Quote Chris71="Chris71"As much as I would like it to be a case of that we have to accept that mini & sika are not youngsters and time has inevitably caught up with them both. Both have been great players fir us and have been integral in the success but time doesn’t stand still for anyone. We should have not extended their deals as both not only take a chunk of cap space but also quota spots.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Pritchard in terms of true value but didn’t think we utilised him properly. However when he was here we had genuine impact off the bench and teams couldn’t live with us. Now you look at our bench and we have nothing anywhere close to worrying teams in terms of impact. Paea looks finished whilst he was good for ya first tine round it’s clear time is up for Mickey at this level. When Green & Bowden return it will be half a dozen games before they settle into the rigours of SL again.
We needed to makes changes and adapt the way we play as we can’t play the power game and apart from Shaul & Litten we have no real pace in the team. We will struggle regardless until the Coaching team correct the issues that stare us all every week in the face.
The recruitment or lack of this close season has been very poor and certainly not improved us or addressed the issues all its done is fill the roster with average players.
That is what’s disappointing that we still see the same issues and seem to have learnt or accept the issues'"
Good post that Pritchard had a real presence in the team when teams saw him and Ellis come on after 30 minutes for say Watts or Bowden and Taylor the intensity actually went up and you could see they feared the worst. Really we haven't replaced either of them or Watts (nor Fonua really) and now our forwards just get marched down the field and we just can't seem to slow that roll down. Fans want to see exciting signings I know, but squads need breaking up a bit too with new and respected newcomers coming in to change the dynamic too. I can't help but think that it's all a bit cosy at present and that there has been a bit too much sentiment in our retentions this year.
