our depth slowly getting eaten away.

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winnyason

Bencher
Given last years departure of mr fix it, hoppa now whare the imminent departure of lussick and hearing oldfield to parra things are going to get tight when injuries happen next year.
These days you need 4 wingers of good standard to be a top 4 team, i have my reservations with wolfy injuries and jorge full stop in first grade. It happens when side as successful as ours win a few comps and is successful over a long period of time teams pay overs for anybody from a sucessful culture.
The worry is the age of our side bar foz and DCE, snake, killer, matai, gifty, choc, joe and kitey all near 30 or past. Buhrer and Liam Foran will no doubt be in the side long term and have age on there side.

Trex goes then so be it to me alot of money to outlay already we have dce, foz and snake(when signed) on 500 k contracts. We need a young prop getting slaugtered in the middle king and kite showing there age as is joe (was great up front last year) maybe tim grant or any of the kids in the warriors off contract namely matulino just read packer off contract not a bad prop.
 
At the beginning of the season lots of posters including myself had concerns about depth but there's always be someone too step up. Who would of thought Taufua or L Foran would be regulars in the top grade.
 
Ah hell I'll have a run next year then. Do they breath test players these days?
 
There are unknowns that pop up every year and do the job. Looks at the last season and a half for example, DCE, Buhrer, Harrison, Robinson, Taufua etc were unproven at NRL level not so long ago

Wolfman, Taufua, Oldfield and Farrar will do me for wing depth tbh. Also there is no way Snake will be 500k this time around, not with us anyway
 
It's what happens when a team wins the Premiership. The alternative is to not win premierships.
 
The little finger was having two years off regardless of if he stayed or not. Lussick & Oldfield haven't exactly set the world on fire and if they can get more dosh elsewhere good luck to them. Whare would've been good to keep, but if he can get a first grade spot elsewhere on more dosh, go for it. He was a junior Kiwi, so he obviously has his sights on senior honours.
We can't keep all our reggies or depth players, luckily there's other clubs that have the same problems and we can get some of them - ala Chee Kam from the Raiders and we also have a pretty good record of picking up the right journeymen or fringies too.
 
Overall when you look at the Toyota Cup & NSW cup sides, results appear poor.
Have noticed a key element that defies the results with both of these sides.
There are many average players who will never play NRL plus a sprinkling of REAL talent like Guthberson, Burrell & this Raiders backrower/centre who has legitimate talent. Also like Drinkwater who plays behind a beaten pack 9/10 games but shows class imo.
NSW cup has a few decent outside backs & Riccardi/Foran in the halves who both can claim good potential - Foran proven as solid.
Fowards there is Annear, Higgins, Stromquist & Cunningham & 2 out of 4 of these guys will get NRL time by 2014 imo.
Things are not so bad with depth & the signs other clubs are poaching us recently shows we are in a strong position - I mean Whare, Lussick & Oldfield are all fringe 17 players & if thats the worst loss we have its a massive win really......
 
Whare, Oldfield and Lussick can be replaced by any one of 100's of current NRL players. None of them are standouts in any way. Whare and Oldfield have had 3 years now to develop and are still patching injury spots. Lussick put in a massive workload against Penrith and barely made 100 metres.
These three mean nothing to me.

Losing Tony Williams will be tough though, and obviously Hoppa but Manly can get by if they keep everyone else.
 
I think we should keep oldfield, he has the speed and size to perform at a high level, with some perserverance.
 
Football clubs are in a constant state of flux. A losing organisation is always going to leak players because guys are going to head elsewhere in the hope of winning a title & winning organisations are going to lose players as blokes get lured away by bigger deals. Look at how much the MWSE roster has changed since 2008.

It's not like this is some greatly unexpected situation or new territory for the club.
 
Players can be nobodies now and by the end of next year be the next big thing. Or at least be a decent first grade 'depth player'.

It wouldn't be fair to keep a guy like Whare in reggies for much longer. Our club is so strong that good players have to leave sometimes to show their wares consistently in first grade.

As some others have said, would we really prefer the alternative?
 
It may hinder our performances in the short term but Oldfield and Tafua need more time in the top grade now that we know Whare is leaving. I particularly believe that Oldfield has the potential to be a fine winger.
 
Without trying to derail the thread, disappointed Liam's not on the bench this week :(
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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