jonh wrote:
This question for me is what makes next year so interesting.
There are so many unknowns and what ifs in the playing squad.
The 2 new props are obviously key, if they go well they will help us massively. If they take a little time to settle in it may be tough. Havard is another, we know how good he can be, but he did have a form wobble last year, can he be consistent and arguably same with Singleton.
Is our back row a little stale? We obviously have quality there but they are all similar type players with the exception of KPP and can we expect him to kick in or maybe suffer second season syndrome?
Field is still a total unknown and how he will fit in to the squad and can French recover?
Our halves look concerning but we are still on the look out for someone so who knows.
On the edges we have an untested at SL winger who looks the part but who knows and can Thornley return and support the go forward we desperately need?!
I honestly at this stage can see us finishing anywhere between 2nd and 9th just in relation to squad quality.
The new coaching set up again raises more questions than answers.
Exciting times.
I don't disagree with any of that (although with regards to Havards form, he was playing with an injury for about 2to3months that wasn't beig dealt with correctly, long story, but thats Lam for you), his last 4 to 6 games hebwas getting back to his best IMO
As I said, in previous years the expectation of the squad was higher than the achievements in both tangible terms such as trophies and league positions (even though I think top last year and 4th this were way higher than what we deserved) AND in performance.
Performance for me we had the attributes to be lets say an 8 or 9 out of 10 (by SL standards team). But for me for 3 years I'd give us no more than a say 4/6/4 return on those 3 years.
When we get to assessing squads for next year, and the usal prediction threads come round im a bit like you.
I think there's too many question marks to be confident about top 2 etc but too much quality to be concerned about bottom 4
So I agree 3rd to 8th and anything in between will possibly be on the cards.
If we take mid way and say 6th, then anything above that Peet etc on paper may have done well, anything below not so well or worse.
But couple that with performance, then he needs to get us playing "Well" in more than 50% of games compared to the 10/20% we've had last 3 years at most.
