Love from ABC - team of the decade (2013) and game of the decade (2010 v Tigpies)

[ism22]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-...?section=sport

Thought it was a good reflection on the decade. Also, great to see some footy journalism that isn't dissing Latrell and/or behind a paywall.

[Headless Chook]

Interesting read. I actually think this year's team was better then the 2013 team, especially the backline.

[zac]

Fun piece. Yeah, our 2013 team might have been the NRL team of the decade, but it wasn't the best Roosters team.

[top_joe]

Still think our 2018 team was the best we fielded this decade. Keary and Cronk were better than BBQ and JuJu, and a more mature JWH and Cords.

[Tommy Smith]

2013 was the best performed over the whole season.

2018 was the best on GF day.

But 2019 was the best overall imo - the most devastating on their day. Latrell's record of outscoring almost every opponent on his own at the SCG is a sign of obscene dominance.

They also carried the weight of being reigning champions for a full season which, historically, has been an insurmountable burden in the NRL era.

[ism22]

Interesting read. I actually think this year's team was better then the 2013 team, especially the backline.

Me 3... I thought the 2018-19 teams were better. I'll try to minimise my rambling but the star players (based on rep selection past and present + reputation) woulda been:
- 2013 = SBW, Mini, RTS, Jennings, Maloney, Pearce, Cords, JWH, Guerra, SKD, Moa.
- 2018 = Cronk, Teddy, Cords, Latrell, Keary, Fergo, Napa, JWH.
- 2019 = Cronk, Teddy, Cords, Latrell, Keary, JWH, Crichton, B-Moz, SST, Manu.

Meh, on paper maybe there is something in it? Still... in the lists for both 2013 and 2019 we have 2 Dally M winners, the current Australian + NSW captain, a Kangaroos centre, a Kangaroos winger and a gun Kiwi centre. 2013 Had SBW and Moa on top of that, whereas 2019 had SST and Crichton. I know we didn't have SBW in 2019 but the 2019 roster was essentially the 2018 roster (minus Fergo + Big Papi) going B2B.

I dunno! 2019's the best team for me because it went B2B in a really close contest. I'm still sorta disappointed that the media didn't give us credit for shutting the Raiders out + holding on with Maubs injured and Cronk sin-binned. It easily coulda gone the other way and there woulda been no sympathy for Cronk's binning + Wighton's try being off the back of an incorrect knock-on being called. I loved that win because we knew they were gonna be pepped up jesters coming at us with lotsa dodgy stripping/delay tactics. So... we slowed it down, played safe and waited for a moment of weakness. IMO what's unfortunate is that this moment of weakness came when Keary noticed Wighton was having a whinge at the refs and BJ thought he could get away with being lazy. That's how ruthless the game is though - IMO the 2019 team takes the cake because they had that in 'em against a team that wanted their 'first time in a few decades' victory. Instead, the 2010's will be another dry decade for the 'green machine'.

[milanja]

My combined team would be

teddy
mini
jennings
latrell
toops
maloney
cronk

jwh
friend
sst
sbw
O’Donnell
cordner

moa
aubo
butcher
liu

5 from 2019, 6 from 2013 and 6 from both, I gave Maloney the edge due to his goal kicking and fighter qualities.
leaving the like of keary, RTS,Manu Angus and co out, shows the quality available.

[OMR]

My combined team would be

teddy
mini
jennings
latrell
toops
maloney
cronk

jwh
friend
sst
sbw
O’Donnell
cordner

moa
aubo
butcher
liu

5 from 2019, 6 from 2013 and 6 from both, I gave Maloney the edge due to his goal kicking and fighter qualities.
leaving the like of keary, RTS,Manu Angus and co out, shows the quality available.

Exactly! The ones left out is testimony to the strength of the sides

[QWERTY]

I'd say the reason why the 2013 was voted better was how much star power we had in that side:

Anthony Minichiello (c)	Fullback
Daniel Tupou	Wing
Michael Jennings	Centre
Shaun Kenny-Dowall	Centre
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	Wing
James Maloney	Five-eighth
Mitchell Pearce	Halfback
Jared Waerea-Hargraves	Prop
Jake Friend	Hooker
Sam Moa	Prop
Aidan Guerra	2nd Row
Sonny Bill Williams	2nd Row
Boyd Cordner	Lock
Frank-Paul Nuuausala	Interchange
Daniel Mortimer	Interchange
Mitchell Aubusson	Interchange
Luke O'Donnell

and then we still had players like Napa not playing. Obviously some of these players were at the time not 'stars,' but looking back on it it is hard to picture a time when RTS or Boyd Cordner weren't yet among them

[SConcierge]

Interesting read. I actually think this year's team was better then the 2013 team, especially the backline.

Forwards win matches the backs determine by how much, 2013 we had an amazing pack
SBW was the leading off loader in the comp and JWH was number 2 that year, that second phase play killed everyone. Our defence was far supiror in 2013 imo as well then 18/19

[Tommy Smith]

Forwards win matches the backs determine by how much, 2013 we had an amazing pack
SBW was the leading off loader in the comp and JWH was number 2 that year, that second phase play killed everyone. Our defence was far supiror in 2013 imo as well then 18/19

The 2018/2019 team conceded just 3 tries across the Preliminary Finals and GFs - one of which was an intercept.

So whilst the 2013 team was incredible across the course of the season, with the all time record for keeping a team scoreless, I think the 2018/19 sides were even better in the big games.

Our defence this year in the finals was the best I've ever seen. The Storm and Raiders had no idea how to break us down despite an enormous flow of attacking possession.

[ism22]

My combined team would be

teddy
mini
jennings
latrell
toops
maloney
cronk

jwh
friend
sst
sbw
O’Donnell
cordner

moa
aubo
butcher
liu

5 from 2019, 6 from 2013 and 6 from both, I gave Maloney the edge due to his goal kicking and fighter qualities.
leaving the like of keary, RTS,Manu Angus and co out, shows the quality available.

Yeah very tough to judge ay? I'd be something like...

1. Teddy
2. Toops
3. Latrell
4. Manu
5. Fergo
6. Keary
7. Cronk
8. JWH
9. Friend
10. SST
11. Cords
12. SBW
13. Radley

14. Napa
15. Moa
16. Guerra
17. Maubs

But of course... then I've left out Maloney, RTS, Mini, Jennings, SKD...etc. My reasoning is that a 2013 (as opposed to circa 2002) Mini isn't as good today's Toops and Fergo did more metres than anybody in 2018 (battering ram style but all that brute force in our backline works well). Also, I've preferenced playing people playing in their actual position (e.g. Teddy's a way better FB than RTS in my opinion + Cords/Cronk/Friend/JWH...etc in your team means there's already enough leadership without him). Maloney's my big worry (partly because he's such a darn good kicker) but Keary's grown on me. Maybe I'm tarnished by Maloney's more recent form?

[milanja]

Forwards win matches the backs determine by how much, 2013 we had an amazing pack
SBW was the leading off loader in the comp and JWH was number 2 that year, that second phase play killed everyone. Our defence was far supiror in 2013 imo as well then 18/19

Gee blast from the past! Welcome back. Where you been hiding for years SC, missed your food diaries for some time now.

[ism22]

Forwards win matches the backs determine by how much, 2013 we had an amazing pack
SBW was the leading off loader in the comp and JWH was number 2 that year, that second phase play killed everyone. Our defence was far supiror in 2013 imo as well then 18/19

Fair point... we shut out lotsa teams whereas IMO we lost a bunch of stoopid games in 2019 that tarnished our overall standing.

We weren't minor premiers for a reason. IMO a large part of that was a circa 2014-15 style attitude towards defence when our backs were making easy metres against inferior opponents. You don't need to be SBW to make your tackles.

That said, our attitude/effort was there when it counted. Our early winning streak allowed us to have a mid-season lull, re-assess where we wanted to be and defeat a far more competitive finals draw than we were dealt in 2013. Disposing of Souffs, Melbourne and Canberra under such circumstances (with Melbourne and Canberra getting a massive boost from wrecking our attack with those darn strips) was the toughest finals effort of the decade IMO. There was nothing between us and we beat every single top-4 team. Dare I say... we were super lucky to avoid Souffs in the 2013 finals and may well have lost to them in a GF or preliminary final. Manly, Newcastle, Manly was a very lucky draw as neither of those 2 were particularly convincing during the 2013 season. Melbourne and Souffs were the 2 teams to beat.

We were also torn apart by injuries and suspensions in 2019. For large parts of the season we were without Friend, Cords, JWH, Keary and Hall/Morris. And fukkit I'll put it out there... Craig Garvey woulda eased a lot of this pain but was quietly forced out before round 1. As a result we had to rush a lot of youngsters into 1st grade, eventually getting Verrills over the line - a massive credit to our culture/systems IMO. We very easily coulda had a massic panic attack and signed Lichaa/Segeyaro instead (something that our loss to (Brisbane?) made us look silly for not doing). Our systems came good though!!!

[Tommy Smith]

We have different memories of 2013.

Manly in 2013 were better than Souffs. They flogged them in the Prelim for a reason.

To say we were lucky to avoid Souffs is way off. We were much better than them and no one was going to beat us that season.

Even the Storm were poor that year. They went out of the finals with b2b losses, including wk 2 at home to the shitty Knights. That's not the form line of someone who was "the team to beat".

P.S. Merry Christmas.