Last Man Standing From Premiership Team?

[slide rule]

Chad will win our second premiership in his first year as last man standing

Shopped around after two premierships. harsh.

 

[Jaz]

I wouldn’t be making that call this far out. What if Townsend has a blinder of a year alongside Johnson?

May just be the polite thing to say, but Johnson said one of the reasons he came back was due to his friendship and playing history with Townsend.

I 100% agree – it's far too early to have decided on Townsend, or Kyle for that matter.

 

[Mark^Bastard]

it's far too early to have decided on Townsend, or Kyle for that matter.

Yeah just let it play out.

As long as the best player survives it's fair for everyone.

If Flanno isn't outplaying Chad it'd be nepotism unless he's a lot cheaper or something.

 

[Mr Ryan]

So did we have a re-build or not?

If we did, its over.

Considering no-one goes back-to-back in the modern era, we've probably gone as well as expected in the last 2 season. (The best is Melbourne 2 in 3 years, Manly 2 in 4 years)

But when you compare 2016 to 2019 I think we're well placed to give it a real shake next year.

Weve lost some real talent, no doubt, but some of the replacements have matched, if not bettered the old guys.

1. Ben Barba Matt Moylan
2. Sosaia Feki
3. Jack Bird Josh Dugan
4. Ricky Leutele Josh Morris
5. Valentine Holmes
6. James Maloney Shaun Johnson
7. Chad Townsend
8. Andrew Fifita
9. Michael Ennis Jayden Brailey
10. Matt Prior
11. Luke Lewis
12. Wade Graham
13. Paul Gallen
14. Gerard Beale
15. Chris Heighington Aaron Woods
16. Sam Tagataese
17. Jayson Bukuya

So I left the replacements out for Holmes, Lewis and the bench blank - because they're probably a bit open at this stage. But you'd think we've got enough guys from within that will step up.

Katoa, Sorensen, Capewell, Williams, Xerri, B Brailey, Flanno Jr, Uele

 

[Mark^Bastard]

I think in 2016 we also had a lot of injury luck, and a lot of our wins we weren't playing that well, and that helped us late in the year when winning became second nature and we had a bit more effort and confidence to give.

Compare that to last year when we still were one game from the GF and had way more injury concerns, in particular our back row which is normally our strength.

You just have to be good enough to be there abouts and then hope for a bit of luck with injury, timing, and on field 'rub of the green' IMO. That's what Melbourne do. They work hard to be there abouts and they win 1 in 4 or whatever when they are.

 

[TheMexican]

In 2016 Cronulla had an amazing run in terms of injuries. Outside the grand final day 17, Paulo played a lot of games. Outside of that Capewell and JSL played a very small number and a few others played 1 or 2.
If they get a good run again they might give the comp a shake but, like every other team, they'll be shot if certain key position players are injured long term or at the wrong time.

 

[Addy]

Soft comp

 

[Sparkles]

Soft comp

The fact that teams didn't injure more of our players shows how soft the comp was that year.