Opinion Pre Season Training

dawso047

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Lets face it. The two most important aspects of an NRL team are its spine and middle forwards, on paper the Dogs are close to dead last. Who will play fullback neither Tracey or Taffe look like rhey're capable of challenging the best fullbacks and Crighton looks way better in the centres. Hutchison or Sexton to partner an under achieving Burton in the halves, Hutchison is a career utility or NSW Cup half and Sexton does not have any outstanding qualities in his game to match the best. Middle forwards are bare, King and Curran will start, King is a standard no thrills NRL level prop and Curran has yet to prove that he deserves a regular starting soot. Knight and Sutton are now experienced but mainly played NSW Cup at their previous clubs.
Papali'i might be an option at fullback late this season but not before, there are no other options in the halves unless Rajab suddenly becomes a far better defender or unless Taffe transitions seemlessly back into the 6 or 7 roll. Hughes and Patolo are not boom youngsters, Edwards and Morrin are yet to even earn a top 30 deal and Marshall, Todd, Hayes are yet to enter any serious consideration. Bottom 4 finish, I am pessimistic.
My best hope for this year is that Papali'i shows he could handle NRL, Rajab kearns to tackle and against all odds Hughes and Morrin earn new deals. Plus the NSW Cup side to flourish on the back of Kautoga, Hayes, Todd, Samrani, Rajab, Papali'i and one of Edwards or Morrin.
 

Bad Billy

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the NRL had a "leadership" conference with reps from all the clubs recently, I saw a snippet of Max King and Reed there representing us - potential new captains this year? No sight of Burton
Could be RLPA reps?
 

TheAlmightyJish

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Lets face it. The two most important aspects of an NRL team are its spine and middle forwards, on paper the Dogs are close to dead last. Who will play fullback neither Tracey or Taffe look like rhey're capable of challenging the best fullbacks and Crighton looks way better in the centres. Hutchison or Sexton to partner an under achieving Burton in the halves, Hutchison is a career utility or NSW Cup half and Sexton does not have any outstanding qualities in his game to match the best. Middle forwards are bare, King and Curran will start, King is a standard no thrills NRL level prop and Curran has yet to prove that he deserves a regular starting soot. Knight and Sutton are now experienced but mainly played NSW Cup at their previous clubs.
Papali'i might be an option at fullback late this season but not before, there are no other options in the halves unless Rajab suddenly becomes a far better defender or unless Taffe transitions seemlessly back into the 6 or 7 roll. Hughes and Patolo are not boom youngsters, Edwards and Morrin are yet to even earn a top 30 deal and Marshall, Todd, Hayes are yet to enter any serious consideration. Bottom 4 finish, I am pessimistic.
My best hope for this year is that Papali'i shows he could handle NRL, Rajab kearns to tackle and against all odds Hughes and Morrin earn new deals. Plus the NSW Cup side to flourish on the back of Kautoga, Hayes, Todd, Samrani, Rajab, Papali'i and one of Edwards or Morrin.
Remind me not to invite you for a beer at the pub mate. Don't think there would be much upbeat banter.
 

GoTheDoggies

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He was a dogs fan?!
Not sure brah

He probably admired the hard work of the team back in the early 2000's.

Does this group of current players want to be sad *****??

Or are they going to train hard, be admired and be remembered??
 

CrittaMagic69

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Adam Driussi doesn't have Kikau in his SC side, major red flag that.
 

Alan79

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hence why I think trials play a massive part on who’s got what position. If xerri kills it then he will take a spot. If he doesn’t than a few games in reserve grade and possibility return to first grade after.

What I was told was BASED on the fact of how trials turn out. If they all smash it out and blitz trials then the backline I said will definitely happen.
Well the coaching staff would have footage available of pretty much every minute of football the recruits and most youngsters have played since they entered a professional system. They've got a better idea of how frequently they all produce the moments we admire on the highlights clips and they don't have to watch it with shit rap music annoying them :unamused:

So they'll have plans in place to improve individual flaws and they'll know what progress each player has made. We (most of us) see snapshots of training. The dedicated fans who make time to get to open training sessions see more, but less than those employed to review it all. Their future relies on getting it right and they'll give the team every opportunity for success that they can. Us fans can either complain or clap really. It'd be nice if we could try our hands at running a team. But most wouldn't want the hard work. Dealing with 30 (38 under the new rules) individuals who need some mental guidance as well as incredible training regimes to be at their best. Ego's aplenty would need nurturing. There'd be jealousy to contend with. I really think there'd be some real stress as a benefits package with the job.

So I have to be comfortable with the decisions that staff make. I'm not a Ciraldo fan boy. I think a lot of what makes a coach successful is the roster and ours is very much improved and he should do better with it this year. Every team would love to pick up a Crichton. Curran is a goer who might be another step towards an aggressive pack. Mann, Taaffe, Hutchison, Tracey, Salmon all give us plenty of options either as starters or off the bench. I could go on. But long story short, I think we're covered for most positions.

If Ciraldo can implement strategies to ensure the two team mates on either side of the prop taking a hit up are also threats, the defence won't dominate our forwards. If we can ball play before the line or pop sensible offloads to switched on support runners, the defence have to reduce how bunched they play instead of lining up three or four tacklers per hit up. It is a big ask to mastermind a strategy that asks a largely untested group of props to become offloading ball players. But if we could pull off a game plan where we could spread the ball wide at any time we might stay in touch with the top 8.
 

DFLWatto

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Lets face it. The two most important aspects of an NRL team are its spine and middle forwards, on paper the Dogs are close to dead last. Who will play fullback neither Tracey or Taffe look like rhey're capable of challenging the best fullbacks and Crighton looks way better in the centres. Hutchison or Sexton to partner an under achieving Burton in the halves, Hutchison is a career utility or NSW Cup half and Sexton does not have any outstanding qualities in his game to match the best. Middle forwards are bare, King and Curran will start, King is a standard no thrills NRL level prop and Curran has yet to prove that he deserves a regular starting soot. Knight and Sutton are now experienced but mainly played NSW Cup at their previous clubs.
Papali'i might be an option at fullback late this season but not before, there are no other options in the halves unless Rajab suddenly becomes a far better defender or unless Taffe transitions seemlessly back into the 6 or 7 roll. Hughes and Patolo are not boom youngsters, Edwards and Morrin are yet to even earn a top 30 deal and Marshall, Todd, Hayes are yet to enter any serious consideration. Bottom 4 finish, I am pessimistic.
My best hope for this year is that Papali'i shows he could handle NRL, Rajab kearns to tackle and against all odds Hughes and Morrin earn new deals. Plus the NSW Cup side to flourish on the back of Kautoga, Hayes, Todd, Samrani, Rajab, Papali'i and one of Edwards or Morrin.
block of text
 

Berries

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Lets face it. The two most important aspects of an NRL team are its spine and middle forwards, on paper the Dogs are close to dead last. Who will play fullback neither Tracey or Taffe look like rhey're capable of challenging the best fullbacks and Crighton looks way better in the centres. Hutchison or Sexton to partner an under achieving Burton in the halves, Hutchison is a career utility or NSW Cup half and Sexton does not have any outstanding qualities in his game to match the best. Middle forwards are bare, King and Curran will start, King is a standard no thrills NRL level prop and Curran has yet to prove that he deserves a regular starting soot. Knight and Sutton are now experienced but mainly played NSW Cup at their previous clubs.
Papali'i might be an option at fullback late this season but not before, there are no other options in the halves unless Rajab suddenly becomes a far better defender or unless Taffe transitions seemlessly back into the 6 or 7 roll. Hughes and Patolo are not boom youngsters, Edwards and Morrin are yet to even earn a top 30 deal and Marshall, Todd, Hayes are yet to enter any serious consideration. Bottom 4 finish, I am pessimistic.
My best hope for this year is that Papali'i shows he could handle NRL, Rajab kearns to tackle and against all odds Hughes and Morrin earn new deals. Plus the NSW Cup side to flourish on the back of Kautoga, Hayes, Todd, Samrani, Rajab, Papali'i and one of Edwards or Morrin.
Well written assessment of each position/players and they attack you for it. Remind me again who are the negative people on this forum?
 
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