The positives

[OMR]

Whilst it was devastating to lose Keary and Co, knowing that we already have a long list of injuries, the positive is that it happened so early in the season. This will give Keary a year to fully recover from his ACL and repair that hammy that’s been troubling him. It will give Walker an opportunity to play first grade without the expectations of winning a premiership ( which he may still surprise us and do it). It will show us how developed our youngsters are and what the future looks like .
I think with most people writing us off as a title threat, we can fly under the radar , win enough matches to get us into top 6 at the very least , and when the playoffs come around, young Walker and Sualli would’ve had a fair bit of game time, Cordner would still be fresh ( fingers crossed) , Friend firing and Verrills also playing, others like Fletcher Baker and Suluka- Fifita have more experience, Hutchinson and Keighran would have played more first grade than north Sydney games and we can give the title a go.
Go Toosters, never lose the faith.
PS, before anyone asks if I’ve been drinking or taking some hallucinates, I assure you I do not drink and not do I do drugs, and last time I checked I had mental health issues

[Thirteen]

I think our forwards need some mongrel. Dominated by Souths and dominated by Canberra in pre-seasons. Our two wins were against terrible packs. Individually we have some great forwards but as a team we get dominated against good packs. That’s the real problem here.

[Bondicigar]

What's is getting missed in all the injuries is how our forwards where completely dominated by souths , who themselves are certainly not the biggest pack in the competition.
Injuries or not we wouldn't be winning to many games against the top sides unless we get back to the old rooster way....

[Easts75]

I think our forwards need some mongrel. Dominated by Souths and dominated by Canberra in pre-seasons. Our two wins were against terrible packs. Individually we have some great forwards but as a team we get dominated against good packs. That’s the real problem here.

When the Raiders had their starters on in that trial their pack looked so much faster and stronger than ours

[RoosterFanNZ]

while i hope we dont end up as low as we did in 2016. that year really helped develop some of the younger players (manu & latrell etc.) and laid the foundations for 18 & 19.

this year could do something similar, which is ultimately better in the long term, if we are still able to be somewhat competitive then that is a massive bonus.

looking forward to seeing walker and eventually suaalii in action.

[theGman]

What's is getting missed in all the injuries is how our forwards where completely dominated by souths , who themselves are certainly not the biggest pack in the competition.
Injuries or not we wouldn't be winning to many games against the top sides unless we get back to the old rooster way....

I know this is a thread about positives however, what needs to be addressed by our forwards is the speed off the defensive line. It was non present against the Vermin. Their forwards were making easy 10m each hit up and rolling up field with ease. Hopefully young Rads can resolve the issue and bring back the Bondi Wall.

[Rooster1908]

What's is getting missed in all the injuries is how our forwards where completely dominated by souths , who themselves are certainly not the biggest pack in the competition.
Injuries or not we wouldn't be winning to many games against the top sides unless we get back to the old rooster way....

That is 100% true . Forwards win game end of story . When the forwards do there thing the halves and backs can do theirs . That part of League wont change unless Vlandy gets his way and makes tackling illegal.We are dominated to often and I dont understand why . We have a great pack but sometimes they just have the day off

[Kelby]

That is 100% true . Forwards win game end of story . When the forwards do there thing the halves and backs can do theirs . That part of League wont change unless Vlandy gets his way and makes tackling illegal.We are dominated to often and I dont understand why . We have a great pack but sometimes they just have the day off

Nathan Brown is available!


He has mongrel.

[zac]

Whilst it was devastating to lose Keary and Co, knowing that we already have a long list of injuries, the positive is that it happened so early in the season. This will give Keary a year to fully recover from his ACL and repair that hammy that’s been troubling him. It will give Walker an opportunity to play first grade without the expectations of winning a premiership ( which he may still surprise us and do it). It will show us how developed our youngsters are and what the future looks like .
I think with most people writing us off as a title threat, we can fly under the radar , win enough matches to get us into top 6 at the very least , and when the playoffs come around, young Walker and Sualli would’ve had a fair bit of game time, Cordner would still be fresh ( fingers crossed) , Friend firing and Verrills also playing, others like Fletcher Baker and Suluka- Fifita have more experience, Hutchinson and Keighran would have played more first grade than north Sydney games and we can give the title a go.
Go Toosters, never lose the faith.
PS, before anyone asks if I’ve been drinking or taking some hallucinates, I assure you I do not drink and not do I do drugs, and last time I checked I had mental health issues

good points.

plus, i think our forwards are good enough. if you add friend, rads and cordner then that's a forward pack that can go very well.
sure we got dominated by the souths pack but that was partly on the back of a lot of errors. it wasn't just the errors but if you make less errors then it's hard for the other side to get momentum

[Headless Chook]

I went to bed absolutely shattered on Friday night. Got up Saturday morning and thought to myself, 'well here's Robbo's chance to prove he truly is a great coach'. I am also counting on the fact we still have a very experienced core of players who would be doing their best to pick the team up and will see this as a challenge going forward. Throw in the fact that in the coming weeks we will get Radley and Verrills back and maybe further down the track Friend and Cordner and I can see this as a real chance for our younger guys to really step up and own their spots in the team. Hutch is no superstar, but he is steady and he can steer the ship and allow either Manu or Walker (or a combination of them both) to provide the spark. All is not lost, yeah we will now follow a different path to what we were planning but the season is still young.

[Paddo Colt 61]

From what we saw in the Trial game V Raiders, Walker is, indeed, impressive - certainly more so than was Flannagan. There is no reason why the replacement of two halves by two potentially equally competent practitioners should not go well. Whoever partners Walker (Hutch or Manu) is experienced and in the case of Manu at least, could be a huge surprise - he has all the necessary skills after all. I don't see that much of a disaster looming, the side was having Half problems anyway with the focus so much on Keary and the coach would, I'd assume, have this contingency (Keary's loss) well covered. I would hope for, and wouldn't be surprised by, an evolution of business as usual if not better within a few games.

[BUDDY]

I think some are a bit tough on our forwards.
We were flat on Friday night no doubt. We completed 7 sets in the first half (50%) and we lacked discipline. Some seemed to be focusing on the milker Arrow too much.
But we have got that type of performance in us at the beginning of the year. We are not the greatest starters to a season.
On top of that we have got a kid playing at dummy half. He has a few errors in him but he has been thrown in the deep end at a young age. Plus a makeshift dummy half on the bench to support him.
Once Friend, Rads and Verrills are back the middle will tighten up.
With Friend, Rads, Verrills, Cordner, Butcher, Keighran to come back in no doubt our defence will be much improved.
But our season hinges on any more injuries. Last year we had way to many to overcome.
I believe we still have the team to go a long way to winning this comp. We have x-factors all over the field.
We are not a one man team and Robbo has 22 more rounds to figure out our best combos.

[DP1990]

I think our x-factor players in due time will be both Manu and Adam Keighran !

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE=DP1990; I think our x-factor players in due time will be both Manu and Adam Keighran !

I'd be surprised, after what we've seen so far, if Keighran turned out to be much more than the competent journeyman that he appears to be. Then again the recruiters must have seen something and O'Sullivan was/is at the Warriors and possibly had a hand in that.

[Lydon]

Positives are we are sitting 3rd on the competition table and have the best coach available to deal with this adversity..

Also we have a battle hardened group of guys who have been playing together for a long time

We will be fine!