Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:56 am  

tvoc wrote:

Looking back isn't doomsday obviously, it's when you look forward you start to question the state of the club.

While the glass half full brigade will point out it's too early to see the make-up of next year's squad there is nothing concrete as yet for the glass half empty mob (me included) to get excited about and there will be season tickets to sell fairly soon.

To me our backs, particularly BJB, Watkins, Hardaker and Hall give grounds for some longer term optimism. As indeed does Stevie Ward.

We're fine for halves next year, although the problem of replacing our "holy trinity" of Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire is, to my mind, unsolved, as it is likely that since they appeared in the team fairly close together, they may well retire fairly close together too. That makes Ward one part of a 3-piece puzzle to me. Time is on our side though, as I wouldn't be keen to shoo any of them out of the door just yet.

Our pack is now, perhaps, a little jaded. I think if it were freshened up with a couple of new faces, the outlook would look very different. Again, there are a few key performers who are not at the end of their careers just yet, but are not far off and succession needs to be addressed.

So I'll plump for somewhere in between the theorists of apocalypse and those who believe the cup still runeth over. Come to think of it, I think my glass currently contains about half of its full capacity.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:43 am  

El Diablo wrote:

Our pack is now, perhaps, a little jaded. I think if it were freshened up with a couple of new faces, the outlook would look very different.

There are fresh faces already contracted to the club like Amor, Singleton, McShane and Hood.

Will the coach select them though?

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:46 am  

El Diablo wrote:

To me our backs, particularly BJB, Watkins, Hardaker and Hall give grounds for some longer term optimism. As indeed does Stevie Ward.

We're fine for halves next year, although the problem of replacing our "holy trinity" of Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire is, to my mind, unsolved, as it is likely that since they appeared in the team fairly close together, they may well retire fairly close together too. That makes Ward one part of a 3-piece puzzle to me. Time is on our side though, as I wouldn't be keen to shoo any of them out of the door just yet.

Our pack is now, perhaps, a little jaded. I think if it were freshened up with a couple of new faces, the outlook would look very different. Again, there are a few key performers who are not at the end of their careers just yet, but are not far off and succession needs to be addressed.

So I'll plump for somewhere in between the theorists of apocalypse and those who believe the cup still runeth over. Come to think of it, I think my glass currently contains about half of its full capacity

I would agree with all of that.The big worry has always been that with so many of our golden generation coming through at the same time,then of course the time will come when they will depart at the same time aswell.

As you say,Its a comfort to know our three-quarter line looks set fair for the next decade or so.

The pack is getting to be a big worry now though as the likes of Ellis, Ali, Eastwood and Buderus have been replaced by mediocre plodders and Kylie and JP (How bad would our go forward have been without him on Saturday?) are on their last legs.Lets hope Singleton when he gets the chance,takes it.Hopefuly we will bring Amor back for next year.

The next Two seasons are huge as to how long our transition is going to last.If Mac isnt prepared to start bringing the young lads through in the pack,en mass, then we are going to be left picking up the likes of Moore and Griffin on a regular basis as its clear we wont be spending the big bucks.

Is Mac up to the task? im not sure.But if he isnt then it does not matter how good our backs are,if our pack gets battered week on week we will not be back at the top table of Super League.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:50 am  

G1 wrote:

There are fresh faces already contracted to the club like Amor, Singleton, McShane and Hood.

Will the coach select them though?

Who knows but watching Lunt for us and Mcshane for Widnes no-one can tell me we got a better 9 out of the deal.
That's no disrepect to Lunt but for me it was ridiculous to let Mcshane go in the first place and the kid clearly just needed backing with a run of games imo.
The Amor puzzle is even greater we have a clear choice at the end of June to say right son yer a Rhino for next year and beyond but we pass over that chance whilst talking Kylie out of retirement?????
Some strange calls but hopefully all will make sense once the season is over.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:29 am  

At the risk of constantly repeating myself, the key to rebuilding the side is to obtain a top class centre with lots of pace. Preferably one who can draw a man and pass ,we have a young threequarter line with massive potential we just need to use them correctly . Abblet could return to the forwards , hopefully amor comes back ,plus the addition of the Aussie lad and maybe Singleton we should be on the right track.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:16 am  

Richie wrote:

There's lots of great players around that have been great buys for their clubs. Our club went through a long time of buying great players. Never quite worked out as well as the current approach to building a squad.

It depends what you mean by 'current'. At the moment we've got Stevie Ward coming through and a few young backs full of potential. The pack is old and tired though and there's no apparent succession plan for our halves. This doesn't seem very good to me.

The best method of squad building is what we did 10 years ago - bring in a good number of quality young guys all across the squad and sign a few top class players on top - guys like Furner, Lauitiiti and Ellis.

At the moment we've got a few quality young guys but no top class signings, just a few average ones.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:55 am  

Ten years ago, we still had to wait two more to be champions, then wait another three after that.
Currently, we are reigning champions, and have been champions four out of the last five years.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:39 pm  

Richie wrote:

Ten years ago, we still had to wait two more to be champions, then wait another three after that.
Currently, we are reigning champions, and have been champions four out of the last five years.

Ten years ago we had once in generation crop of exceptional youngsters coming through - especially in key positions not sure this is the case now?

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:40 pm  

Richie wrote:

Ten years ago, we still had to wait two more to be champions, then wait another three after that.
Currently, we are reigning champions, and have been champions four out of the last five years.

Booooooo! The people demand change McDermott OUT, Peacock OUT, Everyone over the age of 19 OUT, Boobies OUT!

*dribbles and falls over*

Re: Dead wood out?! : Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:11 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Ten years ago we had once in generation crop of exceptional youngsters coming through - especially in key positions not sure this is the case now?

No neither am I. Guess we have to wait if we want to find out. Better that, for now, than chasing the likes of Morley and Ellis.