Sproj
Immortal
Senior Staff
- Sep 6, 2013
- 55,436
- 67,751
It's not unrealistic at all; that's what depth and those bottom 5-7 spots in your squad are there to service. If you don't have a next man up attitude and confident, they can do the same job then it's not depth.
If you add in fatigue, niggles and pressure I am not sure Broncos are getting high quality games for a long time out of what's left.
Cobbo hit the wall badly last year at the end and went to pieces when he was called on to play 20 games.
Hopefully it doesn't matter and Oates, Staggs, Herbie and Cobbo play 24 games each.
Again, that's not entirely true. If you are a development club, which we most certainly are, some of those 5-7 spots are for regular, seasoned back ups for sure but some of them are for your young guns you are nurturing to come through. Out of those 5-7 spots, we have 3-4 seasoned/mature back ups who you would be confident of getting 20 games out of if needed - Hoeter, Pereira, Arthars, Madden.
Then you have then you have 2-3 spots on youngsters who you hope will become something and could get around 10 games out of - Mariner fits that bill. The odd man out in this is Quai-Ward who really just seems to be a list clogger but than behind that, you've got that Newcastle kid and Leota who will both likely work their way into the squad next year. So out of our backs depth, the only real question mark is Quai-Ward but he is a good Q Cup player and has never played NRL, so the jury is out there.
Is it the best backline depth we've ever had? I'd say probably not in terms of in competition to opposition teams, it is right up there. Penrith is miles ahead of everyone, so outside of them, we are in the conversation for sure.