If another club was to poach either one of these two, who would you rather have us release out of Woods and Foran?
Both on upwards of $800,000 per year on a multi-year deal, both 10 games into their careers with the Dogs.
Personally, I'd release Foran over Woods. When you look at it from a longevity standpoint, Foran looks exhausted 60 minutes into every game and is struggling to defend on his edge. He is such a defensive liability and hasn't shown the ability to play #7 as we have blown 5 halftime leads so far this season (2 losses came after we were leading with less than 5 minutes to go) due to our inability to manage the game and put the ball in to touch. I thought Foran would steer the team around the park this year and improve our kicking game, but we're nearly halfway through the season and Foran still hasn't shown the ability to do either one of those things. Moses Mbye leads our team in "kicking meters gained" this season, and Foran is tied for 15th in the league amongst halves in try assists. You would think that considering he has a rookie five-eighth playing alongside him in the halves, he would take accountability for our attack and be on the ball when in reality he seems to drift in-and-out of games and fails to steer the team in the direction needed to win. If we have a game-managing halfback like Cronk, Maloney, Cleary, Hunt etc. we win the Good Friday match-up against Souths, and we win against the Broncos at Suncorp.
On the other hand, Woods has actually been OKAY. No, he hasn't been outstanding, and his style of play isn't what most people would consider a "tough" style of footy from a prop. However, for what it's worth, on our team he has the third most run meters, hit-ups, and tackles. He is also fifth in the entire competition in "effective offloads". I think having him on the field takes pressure off Klemmer and allows us to shift the ball to the edge to create an overlap. The opponent usually needs 2-3 in the tackle to bring him down, and he's a solid "meter-eater" for us. Look at the first try we scored against Parramatta in Round 9, Woods is the last to take a hit-up, compresses the defense and then we're able to get a nice shift to the edge and score. Not giving him complete credit, but he was solid. I don't think he is a liability on the field and doesn't really allow us to be exploited. Would be nice to see him win the ruck more often and just run hard rather than look for the offload. No, I do not think he is worth $800,000 a season, but building around Klemmer, Jackson, and Woods gives us the go-forward over the next few seasons that other teams won't have. Plus Junior Paulo and Shannon Boyd can only play 35-45 minutes per game and got roughly the same money with Parramatta and the Titans. That's the asking price for most front rowers in todays game, so the fact that Woods can play 60-65 if needed is a bonus for us.
All in all, if the cap is as bad as Paul Kent says it is and we do need to offload players, I would rather have us look to offload Tolman and Elliott before Woods or Foran, but if one of our "big money players" has to go, then I would keep Woods over Foran then move Mbye back to five-eighth and rotate our halves etc.
I know that some journos believe the only way to offload players is to send off your best ones, but that's not necessarily the case. I guarantee you that a team like Newcastle, the Rabbitohs, Canberra or Parramatta would take someone like Tolman considering how poor their front rowers have been this year. Regardless, let us know your thoughts on Foran and Woods and who you would rather have the Dogs release this year.