Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:05 am  

Pretty much agree with all that BOJO.

I do think that overall, we have been quite fortunate with injuries, since Chris Chester came. I dont think we have ever been in a situation as to where we have had to dip into the loan market too much, or play players out of position. I think we had a short spell in 2016, but that has been about it.

I feel for Arona, but if it is for the balance of the make up of the squad, then so be it.

We have lost so many games this year by say, between 2 and 8 points, that, with better game management, could have won. This could well have been the difference between us making the top 4 and not.

Having said that, I have seen enough from Milky and Rocky, to suggest that these should be our 6 and 7 pairing now.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:48 am  

BOJ042 wrote:

In relation to us trying to find a quality halfback be it from here or in England- I think is a great move from the club and shows we are trying to compete with the top clubs - I think all we are missing to be nearly a top 4 side is a quality 7.

I think we've got a quality 7 - and I'd be disappointed if we shipped someone in now in front of Hampshire; by all means look for back-up, but I'd be gutted if we import an NRL failure and sideline Rocky again.

Sign him up for a few years - and find an understudy who can cover him in case of injury; as TS has said, that's how you build a team that has longevity - and it removes the quota problem, because I can't for the life of me understand why, if we could, we wouldn't retain Arona - he's super reliable and does a great job.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:17 am  

bren2k wrote:

I think we've got a quality 7 - and I'd be disappointed if we shipped someone in now in front of Hampshire; by all means look for back-up, but I'd be gutted if we import an NRL failure and sideline Rocky again.

Sign him up for a few years - and find an understudy who can cover him in case of injury; as TS has said, that's how you build a team that has longevity - and it removes the quota problem, because I can't for the life of me understand why, if we could, we wouldn't retain Arona - he's super reliable and does a great job.

Hampshire has played well in a stuttering team and can only get better when the team is playing with more confidence.
I know one game doesn't make a season but you only have to see how well the team played against Hull.
I understand what the club is doing but it didn't quite work with Williams last season.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:24 am  

FickleFingerOfFate wrote:

Hampshire has played well in a stuttering team and can only get better when the team is playing with more confidence.
I know one game doesn't make a season but you only have to see how well the team played against Hull.
I understand what the club is doing but it didn't quite work with Williams last season.

If we still had Williams this year I think we would have won at least 3 or 4 of those close games, the guy was so underrated by most of our fan base.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:27 am  

FickleFingerOfFate wrote:

Hampshire has played well in a stuttering team and can only get better when the team is playing with more confidence.
I know one game doesn't make a season but you only have to see how well the team played against Hull.
I understand what the club is doing but it didn't quite work with Williams last season.

Then surely that's all the more reason to keep Hampshire, instead of creating a quota spot at the expense of Tinny Arona.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:30 am  

Agree really, I would say with a real top quality half (Gale or even Brough standard) that we would be a team that could challenge for the top 4. However it would be a gamble to sign an unproven Aussie or one with injury problems, particularly when we have a young hungry half who clearly has potential. Personally think the squad would be better if we retained Arona and signed a back up to Miller and Rocky that doesn't take up a quota spot as has been suggested.

On Sam Williams - agree that he had a touch of class and a lot of his good work went unnoticed.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:34 am  

I thought Williams was a good player Alftofts Wildcat, and should have been given more game time to play alongside Miller.

Opposing sides knew he was a threat, as every time he had the ball, they were rushing to close him down.

Those 3 or 4 close games, we could have won, we could be really within touching distance of the top 4, especially when Warrington have beaten us twice by small margins and also Castleford and Hull at Easter.

Re: Hampshire : Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:13 pm  

It’s going to be interesting to see how the Jowitt/Miller/Hampshire combination goes in the upcoming super 8’s.

If you dig down and analyse how we’ve gone when these three have played it could be decent going forward...

We lost the first 3 times they played together...Hull (a) 26-27...Leeds (h) 26-28...and Cas (a) 4-24...another factor through that spell though could have been big Dave missing those games as he’s a huge influence on the way our pack plays...could those two close defeats have been wins if Dave had played, quite possibly so?

Since then they’ve played together 6 times which has brought 4 wins, 1 draw and a 30-32 defeat at home to Warrington...in amongst that period Finn has been brought back in twice for defeats to Huddersfield and Catalans...

I think there’s already enough evidence to say these three could be a success going forward...I imagine the next 7 games will tell us more...

Up to a month a go I reckon a huge percentage of fans were screaming out for us to go get a big money 7...have things changed a bit now though and is the solution already here in Hampshire?

Arona was looking like the casualty of we were to go for a quota player, but if we stick with Hampshire and Miller and we can get Arona to stay on a deal that suits us then that would be fantastic as we know what we get week in week out with Arona and for me that’s massive...

That would just leave us to find some cover but there’s still Grix who could slot in and maybe even Woody if we’re really stretched or Even Finn for the odd game...