hi fellas; long time no see.
my take on our forward weakness involves coach hasler more than anyone else. i feel in the last few years, he has proven his over-cautious approach as our mentor. he realises 'something new' might lead to a drop in performance. unfortunately, it is also that 'something new' that leads clubs to premierships. see tigers 05 as a reference. panthers 04 is another.
tackling machines such as stewart and willo are great if you're south sydney. but if they have nothing more to offer - and neither of those players have anything more to offer - they are not going to lead a side to a premiership. especially when there are two of these in the same 17.
we should have gone all out for faumuina. our loss is the cowboys' gain.
nonetheless, in our ranks, we do have enough to work with.
i believe sheens or another of his calibre would start with either stewart or willo at lock - the other will be in PL. another challenging that duo for the 13 will be wells under another coach.
another coach would have beaver and choc in starting line-up, and then an impact backrower such as cuthbertson or afamasaga on the bench. this person will give beaver some breaks to rest his tiring legs.
i think rose and bryant are fine on the bench, and burns will provide many things in his stints.
fact is, with des, only ridiculously good tacklers have broken into the side and been given an extended run; see stewart and burns. impact such as cuthbertson - albeit with a few errors on the way - have been given limited opportunities. unfortunately, the latter, more risky approach, is what will win us a premiership.
i hope des changes his appraoch and gives these youngsters a chance as impact off the bench. forget having willo and stewart in the same 17. with the line-up named this week, and talk from matt rogers about how forwards-centric the game has become since he last played 5 years ago, we will be extremely lucky to make the 8.
i was banned from mse for posting the above thoughts.
my take on our forward weakness involves coach hasler more than anyone else. i feel in the last few years, he has proven his over-cautious approach as our mentor. he realises 'something new' might lead to a drop in performance. unfortunately, it is also that 'something new' that leads clubs to premierships. see tigers 05 as a reference. panthers 04 is another.
tackling machines such as stewart and willo are great if you're south sydney. but if they have nothing more to offer - and neither of those players have anything more to offer - they are not going to lead a side to a premiership. especially when there are two of these in the same 17.
we should have gone all out for faumuina. our loss is the cowboys' gain.
nonetheless, in our ranks, we do have enough to work with.
i believe sheens or another of his calibre would start with either stewart or willo at lock - the other will be in PL. another challenging that duo for the 13 will be wells under another coach.
another coach would have beaver and choc in starting line-up, and then an impact backrower such as cuthbertson or afamasaga on the bench. this person will give beaver some breaks to rest his tiring legs.
i think rose and bryant are fine on the bench, and burns will provide many things in his stints.
fact is, with des, only ridiculously good tacklers have broken into the side and been given an extended run; see stewart and burns. impact such as cuthbertson - albeit with a few errors on the way - have been given limited opportunities. unfortunately, the latter, more risky approach, is what will win us a premiership.
i hope des changes his appraoch and gives these youngsters a chance as impact off the bench. forget having willo and stewart in the same 17. with the line-up named this week, and talk from matt rogers about how forwards-centric the game has become since he last played 5 years ago, we will be extremely lucky to make the 8.
i was banned from mse for posting the above thoughts.