- Sep 29, 2016
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Unfortunately i dont think we will ever see the best of Matt Moylan because of injuries. He showed what he was capable of with stints at fullback this year and when he played at 5/8th in 2018, but his body just cant seem to hold up.Yeah, the players are there it is simply a matter of getting them to gel. Mick Ennis made an interesting comment pre game as he said when you went through the door at Cronulla it was always about physical and mental toughness. He went on to say that is lacking atm. I reckon the challenge for Morris is to get that toughness back. Good teams build their game on rock solid defence and let the tries take care of themselves.
I reckon Moylan's time with us should be over he is too injury prone and hot or cold when he does get onto the park. Not sure about his contract status but we could use the salary cap space to improve the list. I also think Andrew Fifita's time is up and again we could free some salary cap up by saying thanks and good bye.
Given the start we had to the year I was not expecting to make the eight but we made it and unearthed some talent along the way so the season was not a dead loss. Hopefully there are no more unwanted shocks between now and the start of 2021.
I think someone like Dean Pay would be a great get as a defensive assistant. Great guy, little ego and had a Bulldogs team that was completely sub par in talent competing hard every week and defending far above standard.
On a player front little will change until end of next year, though with us getting that 350k back from thebpenalty restrictions and the 200k we wont have to pay Xerri if the ASADA goes as expected. Woods, Moylan, Dugan and Johnson are out of contract end of next year and thats about $3.5m-4m. I expect that we will resign Johnson (at a bargain considering he is coming off an achilles) and maybe Dugan if we are short on depth in the backs, but will let Woods and Moylan go i hope.
Thats about 3m to play with, though Talakai, Rudolf and Kennedy are outnof contract too so we should be able to sign them and still get a good player or two in. A starting Left centre, back-up hooker and front row depth would be my priorities.