Down hill slide starts now......

In my opinion:

Tier 1: Manly, Melbourne, Bulldogs, Souffs
Tier 2: Newcastle, Canberra, Roosters, Sharks
Tier 3: Broncos, Cowboys, Titans
 
We may not be premiership material, but we are definitely top 8 and even close to top 4 material. Not on this weak frame of mind though...

I respect your opinion but i'd have us as a fringe 8 side at best with the current squad even if coaching was an issue or not.
We dont have the game breakers to match it with the top 4, even in the games we preformed well in against Storm and to a lesser extent against Souths, we just didnt have the ability to find another gear like they did to us.

The other thing that strikes me with the current side is a huge lack of speed, opposition who make a clean break is pretty much try time with most opposition backs the speed to just run around Norman. We struggle running players down.

My non bronco following mates had us down for around 10th spot at the start of the year, it was hard to argue against.
 
In my opinion:

Tier 1: Manly, Melbourne, Bulldogs, Souffs
Tier 2: Newcastle, Canberra, Roosters, Sharks
Tier 3: Broncos, Cowboys, Titans
Based on the current ladder, yeah...

Based on actual potential in the squad, not even close.
 
Based on the current ladder, yeah...

Based on actual potential in the squad, not even close.

Well, the tier 1 teams are all undoubtedly better than us. I don't think it's possible to argue that. They've all got great teams and a bunch of gamebreakers to separate them from the rest - Melbourne with their big 3, Manly with Evans, Lyon and co, Bulldogs with Barba, Tolman and Graham and Souffs with Inglis and the Burgess bros.

Tier 2 is something we could theoretically break into at full strength, but it's hard to see it happening, especially as AP said elsewhere, other teams improve as the season goes on and we tend to decline.
 
Based on the current ladder, yeah...

Based on actual potential in the squad, not even close.
lol.

Nah, based on actual ability. Not some fanciful potential notion that could take them 15 years to either prove or disprove (remember, potential is merely that, potential, it grants you nothing but a get out of jail pass for a bit).

Repeating the same line over and over doesn't make it any more true.
 
We may not be premiership material, but we are definitely top 8 and even close to top 4 material. Not on this weak frame of mind though...

:thumbup1: Definitely! At least you are showing some optimism and faith in the team. I too firmly believe that our best form IS still in front of us.

Ok, we MAY not win the premiership this season, but I truly believe we are in capable hands and it won't take much for us to finally click and show the rest of the comp what we ARE capable of.

Don't lose hope guys, now IS the time to dig in and take up the fight!
 
Based on the current ladder, yeah...

Based on actual potential in the squad, not even close.
who has potential to be great in our squad though?

mcguire and hoffman IMO are our only players destined for bigger and better things.

hodges potentially can play 3/4 of our games, and half of those will be while injured.
hannant/thaiday can play well but do so infrequently and even then are NOTHING compared to props like Graham/Tamou/Scott/Gallen/etc.
wallace/mccullough have peaked IMO. theyll never be more than they are now. wallace especially.
kahu/maranta/reed/witchurch/generic winger-centre #46/etc can fill vacant spots, score the odd try, but will never be anywhere near a morris/uate/ferguson/chambers/etc.
parkers at about as good as he'll ever be, and hes only got 2-3 years left in him at the most.
glenn is immensely talented, played out of his skin for 2 years, but this year has been a shell of his former self.
gillett used up all his talent in the first year. got nothing left.

the rest are just filling in the gaps.
 
I respect your opinion but i'd have us as a fringe 8 side at best with the current squad even if coaching was an issue or not.
We dont have the game breakers to match it with the top 4, even in the games we preformed well in against Storm and to a lesser extent against Souths, we just didnt have the ability to find another gear like they did to us.

The other thing that strikes me with the current side is a huge lack of speed, opposition who make a clean break is pretty much try time with most opposition backs the speed to just run around Norman. We struggle running players down.

My non bronco following mates had us down for around 10th spot at the start of the year, it was hard to argue against.
We are missing the game breaker like souffs has with Inglis, the Dogs with Barba or the Storm and Manly have with their spines, but who in the comp besides the Cows (if we had their roster, I would be standing first in line to sack Henry) and potentially Canberra has a better roster than us?

I'm sure we could be nudging at the top 4 with a well coached team, and are a X-factor player away of actually being top 4. Opinions I guess...
 
Bulldogs suck, nowhere near as good as 2012.

Meh, its hard to be better than being minor premiers the year before and this time last year they were on 14 points, this year they are on 12. They will be there come finals time, they are not badly effected during Origin and they had a tough early draw with Storm/Souths/Manly/Roosters consecutively.
 
We have the talent and roster to be travelling a lot better than what we are, when we are at full strength we have 8 current representative players and capable players on the bench. We have a shitty spine which is hurting us on the field, we have a fullback that has some potential but little heart to reach it, an over the hill five-eighth, an inconsistent halfback that shows patches of form every now and then and a hooker that struggles that get the pressure of the halves. Our coach seems like a great bloke but he can't motivate the team and his coaching style doesn't fit with the current squad. We also need to sign some talent when they go on the market like DCE, Johnson or a half like that.
 
We are missing the game breaker like souffs has with Inglis, the Dogs with Barba or the Storm and Manly have with their spines, but who in the comp besides the Cows (if we had their roster, I would be standing first in line to sack Henry) and potentially Canberra has a better roster than us?

I'm sure we could be nudging at the top 4 with a well coached team, and are a X-factor player away of actually being top 4. Opinions I guess...

I'd happily throw Roosters into your 6 teams that have a better roster than us, arguably Newcastle and Sharks as well. Thats now 9 teams before including the team that just stomped us last night so i guess that is why i was surprised that you said we would be in the top 4 mix with the current squad.

I'm not saying its the case with yourself Porthoz, i'm speaking generally but i really think some of our players are looked at as better than they are in terms of talent or potential.
 
we look like a team that lacks inspiration. hooks dullard demeanour seems to carry out onto the field. there is no fire in the belly.
 
who has potential to be great in our squad though?

mcguire and hoffman IMO are our only players destined for bigger and better things.

hodges potentially can play 3/4 of our games, and half of those will be while injured.
hannant/thaiday can play well but do so infrequently and even then are NOTHING compared to props like Graham/Tamou/Scott/Gallen/etc.
wallace/mccullough have peaked IMO. theyll never be more than they are now. wallace especially.
kahu/maranta/reed/witchurch/generic winger-centre #46/etc can fill vacant spots, score the odd try, but will never be anywhere near a morris/uate/ferguson/chambers/etc.
parkers at about as good as he'll ever be, and hes only got 2-3 years left in him at the most.
glenn is immensely talented, played out of his skin for 2 years, but this year has been a shell of his former self.
gillett used up all his talent in the first year. got nothing left.

the rest are just filling in the gaps.
I don't know why you are so harsh on Gillett, but whatever...

Obviously, consistency is an issue, but that has nothing to do with potential. Out of our current roster:

Hannant and McGuire are top props. Hala, Wallace, Timu and Molo have potential to be good enough to provide depth.
Glenn, Thaiday, Parker and Gillett are top backrowers. I am a bit disappointed with some of the reserves we have, but hopefully Oates, Reed and a few others can offer better options than the likes of Lui...
Macca can be good if he wants, but Granville showed promise as well. I would persevere with those two, but make sure Macca works on his service speed and quality.

Wallace isn't flash and we need someone to take ownership of a game and with the talent and creativity to play alongside him, but he's the best we have. Prince will have to do for now, and Hunt needs a lot of Qcup to get his halfback mojo back. Otherwise, hopefully Taylor will shine through...

Hodgo can give us another couple of seasons, but I think we can't demand too much more of him.
Between Kahu, Copley, Hoffman and Yow Yeh (not sure he will ever be winger material again) there is enough quality to serve us well in the 3/4 line. Witchurch is also much better than what appears to have been yesterday's showing, but we probably need a couple more players for depth.
Norman does really good things in attack, but FMD, I can't wait to see him gone to Parra for what he doesn't do, is too lazy to do, or simply lacks the heart for.
Hopefully Kahu can make the spot his own, but fullback is a bit of a worry at the moment.

We lack a few pieces, like a creative halve and a really good fullback, some depth in the backrow and backs wouldn't go astray either, but that's it.

Before anything else though, we need to fix the attitude and get consistency in this team!
 
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