I think we have got 3 certain starters in the pack for next year - fitness assumed. Turbo (10), Myles (8 ??) and Ferris (13). We then have hooker, backrow and bench spots to fill.
Given that Ballin has had the tap on the shoulder you would expect that he will be on the outer especially coming off a serious knee injury. So I expect Koroisau will probably get the nod as you would expect Barrett will be familiar with him from the Panthers association.
I would opt for Mateo as one starting backrower purely for his ball playing ability on the LHS in the absence of Foran (unless we sign some gun 5/8 in the meantime). I think the other backrow spot needs to go to a middle forward who can do some of the grunt work (the Choc role from years past, or more recently Nami/Horo). We could use Myles in this role and start another prop (Starlo, Burgess or BJ) or we could use someone like BJ or even Lussick in this backrow spot. I think Brown is a little light on in size for this role, but not sure if he is wasted on bench. As is Leary probably, but he does have a go and has a very quick play the ball as he rarely gets turtled, defence is solid too. A backrow of Mateo, Symonds and Buhrer has too much "edge forward" feel to it and not enough down and dirty feel. I think the backrow is where we are overpopulated and someone has to miss out when you also think we have Jesse.
Losing Sao and to a lesser extent Mason has hurt our prop depth a little. I guess a lot depends on how the game evolves with the reduction in interchanges, do 80 minute backrowers become more important ?? do you carry that attacking option on the bench to make the most of tiring defences - i.e Parcell
Anyway I think
Starling
Koroisau
Turbo
Myles
Mateo
Buhrer
BJ
Burgess / Lussick - one of
Brown / JSL / Leary - one of
Symonds/Parcell - utility/impact spot
Anyway I think a lot of the forward pack dynamic will follow on from the decision on who plays 5/8.
Given that Ballin has had the tap on the shoulder you would expect that he will be on the outer especially coming off a serious knee injury. So I expect Koroisau will probably get the nod as you would expect Barrett will be familiar with him from the Panthers association.
I would opt for Mateo as one starting backrower purely for his ball playing ability on the LHS in the absence of Foran (unless we sign some gun 5/8 in the meantime). I think the other backrow spot needs to go to a middle forward who can do some of the grunt work (the Choc role from years past, or more recently Nami/Horo). We could use Myles in this role and start another prop (Starlo, Burgess or BJ) or we could use someone like BJ or even Lussick in this backrow spot. I think Brown is a little light on in size for this role, but not sure if he is wasted on bench. As is Leary probably, but he does have a go and has a very quick play the ball as he rarely gets turtled, defence is solid too. A backrow of Mateo, Symonds and Buhrer has too much "edge forward" feel to it and not enough down and dirty feel. I think the backrow is where we are overpopulated and someone has to miss out when you also think we have Jesse.
Losing Sao and to a lesser extent Mason has hurt our prop depth a little. I guess a lot depends on how the game evolves with the reduction in interchanges, do 80 minute backrowers become more important ?? do you carry that attacking option on the bench to make the most of tiring defences - i.e Parcell
Anyway I think
Starling
Koroisau
Turbo
Myles
Mateo
Buhrer
BJ
Burgess / Lussick - one of
Brown / JSL / Leary - one of
Symonds/Parcell - utility/impact spot
Anyway I think a lot of the forward pack dynamic will follow on from the decision on who plays 5/8.