Well, last night wasn’t fun. But I think the most frustrating thing is knowing how different things would’ve been if Tom was there (obviously know this isn’t the only issue but it’s a big one). I was a huge fan of Elliott at FB last year, but he’s not offering much this year. It’s great that he’s pretty safe under the high ball but he’s adding near nothing in attack and can be found startled in defence. It’s become so much clearer why giving Albert Hopoate a run this week would be so beneficial. I don’t blame Des for not debuting him last night, the conditions were awful and if it was Tom on the cusp of coming back I’m sure we’d all want him to wait another week to limit the change of re-injury in those sloppy conditions.
So, looking to next week what line up are you hoping for? I assume Marty will be okay with our 9 day turn around, and Parker, Thommo and Sironen should all be available for selection. Unfortunately though AFB looks like he’s gonna be out for the next few weeks. Des loves a last minute change, so here’s my hopeful 1-17 when it comes to kick off
1. Hopoate/Funa
2. Funa/Hopoate
3. Parker
4. Suli
5. Garrick
6. Cust
7. DCE
8. Paseka
9. Levi
10. Taupau
11. Thommo
12. Siro
13. Trbojevic
14. Croker
15. Olakau’atu
16. Keppie
17. Boyle/Sipley
Would not complain if Schuster was named at 14, but don’t see it happening.
Now onto the rest of the season - hopefully Tommy is ready for our game against Souths in round 15. Will be so stressed every time he runs lol, but I cannot wait to see how much of a difference he’s gonna make - if only Fainu could play too
. I’ve been doing the ladder predictor after pretty much every round to see our chances. If we can get back to the team we saw play the Eels, Roosters, Bulldogs, Raiders etc., there’s still a big chance we play finals. PLEASE DONT COME FOR ME AND SAY THE SEASON IS GONE! Just prefer to look at the positives and whilst I fully understand there’s a possibility we won’t make the 8, there’s still reason we will.
I have spoken to heaps of opposition fans who say that if we get back into form with almost a full strength side and make finals, they don’t want to play us. Because they know if any team is gonna wreck havoc unexpectedly, it’s us. But honestly at this stage, I just want a home semi at Brookie again. What a night that was!
If you don’t believe me, have a play around with the ladder predictor and lemme know what you get
https://ladderpredictor.nrl.com/ladder
I actually have had us coming 7th or 8th every time I did it after last nights loss. Obviously really hard to predict what could happen between now and then though.
Anyways, glad to take some minor positives out of last night with our young guns performing well, especially Olakau’atu. Just crossing my fingers for at least one game of finals footy this year.
EDIT: also I just had to add, after seeing
@Narabeen67 post about how each game our first set of 6 tells how the game will end up, I told my family and others to watch out and hope our first set is good. Obviously DCE gets taken out and we all were like oh no straight away. Really wanting to see a strong set of 6 next week - because the superstition is true!!!!!
