with the signing of Klemmer for the next 3 years. Simple question - which forward pack would you prefer - 2004/2005 forward pack or present forward pack?

Present
FRF - Graham, Tolman, Kasiano and Klemmer
2RF - TRex, Pritchard, Eastwood, Jackson and Finucane
=WOW

2004/2005 Forwards
FRF - Price (2004), Asotasi, O'Meley and Nate Myles (2005)
2RF - Mason, Ryan, Grimaldi, Maitua and Sonny Bill

04-05 pack was something special and in my opinion still pips this one for quality based on what they achieved. It was mostly our own juniors or players we bought from the lower grades so i was proud of how we built that pack. They had aggression in spades, and enough skill to make them fairly unpredictable. The defining factor of the 04-5 pack was that if opponents came out trying to dominate them they'd just smile as they belted the schit out of them. I remember one clash verse St George which was closer to war than rugby league. Shoulder charges and big hits galore that day. Sweet memories.

Our current pack is an entirely different prospect. We will rely a lot more on ball playing ability than aggression. We will have some big boppers to wear opponents down and our second phase play which adds another dimension. With shoulder charges now illegal they will never be able to intimidate like the 04-5 squad did but our defensive structure should make up for that. There is no reason why this pack can't be better than the 04-5 pack.
 

Stoofy

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If our current pack equals 04, I will be very happy!
 

Izzy Forreal

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You need to have the team on the park at the same time. You cant say this player and that player when they have never played together.
Very true, its very difficult to compare sides from different eras.

04-05 pack was something special and in my opinion still pips this one for quality based on what they achieved. It was mostly our own juniors or players we bought from the lower grades so i was proud of how we built that pack. They had aggression in spades, and enough skill to make them fairly unpredictable. The defining factor of the 04-5 pack was that if opponents came out trying to dominate them they'd just smile as they belted the schit out of them. I remember one clash verse St George which was closer to war than rugby league. Shoulder charges and big hits galore that day. Sweet memories.

Our current pack is an entirely different prospect. We will rely a lot more on ball playing ability than aggression. We will have some big boppers to wear opponents down and our second phase play which adds another dimension. With shoulder charges now illegal they will never be able to intimidate like the 04-5 squad did but our defensive structure should make up for that. There is no reason why this pack can't be better than the 04-5 pack.
Also very true, there's no way the referees would let our 2013 pack get away with what was called aggression in 2004-2005.

But there's one specialist position that was not mentioned in the this theme's introductory post: The hooker. In 2004-2005 our run on hooker was Corey Hughes who gave away near half the penalties against us. In 2013 we have our captain Michael Ennis who has cleaned up his act hugely.

Although it would be a very close thing I'd award a points decision to the 2013 pack who would finish on top thanks to the Corey Hughes penalty donation. :doh:
 

Freakzilla

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2004 easily. Probably only T-Rex and Ennis would make the 2004 starting line-up.
 

MrDogzOfWar

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2004/2005 Foward Pack was the biggest foward pack in Nrl Modern Era...
 

MP4 - Eedz

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Current, hands down

Don't get me wrong, they where aggressive but they don't even come close in terms of the work rate, efficiency, consistency or discipline of the current pack

Last year was pure structure, brutal defence week in week out CONSISTENTLY. You put 2004 Sherwin in that side and we are Premiers

We had a lot of ups and downs with the 2004/2005 pack, not so with this pack IMO
 
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Paint.

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Current, hands down

Don't get me wrong, they where aggressive but they don't even come close in terms of the work rate, efficiency, consistency or discipline of the current pack

Last year was pure structure, brutal defence week in week out CONSISTENTLY. You put 2004 Sherwin in that side and we are Premiers

We had a lot of ups and downs with the 2004/2005 pack, not so with this pack IMO
It's the Hasler effect.

Give me the 2004 side with Des in charge, anyday... however, 2004/Folkes vs 2013/Des, I'd pick the current team
 

w00t

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^ Definitely Hasler's work...

SBW, Mason, Asotasi, Maitua all at their peak had amazing ball skills that came with instinct, Folkes was a great coach but honestly Hasler is far better than him and i'd wager we would've had a few more premierships with Hasler at the helm, our 04-06 squad was definitely superior to the Manly squad that won in 08 and 11.

Our current backline (With Barba in it) is however superior to the 1-5 we had back in 04. Patten was extremely consistent but if Barba played behind a pack like our 04 one, we'd be unstoppable. Same deal with our halves at that point, Sherwin at his best could compete with the best in the era (Thurston and Johns).

What people have got to remember is that we only kept that 04 pack due to the majority of players taking paycuts to stay together as a team, it was for all intents and purposes still an illegally assembled squad.

06 v Dragons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC7uzSKnVRA

Still i doubt our team would've choked in a preliminary half with Hasler at the helm. That 06 final against Brisbane was absolutely disgusting and no it wasn't because we lost Holdsworth
 

aarooni

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Give our current pack some time and will say our pack will be more feared than he 2004 pack.we have easily a bigger pack and you have to remember its still progressing. We have 5 current internationals and we have 3 players who are in the top 5 in size and 2 of them are current internationals.we have a giant backrow with a mix of skill and power.we got to the go on the back of our fwd pack last year and by years end his pack should be to speed....so if you we're to compare the 2 packs its closer than you think...wait till klezmer and tapas are fully blooded and you have to more monsters in the pack....why do you think Bennett was after kasiano and klezmer....not teir good looks lol
 

aarooni

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My bad on the spellcheck...tapas sounds like a Greek fob and klezmer a nazi lol
 

Gingerbread Man

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One thing that is noticeably different is the line speed in defence in 04-06 was so much quicker than our current squad of 12-13. Maybe Folkes is better than Des in this regard??

Quick defensive line speed consistently over 80 minutes is crucial and what we had in 04-06. Maybe because of how aggressive our players were. This stopped the opposition go forward in their tracks. Having said that, their aggression meant they were more fatigued and their creativity in attack is no where near like our current pack. This didn't matter as Sherwin and Anasta at their peak >>>> Reynolds and Keating. So we can definitely see the change in the game over 10 years, maybe because there are so many more ruck penalties nowadays. I imagine we would have given away more penalties in 04-06 if it was refereed as it is now.

Possibly the answer is JT? Our pack aggression can be again released because their creativity is not as crucial with JT running the show.
 

aarooni

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It rumour was floating around...but then there's other it rumours too.the dogs have the management to get the player we need surely.we get a good halfback then we get a go win.
 
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