Huge reality check

[The better Robbo]

Parker now tends to be overrated as much as he was underrated under Barrett due to the fact he has improved so much under Des.

He gets the job done and is a decent option but a Suli/Parker combo won’t cut it at the pointy end of a season. Both have done a good job this year but looking forward to seeing Hoppa/ Funa getting a crack next year. Would like to see Suli on a wing . Good news is we have options within the club.

Agreed. I picked Parker would be our starting centre all year and he has done an admirable job but as you say parker/ Suli combo at centre wont win a comp. Id be chasing Kotoni Staggs as Broncos have to pay overs to keep Fafita.
My backine next yr
1.Tom
2.Suli
3. Staggs
4.Walker
5. Garrick
6. Cust ( a full pre season to develop)
7. Chez
That backline is good enough to win a comp, especially with the forward pack and the spine we have.
Our bench and depth will look better next year too with Boyle Sipley paseka Gosiewski Waddell etc then with Elliott, Jorge, young hoppa and Funa in the backs aswell.

 

[KNUCKLES]

Agreed. I picked Parker would be our starting centre all year and he has done an admirable job but as you say parker/ Suli combo at centre wont win a comp. Id be chasing Kotoni Staggs as Broncos have to pay overs to keep Fafita.
My backine next yr
1.Tom
2.Suli
3. Staggs
4.Walker
5. Garrick
6. Cust ( a full pre season to develop)
7. Chez
That backline is good enough to win a comp, especially with the forward pack and the spine we have.
Our bench and depth will look better next year too with Boyle Sipley paseka Gosiewski Waddell etc then with Elliott, Jorge, young hoppa and Funa in the backs aswell.

I like the looks of that backline. Hopefully another year and suli can trim up a little more. My only bother is do we know how big moses is under the high ball. I couldn't see him being to strong in the air. Sometimes better the devil you know now Taufua has extended. It's a a shame because we have so many candidates in suli, taufua, hopoate, funa on the books that could prob all handle the position and it is leaving us lacking in that 5/8 role. I think cust would be an awesome 14

 

[JJB]

Well very numb like most with tom injury but thats footy. My hope was for these boys to win finals game. Injury is now killing us.
However for us to take that next step to elite our centres need to change.
Suli was exposed alot last night and parker may try but that only gets you so far.
Walker has to go back to centres on his preferred side with elliot and or young hopa as option.
We won't win a comp with suli and parker in centres.
Cust must be persisted with at 6 for 2020.

Walker is our most Dynamic centre

Without Dylan we have no X factor in the centres

. Suli and Parker on their day hold their own . They will score tries close to the line but do not have dynamic acceleration and top speed to run away with the game with run away tries and are limited .

Our best and most explosive centre is playing out of position

Walker is a passenger at 5/8 and is our biggest problem right now.
Absolutely pathetic last 2 weeks i don't know what Des is thinking.
Over rated even at centre - New 5/8 please !!

 

[malroon]

let's put a bit of perspective to this , Manly had a battle last week with Can'tberra , whereas storms had a walk in the park against The Titties, of course it was going to take its toll, the weather didn't help either..

 

[davohan123]

That loss had been building ever since the 1st Storm game. We have looked fatigued and it was hidden by the fact we were playing lesser opposition.

We were treading water against the Knights and Tigers and both games could have gone either way. We got found out by the Warriors and we were lucky the Raiders were making silly errors like us.

The Storm were clinical and there was no hiding the fact we haven’t been on that level for some time. Everything compounded by the injuries.

It’s been a long year and the boys look mentally and physically fatigued. Walker showed he isn’t capable of helping manage us out of bad situations. We will never be a premiership threat with a centre playing 5/8. He’s wonderful when things are going well but when we are pinned in our half he doesn’t have the skill set to turn momentum.

We have overachieved all year so it’s been a great building year. Things are looking good for the years to come and Des and the team will learn a lot from this season.

Elliot to FB, Olakau’atu to the bench (Wads to start), Perrett to the bench for Boyle.

Agree on most of what you said but i think us over achieving this year will see us come back to the pack next year, we will be the targeted.

A season of injuries again like this year we are going to find in tough.

I say 2021-2023 is our best shot at a title if we are not closed down by todd and tbe nrl.

 

[Simonmyers11]

How can we come back to the pack, i see us only getting stronger. That implies teams like broncos, sharks, tigers, canberra, parra, knights will be better

Come on, i only see roosters and storm as really, really tough opposition. The rest with a full strength side we have covered

 

[Mataiforever]

Agreed. I picked Parker would be our starting centre all year and he has done an admirable job but as you say parker/ Suli combo at centre wont win a comp. Id be chasing Kotoni Staggs as Broncos have to pay overs to keep Fafita.
My backine next yr
1.Tom
2.Suli
3. Staggs
4.Walker
5. Garrick
6. Cust ( a full pre season to develop)
7. Chez
That backline is good enough to win a comp, especially with the forward pack and the spine we have.
Our bench and depth will look better next year too with Boyle Sipley paseka Gosiewski Waddell etc then with Elliott, Jorge, young hoppa and Funa in the backs aswell.

agreed re needing a new centre, we should bring ramien back he wouldnt be too hard to get. staggs wont leave / would take too much coin to convince, and parker is on his last year of contract. although parkers been good i'd let him go to help bring ramien in and wouldnt cost us much coin for the upgrade.

i think walker has been good at 6, i would persist with him if we signed a new centre, if we dont sign another outside back then shift walker to 3 and back cust all preseason.

1 tom
2 taufua
3 ramien
4 suli
5 garrick
6 walker
7 cherry evans

 

[davohan123]

The experience of not competing for 25 rounds will be fantastic for our group of players. The good thing about this hole we are in right now is that there will be lessons learned.

For me, the biggest issue facing our premiership chances is that we need a legitimate half to work with DCE. Does Cust improve over the off season? Does Schuster burst onto the scene? Is Metcalf going to get a shot?
We just don’t have the ability to manage games. Dce has certainly improved in this area but we are too predictable to the opposition with Walker not offering enough options.

Other than that, I think we have the core group to challenge the best. Our depth is good, our forward pack is top class and our backline is full of options.

I think Des mentioned building toward a 3yr premiership and I think we are positioning ourselves nicely to give the Comp a shake up.

Exactly and just think we have a one more season of pain before we really start our charge.

Exciting times ahead .

 

[double hoops]

The last 6 weeks this has been a team regressing, not learn from mistakes, not even trying too. The absolute hiding, can be the best thing to happen to them.

And Melbourne showed the way forward.

One pass of the ruck and no variation is prehistoric and not what we were doing even 6 weeks ago.

At the same time DCE got some some all or nothing licence and has been the worst half in the comp ever since.

Change the ego, and structures and this is still a formidable team.

I really don't see centre as the problem.

In saying that Id be looking at getting Cust back at 6 now Turbo is out, and perhaps rotating between Elliott and Walker at 1.

Walker to now have the Tommy T licence especially out of dummy half in attack.

For that reason only a centre makes way.

Forwards win finals.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Geez the giggling ****wits on the Footy Show are laying it on with a trowel, our loss has really made their day.

 

[Mal Cochrane]

I worry every time when the week begins with the players starting to mention how good they are going. Never ends well.

 

[davohan123]

Geez the giggling ****wits on the Footy Show are laying it on with a trowel, our loss has really made their day.

I normally watch the Sunday footy show every week but I just knew today they would be loving our loss last night. Sterlo Freddy Webster in inside the 10 would just be gloating all show.
By your comments I was correct.

 

[double hoops]

Deserve what we get.

The more it hurts the better it is.

We still have a #next week.

 

[Simonmyers11]

The last 6 weeks this has been a team regressing, not learn from mistakes, not even trying too. The absolute hiding, can be the best thing to happen to them.

And Melbourne showed the way forward.

One pass of the ruck and no variation is prehistoric and not what we were doing even 6 weeks ago.

At the same time DCE got some some all or nothing licence and has been the worst half in the comp ever since.

Change the ego, and structures and this is still a formidable team.

I really don't see centre as the problem.

In saying that Id be looking at getting Cust back at 6 now Turbo is out, and perhaps rotating between Elliott and Walker at 1.

Walker to now have the Tommy T licence especially out of dummy half in attack.

For that reason only a centre makes way.

Forwards win finals.

I have been a big fan of walker at 6, mainly because his defence issues went away and he started to run straight - BUT i dont get what a lot are saying, DCE game has suffered and some of the attacking structure. Totally agree dce does play better with a have decent organising half next too him.

Our best attacking game this year was against parra, in dry conditions, where the off loads and creative play around the ruck, and intensity was on another level. So was Tom.

I just think we have been making too many errors and not building enough pressure with repeat sets and field position. If Cust can help with that great, but Walker has to defend better and run straight and not side ways if moved to Centre

 

[joeboy]

I have been a big fan of walker at 6, mainly because his defence issues went away and he started to run straight - BUT i dont get what a lot are saying, DCE game has suffered and some of the attacking structure. Totally agree dce does play better with a have decent organising half next too him.

Our best attacking game this year was against parra, in dry conditions, where the off loads and creative play around the ruck, and intensity was on another level. So was Tom.

I just think we have been making too many errors and not building enough pressure with repeat sets and field position. If Cust can help with that great, but Walker has to defend better and run straight and not side ways if moved to Centre

Dce needs less excuses. Needs dry weather, needs a certain type of half, needs his forwards doing certain things. It all may be true, but he is nearly in his 10th year of first grade and is the club captain and he should absolutely be expected to play better than he has been and especially last night. Some of his kicking has been absolutely horrible. And he still plays panicked. You are captain dce, how bout some composure.

 

[Woodsie]

Lat night ... early in the game .. when Turbo went off .... we had to make four (4) positional changes to cover fullback ... can't imagine that having to change the positions of nearly a third of the team would disrupt anything ... just saying ....

We all know it was the fault of the ballboys ... or ballgirls ... WTF is that about !! ...

 

[Technical Coach]

I have been a big fan of walker at 6, mainly because his defence issues went away and he started to run straight - BUT i dont get what a lot are saying, DCE game has suffered and some of the attacking structure. Totally agree dce does play better with a have decent organising half next too him.

Our best attacking game this year was against parra, in dry conditions, where the off loads and creative play around the ruck, and intensity was on another level. So was Tom.

I just think we have been making too many errors and not building enough pressure with repeat sets and field position. If Cust can help with that great, but Walker has to defend better and run straight and not side ways if moved to Centre

For over a million dollars a year i expect a half that makes others look better not a half that requires others in certain positions to perform at a consistent level.

So much potential in DCE but he is too much rocks and diamonds in attack when the pressure is on.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

I think we can't learn too much from that game other than the absolute fact that we need to play a different style in wet weather games.

 

[madmax]

I agree it was a reality check.
But our centres didn't cost us the game last night.
Storm dominated us by dominating the ruck, laying on our blokes for ages in the tackle, without getting penalised. They were good enough to dominate possession and field position on the back of that and we spent all first half hanging on desperately. Our try near half-time showed what we can do if we had the ball and some field position. In the second half we were poor, but the Storm pressure was the cause of that. Down in reserves and tackling all night, we had bugger all left and kept making errors by then.

They did to us exactly what the Warriors did..............we were penalised a number of times for slowing the play the ball yet they were doing it almost every tackle & zero penalties!

 

[madmax]

Walker is a passenger at 5/8 and is our biggest problem right now.
Absolutely pathetic last 2 weeks i don't know what Des is thinking.
Over rated even at centre - New 5/8 please !!

lololol....really? You obviously have no idea about rugby league or players. New member please!