Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:05 am  

St pete wrote:

Perry is easily replaced, we could replace him with a young Lad who plays more than 20 mins and can do half the games in the season then we on a winner.

Meli will be tough to replace. I'm happy for him to go if we replace him with better but I doubt we will.

TP isn't great these days but he's still very important on and off the field. He can break tackles and has good pair of hands. When TP is on form he's devastating. Again, I'm happy to let him go if we can
Replace with better but I don't think we will.

Our backs don't fill me with excitement and I think we will struggle at prop.

I think we'll be in much better shape next season.

Brown will have a better idea of his team next season as he's figured out where players are best suited e.g. Lomax, Jones, LMS etc whereas this season he was still trying to figure things out along with dealing with the worst injury crisis I've ever seen at this club.

Meli is the only player I think we'll miss of the players leaving and I am a little concerned we're short at Centre. The others we won't miss as they have been poor all season or have barely played. TP is good on his day, but he hasn;t been anywhere near the same player as he was a couple of years ago. In Masoe we have a younger player who should fill that void quite comfortably. Add in that the younger props will be a year older and the addition of Beaumont and we look better up front next season. I'd like us to sign another prop but we're in better shape in that area.

Most importantly we have an actual half back with a kicking and goal kicking game. This immediately makes us stronger. I'm really looking forward to seeing Walsh in action, I think our wingers will score plenty of tries with his kicking and Lomax will receive plenty of good ball on the edges to cause problems.

We're short of a stand off, prop and centre but we'll be much improved next year and hopefully we won't lose Roby for 20 weeks of the season. He's been a big miss for us.

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:39 am  

Blobbynator wrote:

Snip

I agree with pretty much all of that.

The potential improvement as a result of having a half-back, a kicking game and a goal kicker can't be underestimated. We could do with a specialist 6 to run alongside him, and there's no sign of any meaningful back up (particularly if we're not keeping hold of Yates, as I've heard), so as it stands we'll be relying on Walsh staying fit all year, which is something of a gamble.

Having watched all of the Panthers games for the last couple of months I think Masoe will be a real breath of fresh air for us. He has his limitations but he really does change a game when he comes on. As has been discussed at length, though, we are short of a dependable, grafting front rower who can knock out 50-60 minutes a game. Maybe one of Richards/Thompson et al is earmarked for that sort of role, but they're all too young for us to be depending on them yet. Having said that, if Beaumont plays more than three matches this season and doesn't run for negative metres in each of them then he will be an improvement on Perry. I suspect we'll start to see Andre Savelio in the first team next season (I think he would have been in this year were it not for illness and injury). Given the size of him he just might be the kind of youngster that could come in and make an immediate impact.

I also think we'll miss Meli. He's at the right sort of age for us to let him go, but we don't seem to have a replacement lined up. I can see Percival and Swift getting much more gametime, which is great, but my only concern is that we're going to be left with a pretty lightweight backline and might have trouble clearing our lines. We'll see.

So, overall, we'll be in much better shape and should be competitive amongst the current big teams. However, I think we're leaving a few too many things to chance, so I'm struggling to see us taking out the title.

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:32 am  

Ande wrote:

I did that with 2 geordies, a manc and a brummie...

Did you all walk into a bar? It sounds like the opening line of a joke

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:48 pm  

St pete wrote:

Can Swift cover centre ?

Swift looks a great prospect but I never get carried away with youngsters until the end of their 2nd season and swift ain't had one full season yet.

I'm sure you can recall the theads of our team for the future, the "golden generation". Matty ashurst, Dixon, foster, Gaskell, tyrer etc hahaha

I don't think Swift is big or strong enough for centre; a bit like Crooks at Hull where he tried but didn't have the strength to line burst against Wigan.

Meli on the other hand certainly hasn't got fantastic pace but he takes a lot of stopping. We will miss him and I see next season similar to this season as we are still one HB light.

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 1:05 pm  

I don't think people should be putting so much faith in Luke Walsh just yet. He's a player that has clearly blown hot and cold in the NRL and could very easily be another disaster of a signing.

The club is still a bit of a joke at the moment. We've got very little depth in any position.

Fullback - Covered
Wing - Two very average players in Swift and Makinson. No Ryan Hall's here
Centres - Turner is average, struggling to see who the other centre is at the moment?
Stand off - We don't have any
Scrum half - One experienced player who may be great, but is inconsistent and seems very much a confidence player in Walsh. No backup at all
Hooker - Roby, but no depth beyond him unless we sign Howarth
Prop - Possibly the worst set of props in the top half? Walmsley is progressing nicely, Masoe is unproven but hopefully won't be a Feka-esque farce. Clough, Beaumont are all very average players. Have I missed any?
Backrow - Sia and Manu are quality, Wilkin should be a bench player now. Jones adds some depth here as well.
Loose - LMS has been an absolute revelation there in the last few games. Can he keep it up? Flanagan, if he's resigned is depth, but another very average player.

Any talk of us winning trophies is still very premature. We haven't got a good enough backline to rival the likes of Leeds, Wigan or Warrington in a meaningful game, we've got no stand off and a decent prop light.

We will also no doubt still have Paul Wellens and Anthony Laffranchi stinking the place out for another season, wasting a spot in the 17 each week.

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Fri Aug 30, 2013 1:31 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I don't think people should be putting so much faith in Luke Walsh just yet. He's a player that has clearly blown hot and cold in the NRL and could very easily be another disaster of a signing.

The club is still a bit of a joke at the moment. We've got very little depth in any position.

Fullback - Covered
Wing - Two very average players in Swift and Makinson. No Ryan Hall's here
Centres - Turner is average, struggling to see who the other centre is at the moment?
Stand off - We don't have any
Scrum half - One experienced player who may be great, but is inconsistent and seems very much a confidence player in Walsh. No backup at all
Hooker - Roby, but no depth beyond him unless we sign Howarth
Prop - Possibly the worst set of props in the top half? Walmsley is progressing nicely, Masoe is unproven but hopefully won't be a Feka-esque farce. Clough, Beaumont are all very average players. Have I missed any?
Backrow - Sia and Manu are quality, Wilkin should be a bench player now. Jones adds some depth here as well.
Loose - LMS has been an absolute revelation there in the last few games. Can he keep it up? Flanagan, if he's resigned is depth, but another very average player.

Any talk of us winning trophies is still very premature. We haven't got a good enough backline to rival the likes of Leeds, Wigan or Warrington in a meaningful game, we've got no stand off and a decent prop light.

We will also no doubt still have Paul Wellens and Anthony Laffranchi stinking the place out for another season, wasting a spot in the 17 each week.

I basically agree. We need at least one prop. We need a centre (not had two centres for aprox 5 years). We need a stand off.

If we don't sign the above positions then IMO its a struggle for top 4.

Re: Season Ticket Renewal : Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:32 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Centres - Turner is average, struggling to see who the other centre is at the moment

Percival