I haven't heard any news from GH or BMcD regarding next years half back pairings. I'm just hoping we have some succession planning plans in place for when Danny & Rob retire which increasingly looks like this year to me. Danny just isn't the player he was and can't be expected to lead the club with his constant injuries which is increasingly slowing him down. His kicking game is poor also but probably as good as what we've got.
Rob has been an outstanding player for us and as an impact player still has value but not an 80 minute player no more.
Jordan Lilley is too slow and doesn't command the position and he's better staying for a couple of seasons to see what improvement there is.
Liam Sutcliffe is a different matter - he was heralded as the new Kev Sinfield, tried at stand off, then looked like he'd found his plae at full bacl only to be moved for Ash Golding. I hear his agent has been gathering offers so we need a decision urgently. This brings me to Joel Moon - has done very well for us in an emergency, its obvious moving him to stand off is the only thing GH/BMcD could do as Danny couldnt perform week in week out. But I reckon Joel is a fantastic centre and we should be thinking of playing him in his proper position next year.
Im hoping we have been planning for this senario for at least 18 months. Its obvious to everyone we need a leader at stand off who has a sound kicking game as well as a running game too, his defense isn't as important. Tell us GH/BMcD ?? what have you got planned ??
I understand the reservations about Myler, but I think its as much about signalling that the time has come for a change in direction as signing him as a player.
We don't have halfbacks of the required quality for next year, but can we afford to wait for one or more of our untried players to make the grade? If they were given a go and didn't make the grade, that would be a third year in a row of 'transition' and a lot of us would be up in arms about why changes hadn't been made. At least signing Myler suggests GH has a sense of urgency about the need to shake things up.
Whilst the Sinfield era was marked by a huge amount of stability across the squad, it was also marked by several major signings along the way. In recent years the stability has remained but we've stopped signing anyone of note. IMO if we didn't start to look externally to fill key positions now, we may end up having to replace large numbers of players en masse, which historically has generally been a disaster.
Correct, however, it remains to be seen if we can buck the recent trend of signing expensive gash from Aus.
Surely we must have a decent scouting network in the UK to spot some of the rough diamonds that have appeared in SL (Walmsley, McMeeken, Hill) or is it that we just wont shell out the £££?
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