We get an origin player, we get a kid who has been killing it, and we get a actual centre. In my books we improve. Especially if we let go the players that aren’t first grade standard.
A winger a centre and a 5/8 alone won’t make us a top 8 team, but we will have a touch of class (in all honesty and being very generous we have 2 maybe 3 first graders in our current 17).
It seems to be a top 3 team (which it seems are the only teams that can possibly win, if not top 2) you need talent all over the park (papenhoyzen, JAC,Hughes, Grant, a big pack, then you have Cleary, To’o, fisher harris, korisau, Capewell, yeo.
So it’s naive to think supplementary pieces will get us into the 8 or 6. But it is a step in the right direction.
Like others have mentioned we need a hard nosed forward leader to help out thompson. We need a class hooker, we need a decent back rower (Elliot, Jackson, Waddell, rfm seem inadequate, especially in today’s game). We need a fullback. Not a winger that wants to be a fullback. We need a halfback. Unless we decide to run with 2 5/8’s or we hope that without the pressure of running the attack flano can do his role.
With all that then we need the young pups, the schoupps, the alamotis, the taupaus etc to come through. If we don’t keep on recruiting the best pups we will be stagnant. It might be another 2-3 seasons until we are a threat. The only upside is we are a young team that can be kept together and build something.
But Barrett, the board and the CEO need to get us out of this (even though they didn’t put us in this position).
For the Barrett haters too, if you think Belemy or Bennett, or Robinson could win game in this current comp with park footballers like tui katoa, dietz, waddell, doorey etc, then you don’t know the game.
The top 3 are winning by 30-40 every week. They are beating other contending teams/top 8 teams by that much. We have the absolute worst 30 in the squad. No one can deny or argue against that. We were lucky to get a win so far this season. And there will be a lot more losses coming up. That’s just being realistic. But to sack a coach that has been here for a minute is silly. Like I have previously said if we are still getting 30-0 scorelines in 12 months time then sure he has the spotlight on him. But in my books his job is safe until he can restructure the roster.
He is to blame for Waddell. But Stimson who is on bigger money and is a Jim bean cup player at the moment is a worse signing
and as long as we are carrying the Stimson, the Jackson’s, the zelezniaka on fullback coin, as long as we have Waddell starting or playing 50+ mins, then we won’t be competitive.
