Realism v delusionism

You say realism but you can’t deny the impact 1 or 2 top quota spots can have on a side.

Should Asiata be fit for the whole season, we replace Pele (and Okunbor) with class imports and Rimbu ends up going well. 6-8 is easily achievable.

A lot of if’s but you can’t say it won’t happen. Cartwright had been around a fair while and has an in-depth knowledge of the NRL player pool.

Only issue is NRL vs SL needs an entirely different style of player

Yippee said around 8th.

I’d hardly call that delusional

If all of the stars align and we have a perfect season we may get 6th, but it won't and we won't

You can’t comment on that yet. Cartwright could be an unbelievable appointment but could equally be a flop. Right now it is literally Optimism vs Pessimism.

Leigh have a rebuild
Salford will have a rebuild (as always)
Wakey will have a rebuild (they’ll be unbalanced)
Cas have a rebuild
Catalan have a rebuild (but they’ll get it right)
Leeds have a rebuild
We have a rebuild

Literally half the league are rebuilding for next year. Some will flop and some will surprise everyone. We could be either

Well let's get the signing of Balmforth done this week. Looks like he's ready to have some first team from his last two performances.

Reckon we should give Balmforth what he wants and make him captain too.
Wonder if he might make Wane’s international squad.

We already look more solid. You’d think the likes of Asiata, Holmes and Jed Cartwright might help with that too. The coach isn’t a miracle worker but he seems to have a good reputation for fitness and defence so hopefully that alongside the solid journeymen we’ve brought in will put an end to the blowouts and have us competitive in games.

The investment happening and getting sorted will be key. If it’s still on track for the back end of the year like AP said then we could still do something. We are still 2-3 match winners away from most of our potential rivals. A ball running 6 or fullback and couple of backs with a bit of strike. Decent quality NRL players still become available late on in the year as the salary cap squeeze hits and clubs finalise business. If we are in a position to offer more money then our rivals by then and get some real quality in then we can be competitive. That’s the key though everyone wants these type of players, we have to compete financially or the likes of Huddersfield will just continue blow us out the water for players, never mind the real big spenders in the league.

We need an attack coach badly. This is what grix was brought in for and our attack has been woeful all season

Is that the best “moan” you can come up with?

Not sure how much influence he would have under Smith because presumably if Smith said I want us to play a certain way (eg off the cuff) then Grix had to carry out those instructions.

But the most important thing to sort out when taking over was the attitude in defence and that is heaps better. Stopped conceding 50 points for now.

As for attack? I know it is still clunky but last week we actually saw a couple of blindside moves when players seemed to know they were coming and got in position. Not seen that for years at FC?

Also, yesterday we actually scored a try from a scrum by creating a man overlap?

Signs of improvement for me.

Moan? It's an observation. We dominated possession and field position yesterday and failed to turn it into points and a win. I get it, you're happy that we probably won't finish bottom but some of us want more.

Whilst I think Grix has at times been a little overly cautious in his team selection overall I think he has improved us since he was appointed interim head coach.

For me he’s been given a somewhat poisoned chalice with a very poor and inadequate squad. Under Smith’s apparent lax tenure I imagine Grix carried out instructions given to him by Smith in regards to training, of which we seemingly had little or no structures in place.
He’s also had to deal with a number of exits and new players coming in since Smiths departure and without 4 quota players and a team with a lot of green and inexperienced young players.
Our defence was no existent so I can only imagine he and the coaching staff have made that the first priority to sort out. Hopefully now the defence is showing much more resolve and team effort they can now work on the attack.
I don’t think we can underestimate the job in hand in turning this team around.

Yes we are still making poor decisions, drop off in concentration at times but we are in truth years away from where we were and have been under Smith. We look to at last to be playing to some kind of defensive and attacking king structure which isn’t going to be a quick process.
I can only hope that Grix sees the benefit in playing Balmforth even in 20 min spells as he had been a revelation in his last two games and has been our only genuine game breaker.

We definitely need a Duffty/Williams type player, either a 1 or 6. Think Moy will be That type of player, once he fully develops.

Hope we haven't made a huge error with Balmforth, if he isn't signed, need to move fast will be plenty of sides interested after the last two games.

Agree, I fear another Josh Hodgson scenario