Top 8 contenders according to Sportsbet and my rose tinted glasses.

[Bates]

Broncos. $5.00
Panthers. $6.00
Storm. $6.50
Roosters. $7.50
Raiders. $14.00
Sharks. $21.00
Phins. $21.00
Eels. $21.00


What I see when I take my Roosters glasses off is concerning.

No speed in the 3/4s with the only strike weapon being Marky who isn't all that quick beyond a 30 metre sprint. An untested halves pairing. Both DCE and Sammy are 7s. Neither have the running game or the crafty nous required to play five-eighth. They've played minimal footy at 6 and for obvious reasons. DCE at this point in time is too slow to play five-eighth. By slow I mean reaction time when a split second is the difference between a play successfully unfolding and failure. Our best 6 will be playing NSW Cup! Let's hope DCE isn't another flop signing like the Cheese and Dom Young.

Let's look at our pack. No Alpha to set the standard! Whyte is a beast with the ball however has holes in his defensive game. He also lacks the hard edge required to fill this role. Collins struggles to bend the line these days. His strength has become the ability to read a potential threat and scramble to defuse it. We need more than that from our big boys! Prop rotation isn't great with not much size coming off the bench.

Loads of positives too, don't get me wrong as I'm extremely excited about the coming season however and upon reflection I think we'll finish 6th/7th/8th. We will be lucky to make the prelims imo. Still that's something to build on with another premiership not too far away.

[caz]

i reckon 7.50 at this stage is about right so yeah, like every other team we probably won't win the comp.
no doubt speed is good but our 3/4s can win us a comp. would we be stronger with
david michael
marky
toia
shane whereat?
marky would be a starter in any team and rob toia is potent. toops is more than solid. billy started the season off well but finished a bit quiet.
hard to know how the halves pairing will go but sammy is a freak and dce isn't chad robinson.
i think whyte is a terrific player. yeah, he doesn't have the mongrel of jwh but if he reproduces what he did last season we'll go alright.

[Bates]

i reckon 7.50 at this stage is about right so yeah, like every other team we probably won't win the comp.
no doubt speed is good but our 3/4s can win us a comp. would we be stronger with
david michael
marky
toia
shane whereat?
marky would be a starter in any team and rob toia is potent. toops is more than solid. billy started the season off well but finished a bit quiet.
hard to know how the halves pairing will go but sammy is a freak and dce isn't chad robinson.
i think whyte is a terrific player. yeah, he doesn't have the mongrel of jwh but if he reproduces what he did last season we'll go alright.

is that with or without your roosters specs on?

[caz]

hard to know. i mean acknowledging that 7.50 is a fair price means that there's a lot can go wrong but i wouldn't swap marky for anyone and i'm more than happy with toops and rob.

[mattyh]

I reckon titans, knight, dragons, manly , tigs, cows are the teams whp cant make the 8, i wouldnt be surprised if cronulla and canterbury miss out either

[Chook2]

Tough one
we do miss serious space, young could really make things happen with this however I think for size, height, yardage and skill etc our back 5 seem fine
halves once Walker and DCE click will have a balance if crazy skills from Walker and game management and composure of DCE
Our pack is good but certainly concerns in the middles, we need Collins and Leniu to fire this year but also someone else to step up
I think in today’s game though Whytes roll is more important then jwh who lead the pack but had his moments! Like SST who generally outperformed jwh for mtrs etc and stood up when jwh was away
games getting quicker and less reliant on the bully style player

we do have a side to win especially with storm roster weakened and riff showing they can be beaten
but everything must go our way including top 4 finish and for roster at end of the year plus hitting our peak at the right time

[Bansai Pipeline]

I don't think there are plenty of question marks about our squad too.

[Bates]

I don't think there are plenty of question marks about our squad too.

I have a spare set of rose coloured specs I could give you.

[Bates]

Tough one
we do miss serious space, young could really make things happen with this however I think for size, height, yardage and skill etc our back 5 seem fine
halves once Walker and DCE click will have a balance if crazy skills from Walker and game management and composure of DCE
Our pack is good but certainly concerns in the middles, we need Collins and Leniu to fire this year but also someone else to step up
I think in today’s game though Whytes roll is more important then jwh who lead the pack but had his moments! Like SST who generally outperformed jwh for mtrs etc and stood up when jwh was away
games getting quicker and less reliant on the bully style player

we do have a side to win especially with storm roster weakened and riff showing they can be beaten
but everything must go our way including top 4 finish and for roster at end of the year plus hitting our peak at the right time

I was surprised to see the Storm at $6.50.

[Bates]

Souffs are also $21.00. lol@souffs.

Warriors. $24.00. My good mate Smithy's smokey.

Cows. $34.00. Payten sacked mid season imo.

Manly. $36.00. Seibold is a myth however a great salesman.

Tigers. $41.00. Their fans deserve free Kayo and a medal.

Knights. $61.00 Bookmakers have no faith in Holbrook.

Dragons. $61.00. Flanno won't give up on his son to the teams detriment.

[Mickie Lane]

Broncos. $5.00
Panthers. $6.00
Storm. $6.50
Roosters. $7.50
Raiders. $14.00
Sharks. $21.00
Phins. $21.00
Eels. $21.00


What I see when I take my Roosters glasses off is concerning.

No speed in the 3/4s with the only strike weapon being Marky who isn't all that quick beyond a 30 metre sprint. An untested halves pairing. Both DCE and Sammy are 7s. Neither have the running game or the crafty nous required to play five-eighth. They've played minimal footy at 6 and for obvious reasons. DCE at this point in time is too slow to play five-eighth. By slow I mean reaction time when a split second is the difference between a play successfully unfolding and failure. Our best 6 will be playing NSW Cup! Let's hope DCE isn't another flop signing like the Cheese and Dom Young.

Let's look at our pack. No Alpha to set the standard! Whyte is a beast with the ball however has holes in his defensive game. He also lacks the hard edge required to fill this role. Collins struggles to bend the line these days. His strength has become the ability to read a potential threat and scramble to defuse it. We need more than that from our big boys! Prop rotation isn't great with not much size coming off the bench.

Loads of positives too, don't get me wrong as I'm extremely excited about the coming season however and upon reflection I think we'll finish 6th/7th/8th. We will be lucky to make the prelims imo. Still that's something to build on with another premiership not too far away.

Like Ive said heaps of times what it will come down to for the Chooks to win the comp is injuries, luck & form.
The players the Roosters have are good enough to win the comp without a doubt so if the cards fall their way with injuries, luck & form we can win the comp.

[BTRD]

Nothing but a GF appearance should be accepted.

The coach has his ' Cooper Cronk '. The Coach talks a lot of rubbish.

GO ROOSTERS.

(I guess we will lose our first match).

[Mickie Lane]

Nothing but a GF appearance should be accepted.

The coach has his ' Cooper Cronk '. The Coach talks a lot of rubbish.

GO ROOSTERS.

(I guess we will lose our first match).

Im not confident we'll win against the Warriors in NZ.

[Avalon Rooster]

I agree about the lack of pace and the lack of a true game breaking, dominant forward. We are definitely a top 4 side if we go well, but we don't have the strike or upper potential of the Broncos and still Penrith.

We have a load of depth - a lot of players with a very high floor but not many with a really high ceiling. Other than Sam who...despite his faults, has more game breaking , try assisting creativity than anyone else in the comp. And Teddy who is....Teddy. Mark also has a high ceiling, but I think we saw that last year and while I hope, I doubt he'll be quite as incredible this year.

to me, it comes down to us fixing our Achilles heel of the post Boyd and Jake era. Discipline. Can we stop making so many stupid, dumb, enraging ****ing errors and can we give away fewer penalties?

and then can we get another year like last year out of Teddy, a full consistent year out of Sam, can Robson come in and be as promised and can our young forwards take another step?

[Thirteen]

Why the hype about Eels. They have rubbish forwards.