WARRIORCRAIG wrote:
I've just posted in the Rumours thread, we don't know fully what next years recruitment is so you can't say for definite we will be a worse team. People (i.e YOU) were saying the exact same things last year when we lost players.
We'd be an even better team this year if the likes of Joel and Hoffman were sill here. That is obviously true but equally there loss has not proved the teams undoing. However the fact we are where we are is hugely dependant on Finch (especially), Tommy, Lima and Carmont's contributions. Unless we replace these four with quality players we will not be as good next season. You deluding yourself if you think we won't miss Finch and the other three. With Joel and Hoffman we have covered their loss from within the squad but we do not have squad players anywhere close to the likes of Finch, Tommy and Lima and there is disagreement over whether or not the rumoured signings are any good such as Soward and Smith.
FWIW I think Thornley will do an excellent job replacing Carmont, I've not seen a lot of him but he does look an exciting player. Dudson, Spencer, Burke and Crosby will all be fighting for starting berths against Mossop, Prescott, Lauaki and Flower - still a strong front row with plenty of depth. Smith I'm unsure of but I'm willing to give him a chance. My main issue is who will be stand off, but the coaching and backroom staff will have known for some time losing Finch was a possibility and will have been searching for a suitable replacement.
You haven't seen
anything of Thornley playing at SL level since he left the club so speculating he will do an "excellent" job in place of Carmont is based on hope rather than knowledge. The fact we have numerous players to compete for front row spots doesn't turn them into a Lima clone. However the worst situation is half back and here we have got (by the sounds of of it) one average squad player in Smith and we might get a.n.other.
Realistically how much will Roberts', Fielden's, Finch's, Tommy's and Carmont's wages add up to. Surely enough for a marquee signing once we've paid Smith's wages and put McIlorum, O'Loughlin and some of the youngsters have been put on improved deals.
We need to sign some good players but no one seems to think there are any available of a similar standard to those we are losing.
You would hope there was enough over for a marquee signing but they club can't spend the money if there is no one available so it wouldn't surprise me if we upgraded contracts, signed Smith plus a couple of squad players and went with what we have got.
If we had lost Tommy and Carmont and had got Smith alongside Finch and gave the centre slot to Gelling or Thornley we might have done the same next season as this in that we would have covered the losses because the backbone of quality in the side was still there. Taking out Finch and Lima as well is too much.
