2025

01. Tom Trbojevic
02. Jason Saab
03. Tolu Koula
04. Tommy Talau
05. Lehi Hopoate
06. Luke Brooks
07. Daly Cherry-Evans
08. Taniela Paseka
09. Jake Simpkin
10. Ethan Bullemor
11. Haumole Olakau'atu
12. Jazz Tevanga
13. Caleb Navale

14. Jake Arthur
15. Josh Aloiai
16. Toff Sipley
17. Nathan Brown

I want / need us to be more agile, explosive, ruthless. We have too many of the same type of forwards.

Arthur to play a Lawton role (if he hasn't signed elsewhere).

Some favourites dropped there, but that's what amazing clubs like Penrith, Melbourne and others do - they morph to stay ahead of the game, even losing marquee players.
 
The forward pack definitely needs some rework. Whether Jake plays lock or prop, or 60 or 80 minutes or whatever role it may be, it doesn’t change his complete lack of speed and how much of a liability he’s become on both sides of the ball. It feels like it’s a bit of a touchy subject at times because of how likeable he is, but at this point he is barely first grade standard and comfortably the most overpaid player in the entire league.

Paseka is fine as a second prop (and would actually excel further behind a dominant and aggressive JFH/JWH/AFB type) but he just isn’t and won’t ever be on of those guys himself. The problem is we don’t have and can’t sign a player like that because all our money (in the forwards at least) is tied up in the bloke mentioned in the first paragraph, and Haumole who is actually worth every cent.

That leaves us with our other main middles as Lodge who played well in the two Dogs games
but has spent most of his time here on the sidelines and is historically unreliable. Aloiai who is all talk and was a terrible re-signing (and initial signing in general), and Sipley who is lazier than the lot of them, hence why he finished the year in reserve grade. Bullemor and Brown do their jobs as impact players off the bench but they can’t be relied upon to consistently make up for the lack of punch from our starters every week, Brown in particular looked busted towards the end of the year and I can’t blame him at all. I feel Tevaga will fall into this category next year.

Everyone knows about Croker’s complete lack of ability except for Seibold so hopefully that’s something he can figure out with another pre season under his belt.

The backline is fine with the exception of the failed experiment of Garrick in the centres, but that’s an easy fix with a swap with Talau. Obviously next year could also be DCE’s last but I don’t think that’s the bad thing people will make it out to be, a new captain and identity would actually help this team now IMO.
 
JakeyB789 said:
The forward pack definitely needs some rework. Whether Jake plays lock or prop, or 60 or 80 minutes or whatever role it may be, it doesn’t change his complete lack of speed and how much of a liability he’s become on both sides of the ball. It feels like it’s a bit of a touchy subject at times because of how likeable he is, but at this point he is barely first grade standard and comfortably the most overpaid player in the entire league.

Paseka is fine as a second prop (and would actually excel further behind a dominant and aggressive JFH/JWH/AFB type) but he just isn’t and won’t ever be on of those guys himself. The problem is we don’t have and can’t sign a player like that because all our money (in the forwards at least) is tied up in the bloke mentioned in the first paragraph, and Haumole who is actually worth every cent.

That leaves us with our other main middles as Lodge who played well in the two Dogs games
but has spent most of his time here on the sidelines and is historically unreliable. Aloiai who is all talk and was a terrible re-signing (and initial signing in general), and Sipley who is lazier than the lot of them, hence why he finished the year in reserve grade. Bullemor and Brown do their jobs as impact players off the bench but they can’t be relied upon to consistently make up for the lack of punch from our starters every week, Brown in particular looked busted towards the end of the year and I can’t blame him at all. I feel Tevaga will fall into this category next year.

Everyone knows about Croker’s complete lack of ability except for Seibold so hopefully that’s something he can figure out with another pre season under his belt.

The backline is fine with the exception of the failed experiment of Garrick in the centres, but that’s an easy fix with a swap with Talau. Obviously next year could also be DCE’s last but I don’t think that’s the bad thing people will make it out to be, a new captain and identity would actually help this team now IMO.
Click to expand...
I agree 100% with all of this.
 
JakeyB789 said:
The forward pack definitely needs some rework. Whether Jake plays lock or prop, or 60 or 80 minutes or whatever role it may be, it doesn’t change his complete lack of speed and how much of a liability he’s become on both sides of the ball. It feels like it’s a bit of a touchy subject at times because of how likeable he is, but at this point he is barely first grade standard and comfortably the most overpaid player in the entire league.

Paseka is fine as a second prop (and would actually excel further behind a dominant and aggressive JFH/JWH/AFB type) but he just isn’t and won’t ever be on of those guys himself. The problem is we don’t have and can’t sign a player like that because all our money (in the forwards at least) is tied up in the bloke mentioned in the first paragraph, and Haumole who is actually worth every cent.

That leaves us with our other main middles as Lodge who played well in the two Dogs games
but has spent most of his time here on the sidelines and is historically unreliable. Aloiai who is all talk and was a terrible re-signing (and initial signing in general), and Sipley who is lazier than the lot of them, hence why he finished the year in reserve grade. Bullemor and Brown do their jobs as impact players off the bench but they can’t be relied upon to consistently make up for the lack of punch from our starters every week, Brown in particular looked busted towards the end of the year and I can’t blame him at all. I feel Tevaga will fall into this category next year.

Everyone knows about Croker’s complete lack of ability except for Seibold so hopefully that’s something he can figure out with another pre season under his belt.

The backline is fine with the exception of the failed experiment of Garrick in the centres, but that’s an easy fix with a swap with Talau. Obviously next year could also be DCE’s last but I don’t think that’s the bad thing people will make it out to be, a new captain and identity would actually help this team now IMO.
Click to expand...

So what your saying is we need a hyphenated player!
 
LeonardCohen said:
The Dogs have the lean, fast, high energy approach to defence. They can suffocate teams with line speed and scramble well to prevent tries. They fall short imin their spine players being a tier below the top teams.

We have the opposite problem. Our pack doesn’t control the ruck and we play off the back foot but have the class players to jag points and stay in the contest.
Click to expand...
So we should merge with the dogs?
 
Brown has plenty of ticker but struggles against quality packs and just concedes too many unnecessary penalties , especially at crucial times and could only rate him a bench option.
Can "t see any other option but 9 for Froggy and would seem likely some more attention to Simpkin going forward .
Froggy actually is not on the slow side but apart from some gallant defence , does have his limitations
 
Carl said:
So we should merge with the dogs?
Click to expand...
I think they did really well considering their pack is pretty no-frills, with the exception of Kikau. That suggests to me that Ciraldo's approach was on-point. They move constantly in defence and up until the final 2-3 weeks of the competition, had the best defence in the league. That's a fair effort with the likes of King, Curren, Hughes, Morrin, and Hayward in the middle rotation. If they had DCE's kicking game and creativity, and a fit Turbo at the back, they'd go to another level. It was their lack of class in the spine that prevented them from icing the game last week.

We have the opposite problem. Our forwards are slow and we defend on the back foot all the time. All that defending induces fatigue and we leak points through the middle of the ruck, like last night.
 
Phobia said:
Would love to see a bench of:

14. Croker
15. Bullemor
16. Navale
17. Laiafi

towards the end of next year.
Click to expand...
What benefit would there be by retaining Croker?? As a measure of his ability/effectiveness - would he be selected in any other NRL side?
 
Nambawan said:
What benefit would there be by retaining Croker?? As a measure of his ability/effectiveness - would he be selected in any other NRL side?
Click to expand...
Halves, Hooker cover. Played fullback and centre before too, not at NRL level. I think he's the most complete utility we have, but he's being played at hooker. I'd rate him to defend well at most positions too.
 
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