Probably the right decision, the team looked a bit rudderless this season. Showed they were really reliant on Boyle and Upton as Newcastle were this season.
While they were obviously big losses (on the field), I think the other side to that coin was there was no plan to get us back in the game when our pack wasn’t dominant.
Kelvin lost a lot of my confidence after that Roosters semi when we were getting beaten in the forwards and he plays our only bench prop Roxy Murdoch, who was a great part of the rotation for only 16 minutes! but then gives Maddick double that? Even when we weren’t chasing points?
Just baffling.
I don’t know how involved Ikin is with the team usually but I know after his and Kev’s communication breakdown he was at training and involved through the season a fair amount with the girls, but I hope we start recruiting better or smarter if he’s got input there, as I feel Kelvin had most of the recruiting power and decision making, and it’s been dogshit this year save for Chapman and signing on Larsson
Maynard was very ordinary and I didn’t have any confidence when she was signed that she’d be the answer to losing Brown, and it showed that in the first game we played with Gould there she ran rings around anything Nita had done. But as I say every season, Gould won’t last forever as she’s 40 and it rang true as we had to play a half at hooker for the rest of the season
The other forward recruits were very underwhelming and we needed some better players other than Titan and Warrior off-cuts and a union convert that dropped the ball too much. Playing Maddick at fullback, while she wasn’t awful, sure as shit isn’t gonna win you a premiership.
Overall, while individuals had some of their best seasons - mostly the backs - the team never felt like they were playing well.
The brevity of the season doesn’t help when you have so many new players so hopefully that can help next season depending on how many stay.
Obviously Chapman and Larsson were great additions and I hope we sign them up long term. I’m like a broken record here but I want Ferguson to get quality time in the halves. She could possibly be a great hooker but we don’t want to Ben Hunt her until she has a breakout year the first chance she gets, leaves and we can never get her back. Backs are fine provided someone teach our wingers how to ground the fucking ball properly. Robbo hasn’t blown one yet but her technique is still quite suspect and Bass obviously stuffed one in the last game.
I do worry with the amount of new clubs coming that we’ll really get torn apart and not just be losing 3 international standard players.
Aiken is more important than Brigginshaw in my view and I hope the club agrees, because if we lose her, we’ll be stuffed for the next 5+ years
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