What do we need to win a comp next year ?

[SamKerrSimp]

3 big tickets and none have really changed since the start of the season.

- Leadership, we missed leadership on the field today. Friend and Cordner were such underrated leaders, their game never changed regardless of the level of opposition or the external noise that would be going on in a game/around a game. We have struggled time and time again whenever there’s been some emotion in a game to settle and play footy, exposed again in week 1 of the finals. Teddy has grown in this area but needs a couple more to go with him. I worry that Brandon Smith may just be more fuel to the fire.

- Three-quarter depth. Happy with the first choice options but we have absolutely no depth. Matt Ikuvalu used to get some stick on here but he was light years ahead of every depth option we’ve used this year.

- Halves combo of Walker & Keary, feels like one has to take a back seat so the other can excel. Really need to identify what their partnership will look like early on next year was not a fan of Walker running plays 1 and 5 and Keary running plays 2,3 & 4 that we saw back end of the season. Appreciate it was was a temporary fix to a less than ideal situation but would like to see some more freedom given to Sammy Walker, felt like he was snatching at his plays too much as he was starved of opportunities.

I did say our 2nd rowers would be a big issue to solve this year but I’m happy with what I saw from Crichton at the back end of the season, Nat Butcher is a solid 2nd choice option, I still think Tupouniua has a lot to offer and Wong looks very promising coming through the grades so I’m confident we’ve got enough options to make it work next year.

Boyd Cordner continues to be a giant hole for the Roosters and for New South Wales and our potential to win premierships ended when he retired.

[Kelby]

What we need to win:


Uncle Nick to open the cheque book to V'landys? Nudge, nudge......
Brandon Smith
Payne Haas
A goal kicking winger

[Rooster89]

1. Leadership
2. Healthy Roster 3. Consistent performances

maybe an outside back for depth and that's all I think we need.

[SupermanSupportsEasts4Eva]

Some really good points made above. Re signing Lodge would help. B Smith will help as well. Losing SST and Sammy Verrils will sux. I think our backup #9 options are slim. Left centre has been an issue this season. No one that played there has been able to lock down their place. Momo and Hutch clearly aren't the answers. Naiqama made me miss Ryan Hall

[DP1990]

Top 5 and in no particular order:

• Speed.
• Youth. We're an ageing side in some key positions and with the current stock, injuries etc will hamper us.
• Halves getting their shit together.
• Discipline.
• Leadership.

[Danish]

We won’t. The window is closed.

team is going to be in a massive transition over the next 3 years to the point that we will have barely any of the back to back premiers in the side anymore.

how we handle recruiting their replacements will govern the next decade of the club. Not convinced we have the recruiting nous to handle it based on decisions that have been made recently

[MKCS]

Next year? Here's what I'd like to see/what I think:

1. Brandon Smith is a big upgrade on Sam Verrills. Not that Verrills is bad but Smith is probably a top 3 hooker whilst Verrills simply is not. Smith should get us into a top 4 and probably would've been a difference maker if he was in todays game.

2. Remain injury free. Easier said than done but for today I think if we had our full team (Including Collins and Manu) we win by plenty and probably only could've been threatened by Penrith in the entire finals.

3. Re-signing Lodge is a must.

---

With that in mind our strongest team next year is probably the best in the competition and we don't really have an excuse not to win it if we keep them fit:

1. Tedesco 2. Tupou 3. Smith 4. Manu 5. Suaalii 6. Keary 7. Walker 8. Collins 9. B. Smith 10. Lodge 11. Crichton 12. N. Butcher 13. Radley

14. Watson 15. JWH 16. Baker 17. E. Butcher

[Lydon]

Less injuries

[Vee08]

Moving forward, looking ahead… see you there! RWB / E2W!

[FlamingRooster]

We have a pretty scary team next year. This coincides with other contenders losing key pieces. Penrith- Kikau + Api, Eels - Papalii, Mahoney. Storm - Bromwich brothers, Frankensteins monster (Kaufusi), Cheese

Compare this to our starting 17 next year -
1. Teddy
2. Tupou
3. Suaalii
4. Manu
5. Paulo
6. Keary
7. Walker
8. JWH
9. Cheese
10. Lodgey (re-sign him at all costs)
11. Crichton (can I just say for all those bagging him at the beginning of the year how silly you look. One of our best after Round 12, and if you look at how destructive he looked compared to E.Butcher who covered for him tonight, the difference is clearly palpable)
12. N. Butcher (smokey for a WC spot, especially if Hudson Young and Shaun Lane are being considered)
13. Mr Bonehead himself aka Victor Radley (I love this bloke but he really needs to pull his head in)
14. Connor Watson (great this season once moved to the lock rotation
15. Lindsay "Flipper Hands" Collins
16. Sitili "The Line" Tupouniua
17. Tuku Hau Tapuha (controversial over Egan Butcher and Terrell May ik, but for me has way more potential. Egan for me is a fringe first grader. Admittedly works hard, but his attacking presence is too average to be a consistent FG. Terrell isn't big enough for me and doesn't run with a full head of steam. Tuku is 20, massive, quick and skilled. Needs a proper go in FG, if he fails I'll cop it)
18. Egan Butcher / Terrell May/ Fletcher Baker/ Siua Wong/ Adam Keighran/ Drew Hutchison

Looking forward to Premiership 2023. For now, let's go Fitz and the Sharks

[Serenader]

We have a pretty scary team next year. This coincides with other contenders losing key pieces. Penrith- Kikau + Api, Eels - Papalii, Mahoney. Storm - Bromwich brothers, Frankensteins monster (Kaufusi), Cheese

Compare this to our starting 17 next year -
1. Teddy
2. Tupou
3. Suaalii
4. Manu
5. Paulo
6. Keary
7. Walker
8. JWH
9. Cheese
10. Lodgey (re-sign him at all costs)
11. Crichton (can I just say for all those bagging him at the beginning of the year how silly you look. One of our best after Round 12, and if you look at how destructive he looked compared to E.Butcher who covered for him tonight, the difference is clearly palpable)
12. N. Butcher (smokey for a WC spot, especially if Hudson Young and Shaun Lane are being considered)
13. Mr Bonehead himself aka Victor Radley (I love this bloke but he really needs to pull his head in)
14. Connor Watson (great this season once moved to the lock rotation
15. Lindsay "Flipper Hands" Collins
16. Sitili "The Line" Tupouniua
17. Tuku Hau Tapuha (controversial over Egan Butcher and Terrell May ik, but for me has way more potential. Egan for me is a fringe first grader. Admittedly works hard, but his attacking presence is too average to be a consistent FG. Terrell isn't big enough for me and doesn't run with a full head of steam. Tuku is 20, massive, quick and skilled. Needs a proper go in FG, if he fails I'll cop it)
18. Egan Butcher / Terrell May/ Fletcher Baker/ Siua Wong/ Adam Keighran/ Drew Hutchison

Looking forward to Premiership 2023. For now, let's go Fitz and the Sharks

Will be interesting to see what Robbo does with Sitili next year, does he walk straight back into the 12 jersey given Butchers form?

Also IMO Egan I’ll fill that 17 jersey next year, Robbo seems to love him.

[Inflictor]

We need some speedy and big unit backline depth.
We have been exposed badly in that area this year.
Toia and Smith having ACL's doesn't help.

[MKCS]

Not convinced we have the recruiting nous to handle it based on decisions that have been made recently

How recently? Within the past three years we've signed Sam Walker who is expected to be a future representative star, Joseph Suaalii who will apparently make his Australian debut at the World Cup, Brandon Smith who is a premiership winner and a world class hooker, Matt Lodge who helped turn our season around and is in the discussions for the World Cup also plus we've also got Siua Wong who I don't know too much about but is apparently the next big thing.

Those are five pretty handy pick ups, some teams would kill to recruit like we do.

[The distributor]

Comps are won on fine margins and sometimes luck when it comes to injuries and suspensions.

we will challenge again next year but where do we need improve so we go all the way ?

For me its being able to play for 80mins more consistently

Love to hear your thoughts

We probably have the most expensive training staff in the league but cop the most injuries.
A complete lack of discipline cost us today.

I am not sure there are any coaches on the market to replace Robbo.

[ChookMaster]

Defence - Wow! Our defence has been rocks and diamonds in games for a while now, we’re vulnerable with offloads.. try to actually wrap the ball up boys not just hold and wait for other players to come in and help. Inconsistent line speed also - Sammy walker in particular loves to rush up by himself and leave holes in the line- fix that up for crying out loud Robbo.

Props - We are light in this aspect with the loss of SST and our depth lagging.


Last but not least and the most important one…. One I would say that is on all our wish lists every off season it seems lol

- PLAY SMART. No dumb forced short hospital balls or dumb tackles that knock players out get themselves into a HIA resting period or suspensions. Play smart.. cut out the nonsense errors

[Boondi]

I’d like to see JS move to centre. A fast winger would be nice.

[Danish]

How recently? Within the past three years we've signed Sam Walker who is expected to be a future representative star, Joseph Suaalii who will apparently make his Australian debut at the World Cup, Brandon Smith who is a premiership winner and a world class hooker, Matt Lodge who helped turn our season around and is in the discussions for the World Cup also plus we've also got Siua Wong who I don't know too much about but is apparently the next big thing.

Those are five pretty handy pick ups, some teams would kill to recruit like we do.

Sualli will be gone end of his next contract to rugby. That’s just a forgone. Seems pointless to care about him.

Walker is ok. Absolutely shit the bed tonight and still can’t kick goals for shit. Plenty of potential but that’s all it is right now. We’ll see how he goes in a few years.

brandon smith is great, but I worry about him in our colours. He’ll be penalised and suspended even more than Radley once he is outside of the protective Storm blanket.

Then you have to look at the signings of Momo, Watson, and Naiqama. Not to mention the completely pointless Gildart loan deal. We haven’t had 17 actual first graders at our club for a couple years and much of that is our inability to recruit decent depth players

[Thirteen]

At the moment I'm just hoping we finally win a Rd 1 game then see what happens after that.

We won Round 1 last year.