I think I read something about Underhill getting a top thirty spot for next year. Very good middle. Exactly what we need. Hits like a steam train. 

We should get the early wins in 2025.

Aside from Critter and perhaps Kiks and Kiraz, I don't think that we will have many players playing internationals after the end of season..

The team should be the side that played the semis plus Toups and Armone. Less Skelton 

Clark and Sua promoted.

Todd and Underhill possibly promoted. Hopoi better after a full off season.

Mann, Wilson, Sutton, Fifita and if he stays Patolo back from injury. Karl O also back and could add plenty.

Fox might be going, but he didn't play in the semi and hasn't played that many games in the last 2-3 years.

If Fox goes, I definitely expect more quality signings.

All that could go wrong is were are less fit and motivated than previous seasons. 

Some of our players in the semi might need minor surgery,  but for most it seems like rest and rehab will be sufficient. 

Yep, we might have bad luck with players getting injured playing internationals, but our risk level is fairly low compared to other clubs, because we don't have  any players involved.

We should come out of the blocks at the start of 2025.

Other sides will also improve especially Canberra and Tigers, others have some player turnover or their best players getting one season older.

Well thats smart....

I agree, part of the process is this group of players improving. Most of them are young and we will be adding more young guys from our lower grades over the next few years.

Part of it is simply the team getting more experience, forming combinations and rehearsing plays. I think that we also need to sign /develop some players with a cutting edge.

Salmon, Curran,  Hayes and Morrin are too similar, when Curran mainly plays in the middle. Good defenders who offer a bit in attack but not enough.  Curran,  Toops and I think Hayes can play well on an edge, so when Kiks or Preston get injured we have options, especially if we have a few more specialist props. We can add depth and quality at the same time, either by signing Or developing players. 

The team played very well the only difference between our squad and Manly was Turbo and Cherry, Newcastle have Ponga and better forwards. Overall fairly even with Newcastle and Manly, we possibly have better depth in some positions. 

Compared to the Cows, Sharks,  Roosters  Sorm and Panthers we don't have the squad at present.  With more experience we can close the gap.

If we want to try to take a shortcut to the next premiership, a prop like RCG might do it for us. Hypothetically, if we had RCG,  Amone, and Hughes all fit, I would play 2, possibly 3 in the 17. That is a completely different challenge for our opposition. 

Have to remember this is a newly put team compared to the other top 8 sides who have been together longer . The boys will benefit from that game . Could had gone either way kicks gets a good bounce from the charge down we in game over . Skelton first attempt at a try goods effort but a top winger would probably had scored .  Burto missed a kick  could had been golden point . Dogs are masters at winning those . Two just missed 2 point field goals . Gods were on Manly side . 

All of the spine are good at something, Marhoney makes a lot of tackles and generally throws a good pass.i agree that he could run a bit more from dummy half. Sexton,  Burton and Tracey generally create a lot and are dangerous when they run.

Preston and Kiks are dangerous especially Kiks our wingers and centres are generally dangerous. 

Props and lock, not so much, Karl O will add some much needed X-Factor at lock. Toups has good legspeed and knows how to find the try line we need to slot him in somewhere.  I think one or two big props who can make yards then offload will help.

If we don't change the squad we need to add variety and purpose at the opponent's end.  Move the ball faster and have a play in mind. Also run harder.

If we can somehow add a bit more attack winning games will be easier,  including semis.

Yeah, but it's all to do with supply and demand. 
Every team is in demand for top shelf spine players but their supply is very limited, so when the tailor mades aren't available you just have to roll your own.

It's always mad Monday at my place... Smart phones are banned... 

I dont agree.
Its not a size issue. Never was. 
What we need is abit of variation instead of one out runs all the time. For some reason, Mahoney use to run the ball yet this year he barely ran from dummy half. You cant have a hooker that doesnt run the ball. Its vitally important that the dummy half keeps the markers and A defenders guessing. Mahoney has gone downhill in the pecking order and is bordering on Ennis levels.

Once again, we cant have another spine player who is not in the top 5 of their position. We will not get anywhere like that. 

All of the spine and some of our forwards are to blame...

This season the main focus was on defence.

It starts with Marhoney,  if we have some hard running forwards running off him, then we can establish momentum get a quick play the ball and go from there. 

Slow play gives the defence a rest and time to reset. When in doubt Run hard and try to get a quick ptb.

Is it mad monday yet?

Yes, we seem inept close to the line and still have the "5 hitups for the kick and hope" play in us. 

I still want to see more assertiveness from our halves in attacking positions. Both Sexton and Burton are too passive and unless chooses to find them, he wont. 

When you watch most other teams the dummy half is looking for his halves before he bends down to pick up the ball. Mahoney looks for forwards first and halves second.

Maybe this is part of the CC gameplan to have the lock as first receiver.... Its ok maybe in middle if field oe your own half, but i believe in the attacking zone, it should be the halves with hands on the ball first and foremost. 

One play summed up what is wrong with the Dogs attack.

5 metres out from the Manly line, Marhoney passed to a forward standing still who seemed surprised to get the ball and was slow to get moving.

Just standing a bit deeper and walking a few steps forward will do more to engage the defence. 

A smaller prop standing still, the defence knows that guy is no threat even if he gets the ball.

Perhaps Ennis should do some coaching of Marhoney and our props.

You rarely see Penrith props get the ball standing still close to the opposition tryline. Run on to the ball with intent and stuff will happens even when you don't get it.

Yep Hitler's decendents must be offended.

I am optimistic about the Chicago Bears in the NFL... tough game this week..

I know nothing about ice hockey and baseball.

Some sports are great to play but not great to watch.

NRL offseason it is NFL,  EPL and cricket....

Out of all of my teams Australian cricket win more than they lose, Bears are the only possible title chance, but young players may need a season to adapt to top level comp.

Talking conspiracies is dangerous... But calling a dude Hitler every day for years is ok and has no consequences...

Even Trump was nearly eliminated in the political race.....

All my teams are being picked off!

Well at least the KC Chiefs did the job...
Was a disaster weekend with Hawks eliminated in their final on Friday, Giants sane fate on Sat, Dogs yesterday. QPR drew.

Im starting to run out of teams to follow....

What is this ice hockey and baseball you talk about? Is it worth following HD?

Yep. Put simply, i am more hopeful for next year than i was leading into this season.

Need to build on this season. Players should make it their task to improve thenselves in their respective positions. If they do this, we will improve collectively as a team also.

Coaches need to review the season as a whole and see how they can tweak certain elements or introduce some x-factor so that we can expand our gamestyle. 

I think the key difference between the better teams (Storm, Penrith, Roosters) is that they can play different styles. Thats our next frontier. Thats what can make us a top 4 team. 

Hopefully we get there in the next couple of years.

Best part of this season is that we managed to get to within 3 weeks of the end. Previously, we were out of contention with 5 weeks if regular season plus 4 weeks of finals.

I will not be surprised if the Roosters thrash Manly and then the Storm thrash the Roosters. 

Other side of the draw Cows are a smokey. They didn't actually play that well against the Knights, but they have a good blend of X-Factor and work rate.

There is more than one reason why we lost the game. Mostly our attack and end of sets in the opposition 20 need to be better.

Skelton will not be there next season and appart from a few lapses from him our defence was solid.

We lacked impact off the bench, dropped balls and penalties cost us, rhe bounce of the ball and a few ref decisions didn't go our way. 

Overall a great season,  plenty to build on and we know where we need to improve. 

Like ODF I think our coaching is right, unavailable players, inexperience and a lack of depth and quality size cost us. In the heat of the battle inexperienced players can play too conservatively or too aggressive. The team needs a catalogue of well rehersed set plays for the opposition end, including some scrum plays.

I hope that we shift the training balance to do a bit more work on attack.

Marki, I don't disagree with you. We should have iced that game earlier but inexperience let us down, having players in positions they would not have normally been except for unfortunate circumstances played a hand.
I'm proud of the team, so much went against us and I'm not just talking game day. Things like injuries to Mann and Wilson, JAC's absence from the game, these are all pieces that were missing from our successful formula.
 I hope we get the bodies needed to go further next year because I believe Ciraldo has the right coaching system to build our new DNA.

I dont disagree there. Compared to soccer, they are the most useless pair of eyes in any sport. 

But once again, i blame the NRL here. They need to make it OK for linesmen to raise their flag once the play is completed. Sometimes, in that split second you hesitate from making the call and when you watch the replay you realise your instincts and first look was correct. 

But since he have a bunker, its not that hard or time consuming to check every try. Especially trys off kicks. 

If the bunker could rule on that forward pass, i doubt they miss it. 

The other poor decision that cost us 2 points + 70m in field position was when Burton was taken out chasing a Sexton grubber. 

But ultimately i still think we should have overcome those decisions. Needed to not concede a long range try when we had Manly on last tackle on their 30m line. And still had time to score something with 7mins left, but couldn't.

Game should have been wrapped up and put to bed earlier. That is our lesson for the future. 

So what are the linesmen there for?.... to cheer on their bet.

Still we should have won the game. 

Inspite of the bad call. 

We can learn from this.

The concern on forward passes is that the bunker might not have the camera angle. But we only need to catch the bad examples Let the ref rule on the rest, the Roosters one was too tight for the bunker to be involved. 

I don't know how the ref and touches missed ours.

Making the semis was great experience and we learned where we need to improve. 

To be fair, the bunker cant rule on forward passes but this is a huge blight on the game and i blame dinosaurs (like Gus) who think the bunker shouldn't be involved. 

The game is fast and on field refs may not be in the best position to rule a pass forward. Let the friggin bunker rule on the howler. Its not that hard.

I thought that the forward pass part was obvious..

But the lessons we learned today we would have learned sooner or later.

Now we can book surgery for any players that need it,  finish off recruitment and retention and start focusing on next season. 

Not probably hd, definitely.
How an onfield ref, two linesmen and the bunker all "missed" a knock on, followed immediately by a blatent forward pass that led to a try which was confirmed, in my opinion is nothing short of deliberately influencing the result of the match......
Which it ultimately did.

The players we missed this game are Wilson and Mann.

Some of our better trys this season featured Wilson or Mann.

Sutton was out all season and would have made a difference. 

Can't fault the effort we did the best that we could with the available talent. 

I am happy with the season, big step forward. 

I hope that the guys can back up with a similar effort next season. 

Don't just blame Tracey, Skelton also failed in defence for that last manly try. Tonight manly were kissed on the dick by a leprechaun, the bounch of the ball and 50/50 calls all went thier way, and the officials gave them massive leg-ups at critical times. I am so proud of the team they played for 80 minutes and came up just short. I think we are in for a cracker 2025 season.

Hot starts and ice finishes... The recipes there ..