Not 1 of our spine players are in the top 7 in the NRL at their position

Freakzilla

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Burton has the potential to be a top 7 five-eighth but he isn't playing like it yet. Mahoney is a top 4 hooker so he will help. Flanagan and JMK are the worst starters in their position in the NRL. Dufty is 9th-12th best fullback at his best.

No team makes the finals in the NRL with such a bad spine.
 

Doge

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I tipped us to finish bottom 4 for this exact reason.

There was an article where they ranked the halves and had us at 14th and the kennel had a meltdown that we weren’t ranked higher when we should have been ranked lower.


Nothing will change until we fix the spine.
 

Dognacious

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Not exactly a shock.

Burton, well he either needs time to adjust to half again, or to be a centre, not sure yet, but he has talent. So far from what ive seen of Burton he is a superior centre. Origin level at centre. As a half, i havent watched his junior games, and in the couple of games Penrith ran him at half, he was ordinary. we may want a 6 and move him to backs at some point. Too early too call but. By seasons end we will know more.

Flanagan, well he hasnt been the reason for our form imo, thought hes not killing it either. Most of the team needs a kick up the ass tbh. We will know more about Flanagan's ability to get where we need him to, by later in the season.

Dufty...well he probably averages out to be midfield or a little lower in the NRL fullback ranks. Meaning he can be top 4 and bottom 4, even in the same match. So somewhere in between is right. I have seen him be T Turbo like in odd matches for dragons, and for the whole matches too. He's shown glimpses with us this year so far. So its in him. But consistency is a big problem he has. And defence. If we cant improve him by years end, then give JAC a crack there, since hes keen to and a chance of killing it there.

Mahoney will fix the 9 issue as you said.
 

Big Vibe

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I tipped us to finish bottom 4 for this exact reason.

There was an article where they ranked the halves and had us at 13th and the kennel had a meltdown that we weren’t ranked higher when we should have been ranked lower.


Nothing will change until we fix the spine.
Lol I’m sure there was more than a few knuckleheads on here who had us top 4 this year under the wizardry of Gus and TBaz
 

MichaelM

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Burton has the potential to be a top 7 five-eighth but he isn't playing like it yet. Mahoney is a top 4 hooker so he will help. Flanagan and JMK are the worst starters in their position in the NRL. Dufty is 9th-12th best fullback at his best.

No team makes the finals in the NRL with such a bad spine.
Totally agree and to make it worse nearly every team has a back up Halfback and Hooker that are also more highly rated!!
 

AlzzBulldog

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Burton has the potential to be a top 7 five-eighth but he isn't playing like it yet. Mahoney is a top 4 hooker so he will help. Flanagan and JMK are the worst starters in their position in the NRL. Dufty is 9th-12th best fullback at his best.

No team makes the finals in the NRL with such a bad spine.
We should still have won 3 or 4 games so far.. no excuses
 

Daustin

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Seems crazy that we didn’t go for Adam Reynolds for similar money to what we’re paying tevita
 

Ewan McGrady

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By whose rankings? Dufty and Burton top seven for sure…..be it just…..
The other two perhaps run 16th though
 

Kenya

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I had us 8th to 12th. Most of us did.

What a shock - not only last but a +/- so bad it’s humiliating.

Coaching crew have 4 games to start to turn it around or we will likely see new faces in ‘23.

Burton is a centre btw.
 

bradyk

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Yeah we knew this going into the season. Burton on potential before a ball was kicked was looking like he could be close to a top 7 five-eighth. We now know he's gone backwards like every player that comes here (he's literally a shell of himself, confidence shot). Mahoney in theory should be massive next year but we say the same thing going into every year with our new recruits. Dufty and Flanagan aren't good enough. We need to address one of these positions again with recruitment (fullback imo) before next year.
 

bradyk

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By whose rankings? Dufty and Burton top seven for sure…..be it just…..
The other two perhaps run 16th though
They aren't even close. Dufty's one of the worst fullbacks in the NRL. We need to stop comparing our players with players in our current roster. We're a wooden spoon team. When you compare Dufty to other teams fullbacks it ain't great.
 

Kempsey Dog

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They aren't even close. Dufty's one of the worst fullbacks in the NRL. We need to stop comparing our players with players in our current roster. We're a wooden spoon team. When you compare Dufty to other teams fullbacks it ain't great.
Dufty is putrid I hate how most on here rate him
 

kaluah8123

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Burton is a gun. He has made some errors during games but he was great for the well coached panthers when called upon in the halves. He has a shit hooker and a revolving door 7. The back half of the year we will hit our straps when it’s all over for us.
 

Dogtime

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This is precisely the point for our lack of success. I did a review of all teams and surprise surprise, the teams who have performed the best this and the last 2 years have a few top 5 rated players in the spine position. The best being the Storm, who have 5 top 5 rated spine players, Penrith with 3, Souths had 4 now 3, Eels have 3/4. Our spine players would rank 14-16th. Which begs the question......why, apart from Mahoney next year, have we gone for players other than spine players?TPJ and Kikau are useless unless running onto passes delivered by top echelon spine players. Our recruitment beggars belief. Why not go for Hughes or Munster instead of Kikau? Burton is not and never will be a half. What someone does in juniors doesn't always transfer to NRL level. As a junior he most likely was a running 5/8, rather than someone who digs into the line to create space.
 

Disposable Hero

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This is precisely the point for our lack of success. I did a review of all teams and surprise surprise, the teams who have performed the best this and the last 2 years have a few top 5 rated players in the spine position. The best being the Storm, who have 5 top 5 rated spine players, Penrith with 3, Souths had 4 now 3, Eels have 3/4. Our spine players would rank 14-16th. Which begs the question......why, apart from Mahoney next year, have we gone for players other than spine players?TPJ and Kikau are useless unless running onto passes delivered by top echelon spine players. Our recruitment beggars belief. Why not go for Hughes or Munster instead of Kikau? Burton is not and never will be a half. What someone does in juniors doesn't always transfer to NRL level. As a junior he most likely was a running 5/8, rather than someone who digs into the line to create space.
What top 5 spine players are available I guess is the question
 
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