Have we ever had this level of backline depth before?
Reading the Tui and Parket threads had me thinking long and hard about this question.
Despite losing our #1 for the season, we are almost at a point where Des has too many NRL quality outside backs to choose from.
In an ideal world, right now we would have Turbo, Garrick, Tui, Koula, Saab, Parker and Harper fighting for 5 full-time positions. This is ignoring the fact that we also have pretty handy backups in Walker, Burbo and Lawton if things got really dire.
For season 2023, I believe all of the above players, excluding Walker are contracted up (Correct me if I am wrong, I got lazy in researching).
This is a great problem to have as it could allow greater tactical flexibility while allowing some room to breathe with injuries, rep times, form dips etc.
Unfortunately, it also means that we are likely having 2 players not seeing much game time as I can't recall a time where Des has used squad rotation tactically. This is something you see in premier league football over the course of a 38+ game season, but not something I have ever noticed in League.
It also means that we are holding back the professional development of 2 players that could easily get a gig elsewhere while also taking up a chunk of the salary cap at the same time.
So my big 2 questions are...
1) Has Manly ever faced such a wonderful problem (which season and who were the players)?
2) If we had to let a couple of our current players go to balance our cap, who would you wave goodbye to and why?
Given that I am asking the question, I will skip on number 1 and jump straight into 2.
I would prefer we say goodbye to Parker and Harper as I believe that while they have both excelled at different times, we have perhaps seen the ceiling of both of these players.
If we hadn't been given a taste of Tui and Koula this year, I imagine that I wouldn't be typing this, but I think that we have something really special in these two and we are still years off from seeing their ceiling.
Share your thoughts!
Reading the Tui and Parket threads had me thinking long and hard about this question.
Despite losing our #1 for the season, we are almost at a point where Des has too many NRL quality outside backs to choose from.
In an ideal world, right now we would have Turbo, Garrick, Tui, Koula, Saab, Parker and Harper fighting for 5 full-time positions. This is ignoring the fact that we also have pretty handy backups in Walker, Burbo and Lawton if things got really dire.
For season 2023, I believe all of the above players, excluding Walker are contracted up (Correct me if I am wrong, I got lazy in researching).
This is a great problem to have as it could allow greater tactical flexibility while allowing some room to breathe with injuries, rep times, form dips etc.
Unfortunately, it also means that we are likely having 2 players not seeing much game time as I can't recall a time where Des has used squad rotation tactically. This is something you see in premier league football over the course of a 38+ game season, but not something I have ever noticed in League.
It also means that we are holding back the professional development of 2 players that could easily get a gig elsewhere while also taking up a chunk of the salary cap at the same time.
So my big 2 questions are...
1) Has Manly ever faced such a wonderful problem (which season and who were the players)?
2) If we had to let a couple of our current players go to balance our cap, who would you wave goodbye to and why?
Given that I am asking the question, I will skip on number 1 and jump straight into 2.
I would prefer we say goodbye to Parker and Harper as I believe that while they have both excelled at different times, we have perhaps seen the ceiling of both of these players.
If we hadn't been given a taste of Tui and Koula this year, I imagine that I wouldn't be typing this, but I think that we have something really special in these two and we are still years off from seeing their ceiling.
Share your thoughts!