Agree on Doka. Regularly out of position and is not linking well either yet going forward. Storm was outstanding defensively last year, surprising many of us, and was also a great contributor in a lot of our build up play. Has a great temperament too.
I think as has been said, we've been through severe disruption. Losing that many starting players is hard enough. Losing your coach and his staff five minutes before your season starts is about as disruptive as it gets. They need time to gel. And they need leadership while that happens. Is MJ a great leader. I hope so. Though he hasn't yet struck me as having that same burning fire to succeed that I saw in a wounded Staj or a hungry wolf Monty. And the assistant coach probably hasn't even unpacked his suitcase yet.
In terms of player leadership...
Cummings was not just a great player for us. He was a huge personality that clearly gave confidence to all those around him. This season... well it's always hard when your best player (Tulio) is not a leader. And after Danny the player that is the best suited, Maxxy, is still only a youngster and can't be that easy to lead players like Torres, Doka and Tulio I imagine. Triantis though young, was also massive as a lead by example player - the type who wouldn't take a backward step from anyone and give no respect to wankers like City when they put on airs. I haven't seen that quality in Paull. (shit, he does have two "l's right? Because he stole one of Max's
).
Anyway, those are the three challenges I see.
- Does our coach have what it takes? Still an unknown.
- Do we have enough leadership across the park, the kind that will help us gel and perform at a high level consistently? I'm not sure we do right now. But I do think Storm would help.
- How long will it take to overcome the disruption and gel? Best done in pre season, as teams that are losing will always start to doubt the system and or themselves, coaches or other players. But we have to play the cards we've been dealt now.
