With Hansen and
Jett Cleary a halves pairing in the past, is there a hope these two are the succession plan? Still looking to need more time, but plenty of teams using young halves and trusting them? Could the club be willing to give these guys the keys behind a strong pack? Still a bit of filling out to do between them too, especially Cleary. Will be interesting to see what the club does regarding
TMM. Playing in nsw cup and can be negotiated with in November. Plenty of clubs have mentioned him and don’t think he’ll lack offers
I think people are being a little harsh on
TMM. Thrown in at 7 mid season, did exceedingly well and delivered results, team seemed calmer and more together. I don't think we are signing anyone else of note, Dylan Brown keeps getting mentioned but has said he is staying at the Eels. Maybe there might be a back up half in the pipeline, maybe. I think the more likely reality, unless Cam And Cappy can pull a great half out of the air, is that what we have now is what we are going to have next year. I would like to see the remainder of this year with
TMM and
Metcalf at 7 and 6 in cup including some finals games, a preseason of reps and training, and
AW showing some flexibility and adapting the game plan to the players we have. Fine if people want to write one or all of those players off but I'm not. It's like those people think we have just come off a great season and we are now breaking it. The same people wanted
SJ back despite what he has delivered this year to date. Honestly, it just seems so weird to me - especially as it's quite likely we lose every remaining game this season with him at 7. Yes, a
TMM and
Metcalf combo has faults. They aren't insurmountable ones though, as we have seen from
TMM this year and they bring some really good strong points with their games also. People saying we are fucked now with no
SJ. Same stuff I have heard previously about who is going to do the tackles now Luck is gone, or Friend. Who is going to score the tries now Manu is gone, then it was Fus, now it's
DWZ. Too many get fixated on a player. With all of these greats we still haven't won a single thing. And after they left, others stepped up, or the team adapted or the load got shared more evenly or whatever. I could get onboard with these thoughts and comments IF we had come off a stellar season this year. We haven't. The team has actually performed better this season with
TMM at 7 by quite a margin than with the guy who is retiring. That's not a slight on
SJ either. He has had an amazing career, but he will potentially finish this year with 3 wins and a draw with him at 7.
I actually can't wait for this season to be over. I want to see what
AW learns from it and implements for next year. I'm genuinely excited to see a new halves combo, hopefully
TMM and
Metcalf but let's see what develops. I'm excited to see if we win a Cup title this year, the confidence that brings to the youth we have and if
AW will integrate some of these young guys more in to the top team. I'm excited to see how the squad develops and what game plan
AW comes up with - our play this year for large parts have been very predictable and robotic. Some seem to want more of the same, or are trolling. Each to their own I guess.
