Joined: Jul 31 2003 Posts: 36786 Location: Leafy Worcester, home of the Black Pear
thehullwhitestar wrote:Apart from a couple of impact spells from Thakray, we have little or no go-forward in our front row whatsoever and most SL packs will dominate us as they did last season.
Agreed. And this really worries me TBH.
thehullwhitestar wrote:We have released two scrum halves and replaced them with a stand off(not a bad one) and we could quite possibly see, for the third consecutive season, Tommy Lee in our halfbalks which is a complete joke.
Neither released SH was the answer, though. And nobody else of any class was available. I'm no fan of Thorman but if he just brings some organisation, communication, and a kicking game to the party we'll be better off than most of last season.
thehullwhitestar wrote:In Briscoe and Hall we have two young and inexperienced centres who would make good back-up centres/wingers to a class centre which we desperately need.
Kind of agree, but I think that Hall could actually go well for us if given a chance and played correctly.
thehullwhitestar wrote:In Byrne, Cusack, Radford, Lee and, to a lesser extent, some others, we have a hell of a lot of salary cap wasted on players who would just not get a look in at any other top 8 SL squads.
Yup. Although Cusack would be OK if we had better/more impact props.
thehullwhitestar wrote:I don't think that I'm being even remotely hasty, just realistic. We have an overall mid-table squad and that will almost certainly be reflected in the SL table for 2009.
Pretty much how I see it also.
Hold on to me baby, his bony hands will do you no harm It said in the cards, we lost our souls to the Nameless One
Most fans seem happy to put their head in the sand and believe that things are OK. I agree with Hull white star. We're a side full of mediocrity and our only 2 class players are forwards who cannot run the game in the way we need. Our forwards (other than Berro and Crocker) are average at best and will struggle in most matches to physically match the opposition.
Jake the Peg wrote:Most fans seem happy to put their head in the sand and believe that things are OK. I agree with Hull white star. We're a side full of mediocrity and our only 2 class players are forwards who cannot run the game in the way we need. Our forwards (other than Berro and Crocker) are average at best and will struggle in most matches to physically match the opposition.
One thing I find it hard to do is to trust Agar at the moment. To me, its starting to seem like what he says and what he does are two different things. Two examples.
The first is what he said after the Rovers game, saying some players had had their last chances and where heading for the exit. Does any of the deadwood go after that? Nope.
Second example. Agar has been banging on about only signing the right player, not rushing into signings etc. Well how does he explain signing a stand-off to play 7, who has never proved that he is good enough for a top 4 side (where we should be aiming every year)? That to me smacks of a signing of not the right player. The fact he might turn out to be a very good signing is irrelevant because he is a gamble and gambles do sometimes pay off. But if he actually meant what he said, then Thorman wouldn't have been signed.
Add that to the fact that we have a crap set of props in terms of balance and a lack of impact, the desperate need for an experienced centre (imo only of course) and the urge to use crap tactics last year (Radford at 13, meaning we had a very one up second row meaning a lack of pivot or when Tony play, someone who isn't as good a pivot as we need) I can't be anything but pessimistic at the moment. The only hope I can see is if Crocker, R.Horne and Tony come back into the fold and put in MOS performances every week.
Imagine if we had signed Ryles (by either not signing Crocker, or planning to release Dykes before Ryles ended up signing for Catalans) and Talau. Our squad would have had much more balance. Talau may not be everyones cup of tea, but he has experience, isn't exactly crap and would have helped the development of Hall and Briscoe to no end, and is much better that Byrne and G.Horne.
A question for those who think we will come in the top 5. Can you see many teams whos pack we will dominate? Can you see many other teams who backs we will out-class? I can't see that answer having anymore than 5 or 6 for each because despite the latter been possible, the former won't allow it to happen
knocker norton wrote:It must just be me who sees positives then.
On a different angle who are these other clubs with better signings for 2009.
Did the performance of the Saints and Leeds players at the world cup show anything?
Its not as if the likes of Gasnier or SBW or Lockyer are flooding into the country to provide world class opposition.
Why would other clubs necessarily need better signings than us, if they were already better than us last year? Looking at clubs around us, Hudds have recruited much better than we have and they were just above us last year.
Leeds and Saints players have shown us year after year that they can rip SL teams apart, a few games in the WC don't change that.
Also, just because the likes of those players aren't all willing to come here, doesn't mean that we can't sign better players. The likes of Bell, Ryles and Carney would have been great signings for us for example
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