I am going to copy and paste with some tweaks, what I posted elsewhere last week.


These are all my personal opinions, as much as I would like to see this team stay together and rule the league, I don't see it happening so for me, this is what I would do:


1: Williams, great player, good kicker, has a voice on the pitch but if the rest of the team are not performing alongside him, then he struggles. (Keep but get him the support on the pitch he needs)


2: Vaughan, needs players to play with, needs players who are willing to run alongside him and show for the ball if he gets an arm free, most of the time he doesn't have that. He should be hitting harder I think but when he doesn't get much of a run up because no one in the team seems to want to use his size and strength I think he is being let down, not letting us down, I think he is being let down by the rest of the team. (Keep if we get players to support him, or him to support others with big runs etc)


He needs to stop with the Arm Drops into players faces when he has tackled them, stop trying to milk penalties and just get on with the game, just because other teams try to do it, doesn't mean we should copy it!


3: Ashton/Walker/Powell, I think they show a lot of "want" and "Skill" with desire to play and win, the issue is again, the players alongside them don't seem to support them fully, Powell needs to show more though at times but I do think he is a good player. (100% keep build a team around them 3)


4: Sneyd, keep for another season whilst looking for a permanent replacement kicker, he isn't getting any younger and we need to get a young kicker or two, have them alternate taking kicks so they both keep in form instead of relying on one kicker and when they get injured having no one really to rely on.


5: Dufty, sadly I think it's time to call it, he just doesn't appear to me to be putting in 100% each game, whether that is because he just isn't bothered or because of the rest of the team I don't know, but I think he needs to move on.


6: Philbin, I like him, I think he gives as much as he can, but I think like Vaughan he needs more from the surrounding players, I think he needs to move on to another club where they will utilise him better.


7: Currie, get's a lot of stick from people but he is a general work horse of sorts, but I think to many times you will see him with his hands on his hips or head looking like he is clueless of what is happening or what to do. He should go to another team after this season sadly.


8: Lindop, being used as a "Scape Goat" by a few fans for Wembley, but I think he needs more time to learn but I think it might be worth loaning him out to someone like Wakey, Hull FC or Leigh for a season, somewhere where he will be a starting player and get that experience I think he is missing.


9: Tai, personally I think he is a really good player, I think though he just doesn't get the support he needs and for that reason I think he needs to find another team, I suspect Wigan/Saints would snap him up and he would thrive!


10: Wood, Crowther, Harrison, move on to another club, they would I think be better off.


11: Yates, give him another season, he puts in effort and I think another season with a team built around Walker, Ashton and Powell would help him as he reminds me of Burrow in a way.




Put a hard rule in place, no new recruit can be over the age of 24, cannot be injured at the time of signing and must be willing to sign a contract with the clause for players from Australia etc "if you go home due to being home sick, you cannot play in the NRL for 1 season" let's see how many are truly homesick!


All the rest would be told to have their agents or be looking themselves for other clubs.



Coaching staff, completely get rid of them all, start with a new coach, new training team etc.


Then because it will take sometime for the team to get to know each other properly and get to grips with playing with each other in a team etc, make the target for the first season or two, top 6, don't worry about the challenge cup, grand final, league leaders etc, go for Top 6 and anything extra is a bonus.


The problem is finding players and coaching staff etc that would want to come here, because frankly at the moment I cannot see us attracting many players or coaches.

I think over the past 12 or so years we have been chasing the dream of the big one. We have been trying to buy our way to the holy grail by chasing Star players that will be the difference between also rans and the winners. Look at the number of halfbacks (6/7) we have had. 
Sandow
Roberts
Brown
Widdop
Gidley
Williams
Austin
Sneyd
Plus probably others I have forgotten. 


But when you look at Saints they have stability in a lot of those key positions. Pretty sure Lomax has been at Saints all those 12 years. . The Melbourne storm model was based around the 1,6,7&9. 




It looks like we have tried to get the best in some positions and then some other positions have been an afterthought based on what we had left available on the cap. 


I think we need to spin it on its head and build the squad around what we have and who we think will be invested in the club long term and then fill in around that with some quality players. 


So it is feasible to see a team built around
CTW, Lindop, Thewlis x 2,  Possibly Wrench, Irwin, Hayes, Thomas, Wood, Walker, Harthill, Ashton etc 
Some of them might not make the grade but hopefully all do. 
Then you look at the positions where we need support and fill them with quality players. A few quality forwards and a quality centre. 
I think we have been approaching this the other way round by playing fantasy RL to try and get top players and then realizing we only have enough money to Sign Matty Russell, Dan Russell, etc 

Yeah the Fantasy RL model has clearly not worked but doesn't appear that we've learned that lesson. You have to give us credit for the academy, squadbuilder etc - we are producing quality youngsters and that's been work done for well over a decade. We're not going to be able to keep them all (as Wigan will attest to) but we need to make sure we at least give them a solid chance and that is where Whitehead and (possibly) Hartill leaving would be difficult to swallow - especially seeing as they have a golden opportunity to show what they can do at the moment. 


I know it's been done to death but Crowther over Hartill beggars belief and it better stop this weekend. 

Hartill is not even in the squad for the Hull FC game. 


Jordy Crowther, Ben Currie, Matt Dufty, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, James Harrison, Toby King, Tom McKinney, Joe Philbin, Sam Powell, Stefan Ratchford, Sam Stone, Marc Sneyd, Rodrick Tai, Jake Thewlis, Josh Thewlis, Luke Thomas, Paul Vaughan, George Williams, Max Wood, Connor Wrench, Luke Yates

Oh just sod off Burgess 

Nigel Wood appointed chair of RL commercial. Seems we can not go backwards fast enough.