anytime.

As for Sykes, he has good moments in attack, is a more than useful kicker, which should be invaluable if we drop deacs for next year, but his defense is awful. He's out of contract this year, and I suspect he will be resigned, but is that largely due to his quota advantages of being home grown overruling his failings??? Would the same performances from an Aussie earn him a new contract?

Really?

Can't see it. We need someone who can kick and play consistantly well. Burgess is neither of these

Burgess can kick. He won't be dropped either and he has had good games. If we have Donaldson on the bench he can kick aswell.

Id agree entirely that Burgess should be played and therefore developed in one position, not swapped around unless its needed through in game injury or whatever, and I think we need to go into each game with 4 props.

Im not convinced Sam would be the answer to the goalkicking situation if he was part of a rotating squad of props though, who kicks when he's being rested on the bench?

Donaldson or i'm sure somebody could put their hand up and say they'd have a crack.

Sykes is another kicking option but I wouldn't want to rely on him for that as he can be a bit wayward with the kickoffs (going out on the full) and the goalkicks (misses a few sitters). Being as he counts as home grown I expect we'd keep him despite his failings in defence. You make a good point about whether a non home grown player would be kept on, I doubt it. When you compare Sykes stats with Ben Harris, Scott Naylor or Shontayne Hape it just shows what we're lacking in attack and defence out there.

If we go into 2010 with Sykes, Jeffries, Deacon and Sheriffe all lining up in the first team we'll struggle again. A side can cope with one or two weak links in defence but four is a real handicap.

I agree. I'd rather keep Jeffries and offload Deacon, but we all know that won't happen. So the only solution for me is to get rid of Jeffries and Sykes. Just because a player is home-grown shouldn't warrant a place. I think it was RER who mentioned that Johnny Horton isn't ready for First team because of poor defence SYKES IS THE WORST CENTRE DEFENSIVELY IN THE LEAGUE

Exactly. If I could swap all four for better players I would - but that wont be the reality of this off season. Because the fact is that Deacs and Sheriffe are on contract for next year, and Sykes is home grown and relatively versatile so as Ewwenorfolk says thats probably the reason BJ might well be off at the end of this year, despite him being top of the try assist table as so many point to when lauding him. On that, IMHO BJ has been the best of a bad bunch at half back and has done reasonably well, but he's still not the answer for me, there is more to stand off than try assists and he goes missing too much for me.

Totally agree, if Jeffries does go and the others stay we'll be losing the one player we could do with keeping. IMO Jeffries would is ideally good cover at halfback but not consistent or reliable enough to be a regular choice. That's why he's ony ever played for below average teams.

I can't see us recruiting two halfbacks though, in fact I'll be surprised if we sign one. I live in hope though.

What a shame Crookes got injured this year or he could've put some pressure on Sykes. We definitely do need some recruitment for the centres whether that means bringing someone in from outside or promoting from within. We can't continue with the same paper thin backline.

I have it on good authority he's signed a one year extension

I really hope that this good authority is bollox.

I'd be very suprised if it was

Here's one for any serious statos out there:
As a team we seem to do fairly well in a game but invariably have a 15 minute brain storm when we ship points for fun. Does any other team have a similar record?

I said last year Sykes was a poor defender when every one was slating Tupou.

TBF Tupou wasn't great either. Now we have Sheriffe outside him who's not a good defender either.

That right side has been shaky for a while and now it seems every team we play knows it.

I disagree on Tupou when he played out side Evans who was a good defender he was a totally different player. IMO any winger who plays outside Sykes is left with a tough call to make do they stay out or come in.

I guess we'll have to disagree on Tame. He never really convinced me wherever we played him. However I do agree it's easier to defend when the man on your inside knows what he's doing.

Swap sykes for evans.

so 2 very leaky defences go head to head this weekend but who'll come out on top?????

I've also heard Sykes will be with us next year, but no mention of the length of deal....



unlikely it seems.

I'll be disappointed if we're going again with Sykes and Sheriffe after the complete disaster they have been this year so far. Isn't Evans up for grabs again?

Ok, we won't win SL with Evans/Nero as our centre's but we might just win a few more of these tight games with some stronger defenders out wide.

God not Evans. We need strike, not mediocrity.

I dont disagree, and I'm hoping Crookes comes good next year and makes one of the spots his own.

Crookes isn't the best defender either. It's a problem he's had during all of his academy time. If he worked with a defensive minded coach it's a problem which could be fixed.

Thats why I'd pin my hopes on Crookes rather than Sykes for a longer term solution at . He's young enough to improve, I don't think Sykes has too much more room for improvement in his defence. But I'd like to think good coaching could mitigate his flaws and focus the attention elsewhere.