It's interesting to look at the number of changes. Only 6 of those players max will be in our 2020 Rd 1 team and, since then, Pay has blooded Reimus (pretty much), Lewis, Renouf, Okunbor, and even Harper and Wakeham have had a game (most were local juniors or developed at the club). JMK, Cogger and Meaney were also pretty green with little FG experience.
So it really is a new side that's got potential to keep improving just by the younger players getting more experience. The main problem I think, apart from a clear lack of speed in the squad, is there's no obvious game-breaking champions coming out of our young lot, and that's what we need. Wakeham looks sharp and Renouf has the potential to become a very good off-loading front rower, but the evidence is far from conclusive for either at this stage. Put simply, we need to find ways to score more tries to be more competitive next year and I still can't see where they might come from.
Even for 2021, we are gonna need strike power. We'd all prefer that to be in the form of a great half and/or dummy half or fullback, but I agree with those arguing for us to sign a marquee player asap, even if there's no decent spine players available. Not sure Lattrell is the right man to get in a bidding war over, but I'd be going hard for Fifita, even if we are stacked with backrowers. He would be a huge investment for the future and we can say goodbye to Elliott and Smith at the end of next year.