Wests Tigers must do the right thing and let Benji Marshall leave, especially given the optimism surrounding the club’s halfback-in-waiting, Luke Brooks.
Ian Schubert’s absurd intransigence with regard to the second-tier cap is the only thing keeping Brooks from the NRL right now.
Yes, I’d love to keep a marquee player like Marshall in the comp but any self-respecting Tigers fan has to admit that there is no basis for resigning Benji for four more years, certainly not at an inflated price.
The Tiggies have a good young core. James Tedesco will be good, provided he can stay healthy. Morike Koribete could be effective with one arm, and he may have to be, having suffered one of the most sickening injuries I’ve seen in rugby league.
Curtis Sironen will be an excellent ballplaying backrower, think Glenn Stewart but with greater speed and power.
Aaron Woods is a good first-grader who will continue to provide value and of course Joel Reddy is a dominant force out wide. One of the preceding statements is a lie.
Beyond all of that, the Tigers also need to fear further merging/relocation.
Crowds have been pathetic, the club’s early poor form notwithstanding.
Which brings me to Manly, though I’m not sure why.
The Eagles’ inability to score points has me intrigued, and I think it’s due to confluence of events. First and foremost is the coach.
Geoff Toovey has done the right thing up ’til now, essentially coming in and getting out of the way at the same time.
But Manly have done very little differently in several years while other clubs have gotten better (Roosters, Rabbitohs, Bulldogs, Sharks). Toovey must begin to innovate.
The loss of Kieran Foran on Monday night hurt Manly, but I was surprised at how poorly the Eagles reformed in attack once they regained possession.
It’s become clear that the clubs best able to put together some structure in the first three plays of the set will be streets ahead of their opponents. NSW struggled with this (full credit to Queensland’s swarming defence) in Origin two and Manly have been dealing with it all year.
Opposition defences are just too good now, another reason for further limiting interchange (six would be my number). Clubs that burn three or four plays on one-out runs will have trouble scoring through the hands, which leaves the bomb or restarts from dropouts.
But as we saw on Monday with Manly, even repeat sets won’t be effective if the defence only has to worry about last tackle.
It’s up to the 6, 7 and 9 of each team to organise their players to stretch and warp the defensive line repeatedly during a set with spreads and plays involving multiple ball runners.
The offload is critical early in the count and is being ignored by many teams to the detriment of their ability to score points.
Finally, an idea on how the NRL can keep Sonny Bill Williams in our game. Pay him five million a year and put him on a rotation, whereby he plays for a different club each week. Can you imagine the impact on crowds?
The man has gone beyond just one club or one position.
At semifinal time he picks a team out of hat each week. But the best part is the GF. On that day, he plays a half for each side. A coin toss dictates which team gets him first.
Dave Smith, make it happen.
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