One man teams

[Porthoz]

The only top team that can cope with missing any of his star players, is Manly. They do well whether they're missing Lyon, DCE, Foran, Watamong or the scum brothers.

Souths without Inglis is not a chance in hell, even with a very good trainer like McGuire.
Everything is going well for them with the Burgess brothers in great form, Luke getting them on a roll, Reynolds doing a very good job and Sutton having one of his rare moments of form, but Inglis is the glue that makes this team what it is. If he's out, it's only a question of time until Sutton goes back to his less than average best, Luke returns to his brain farts, and they'll just tumble down the ladder well below the top 4. Still, as they are now, they are only second to a full strength Storm.

Cowboys without Thurston? LOL

Tigers without Farah? Spoon!

Dogs without Barba? Bottom 8.

We're probably in the same boat as the Roosters, where losing SBW or Hodges will have a major impact in motivation more than their actual impact on the field, even though they can have a big influence on the scoreboard.

 

[Viti]

Souths without Inglis is not a chance in hell, even with a very good trainer like McGuire.
Everything is going well for them with the Burgess brothers in great form, Luke getting them on a roll, Reynolds doing a very good job and Sutton having one of his rare moments of form, but Inglis is the glue that makes this team what it is. If he's out, it's only a question of time until Sutton goes back to his less than average best, Luke returns to his brain farts, and they'll just tumble down the ladder well below the top 4. Still, as they are now, they are only second to a full strength Storm.

Yep, I think that if Inglis was out last night we would have won.

 

[ningnangnong]

We're probably in the same boat as the Roosters, where losing SBW or Hodges will have a major impact in motivation more than their actual impact on the field, even though they can have a big influence on the scoreboard.

Gee, I don't know about that. Without SBW, the Roosters still have a some decent attacking players. Without Hodges, we don't really have anyone who can do something off the cuff.

 

[Coxy]

Without Hodges, top 8 will be lucky. With Hodges, top 8 will be possible

 

[Nashy]

No pressure, Justin.

 

[Coxy]

No pressure, Justin.

That's what she said

 

[Broncoman]

The Titans without Sezer, their last tackle options and attacking organisation doesn't seem the same without him.

 

[Porthoz]

Without Hodges, top 8 will be lucky. With Hodges, top 8 will be possible

What a load of crap!

Let's look at who we played in these first 8 rounds before people start to write us off.
We only lost to the top 4 and we were better than all of them for large periods in the game, but lacked consistency to go all the way. That second half against Manly should be forgotten, but we have otherwise never been dominated in a game, and our losses to the top 3 have compounded by the fact we were missing Hodgo and had really dodgy ref decisions go against us.

For the rest of the calendar out of 18 rounds, we have 4 tough games: Away at the Storm, Knights, Bulldogs and Cows, 2 traditionally complicated ones at the Warriors and Canberra, and 2 difficult but certainly winnable games at home to Knights and Dogs, which being rounds 25 and 26, could propel us into a good finals streak.

With or without Hodgo we're comfortably a top 8 team, with him we can certainly aspire to a top 4 position, albeit only if we improve our consistency during the 80 mins.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I think we have gone quite well without Hodges this year. I think if we had a decent halfback we would cover his loss easily.