Here is my assessment of our Top 30
| Josh Aloiai - can play tough when his mind is on the job. Too worried about representing the Boycott 10 the last half of the year. Second half of the year.. poor! Hopefully gets his mind back on the job orr goorne next year | | | | | |
| Morgan Boyle - plodder - goorne | | | | | |
| Ethan Bullemor - suspect a fringe first grader - might surprise... but think goorne for 2024 | | | | | |
| Daly Cherry-Evans - overpaid and hopeless as a game manager and woeful if the forwards are not dominating. Can be super when things are going right. Still think the Dolphins should have signed him and we let him go up there. Hopefully they have one last bite to try and get him. | | | | | |
| Lachlan Croker - tough as teak. Would love his defence with Fainu's attack but.... where do you find that hooker. Keep him - we need heart and soul players | | | | | |
| Andrew Davey - heart and soul player we should be keeping | | | | | |
| Kurt De Luis - plodder - goorne | | | | | |
| Viliame Fifita - no comment - haven't seen enough of him obviously | | | | | |
| Kieran Foran - should be keeping this half not the other | | | | | |
| Reuben Garrick - hopefully he stays - quality winger and all effort | | | | | |
| Morgan Harper - fringe first grader - good for backup | | | | | |
| Sean Keppie - too many errors, penalties, clocks of in defence. We will keep him and hopefully he gets it because he does have a lot of possible upside. But based on this year alone goorne | | | | | |
| Tolutau Koula - might be a gun... might be. Jury still out - terrible games back end of the year | | | | | |
| Karl Lawton - keep good 14 and good backup hooker | | | | | |
| Haumole Olakau'atu - has all the talent in the world... but refuses to run onto the ball hard and that side of the defense with DCE is diabolical. Just maybe we have overrated him | | | | | |
| Brad Parker - all effort - retain - nothing in attack but if we can get the rest of our attack going we don't need him scoring tries | | | | | |
| Taniela Paseka - all the potential in the world. Keep him for one more year and hope he eventually delivers. The guess though is that he wont live up to the talent. | | | | | |
| Jason Saab - hopefully muscles up in the off season.. loses a yard of pace but adds some toughness.. keep for another year | | | | | |
| Josh Schuster - woeful year. Wont be surprised if he asks for a release. Really under the microscope for 2023. The DCE/Schuster pairing really is scary... and not in a good way. | | | | | |
| Toafofoa Sipley - plodder - goorne | | | | | |
| Martin Taupau - one of our better forwards and that sums up how we are going... but goorne. | | | | | |
| Ben Trbojevic - not up to NRL standard - goorne | | | | | |
| Jake Trbojevic - heart and soul of the club | | | | | |
| Tom Trbojevic - lost without him | | | | | |
| Kelma Tuilagi* - jury is out... but doesn't look a great signing at this stage. Can we get a refund? | | | | | |
| Christian Tuipulotu - had first year end of season fade. Terrible second half. Hopefully comes back in 2023 super charged because his battery has been flat | | | | | |
| Alec Tu'itavake - jury out obviously | | | | | |
| Dylan Walker - great 14 - all effort - but error prone and prone to brain explosion. Still would have kept him. | | | | | |
| Kaeo Weekes - think he is super talented. Might end up beating Schuster for the number 6 job. | | | | | |
Great summary BT and largely agree with all your summations .
I hope Schu stays ,I know we will regret it if he leaves e.g Hynes, Queen Gutho , Ramien ,Tom Wright , JWH, not picking up Sam Burgess when we had the chance etc etc
I think we also have to remember that most players take time to develop and sometimes we are too quick to call an end to their career to get rid of them or not work hard to keep them .Look at tigers with Moses ,Tedesco (maybe not the best example but you get my drift) etc Manly with Hynes Tom Wright and Gutho as mentioned above.
I do think we need a massive re-invigoration in the coaching ranks ,not so much Des but those around him esp in the fitness department and defence ,I think Des needs to be given 2023 with a new support team to prove whether or not he is still up to it ( i think he is )
DCE is a great 1/2 but is over paid and has been for along time ,I have asked multiple times what he has re signed for and did that effect his current deal .You would like to think that his new deal was contingent on him taking a hit in the final year of the current deal
Injuries have cruelled us no doubt ,I can barely mentioned rainbow gate it makes me so angry that as a club we could make such an own goal so easily ,when it could have been so easily avoided .
The Fainu saga was a real kick in the teeth, and I suppose we still have to wait till October for the appeal to be granted ,just a total cluster ....
Penn needs to step up in terms of $$ into the football side of things and in regards to Blacktown
Des needs to give the youth a go ( I will counter that with the Hopate example in 2020 when everyone on ST's was calling for Hopate Jnr to be playing when it turns out he clearly wasn't up to it at that time ,and Des probably knew that before he ran on) So you have to trust Des that he has more of an idea than us who is ready and who is not.
We need to find a 9 to drag those big fowards onto the ball and hitting the line at pace ,I love Croker but we need more ,maybe young Gordon steps up ( i remember he looked good in the trial this year ?) or Roache or maybe Lawton can re invent himself and obliviously we need another Prop
Anyways I think we have the nucleus of a top 4/8 squad with little tweaking and a few less crucial injuries with the Trojvevics being essential to our success (the younger one is not yet up to 1st grade standard and especially in the back line )
Im not as negative as some on here and certainly hold hope not fear for the future
Again thanks for the realistic assessment, and Go Manly !!
