2026 recruitment & retention

[eaglebuzz]

I like some of the moves we’re making. The coaching staff seem to genuinely recognise where our weaknesses are and are trying to improve them. Unfortunately we still have some glaring holes to fill.

I can’t see us winning a comp with Fogarty and Brooks in the halves. Solid first graders that can get us to the finals but I think that’s it.

So while I agree our middle forwards are an issue (less so with Moale and Hetherington coming plus Navale on the up) and that we lack a dominant left edge backrower, and our hooker could be better… even if we strengthened all those areas I still think it moves us from 10th to 5th. That’s about it.

For us to be in premiership contention, someone like Walsh or Large would need to turn into a superstar half quickly.

Just my opinion.

Yep I think this is probably right. The things I think would need to happen are:

• Walsh or Large (preferably both) realise their potential before the finals.
• Turbo finds at least 75% of what he is capable of and maintains it consistently
• A reasonably light injury toll to our forward pack.

Other bonuses would be:

• Simpkin goes up another gear
• Koula plays more of the roaming centre role ala Turbo in Origin. We saw glimpses of it this year...
• Burbo establishes himself as an elite second rower
• Siebold figures out how to use Jake effectively
• Hugo Hart forces his way into First Grade