Printable View
To ensure that the Birthday Bot doesn't take over the world.
Here is your opportunity to show us your Nostril and/or Dumbass abilities.
Your answers to the following:
- Australian Team Rankings (at end of 2022 Season)
- Western Force Ranking within Australian Teams and Overall.
- Force Top Points scorer
- Nathan Sharpe medalist
1st Reds - fairly settled squad, not lost too many players from last year's team.
2nd Force - some good additions in Lloyd & Rodda in the forwards and Mataele and the Brumbies kids (especially Fines) to improve a decent squad.
3rd Brumbies - lost more than they've gained this off-season, so probably going backwards a bit.
4th Rebels - Koroibete is a big loss, but losing Naisarani (also to Japan) might be bigger impact on the team's play. They did pick up Matt Philip, and could move ahead of the Brumbies.
5th Waratahs - they do have Hooper, Holloway and Hannigan coming back (Hannigan might not be a plus!) as part of a huge turnover in the forwards, but losing Maddocks as their only recognised full back, and replacing him with a league convert doesn't make me think they'll be getting to the playoffs immediately.
Force top points scorer - depends who has the kicking duties, really. We have a number of guys who can kick, but I'm not sure any are top-line kickers and the competition for starting spots may depend on whether anyone can make leaps forward in their kicking.
Force top try scorer - probably Kaitu'u, seeing as our locks (Rodda, Thrush, Timani) might be dominant and we could use the Brumbies tactics. Otherwise, Mataele could be a great pick-up from the Crusaders.
Nathan Sharpe Medalist - any of the back-row are highly likely to be nominated, as all are hard workers. But that's possibly the hardest one to pick as it's a mixture of how they play, how the crowd take to them (especially newcomers) and even whether they make any outrageous fluky plays!
missed oneQuote:
Originally Posted by Sheikh
Hard to pick Aussie teams. You'd argue the Tahs and Rebels will be stronger, likewise the Force and Reds. The Brumbies will still be strong. I think poor fly-half selection really stymied us in the first few rounds last year. I'd like to say we'll come 2nd but would take third in the Aus conference. Depth isn't great for anyone, but I think we are the safest. The Reds without Tupou or the Brumbies without AAA are far weaker beasts.
Overall I'd pick us at 7th or 8th. NZ top 3 followed by the Reds and Brumbies. Fiji and MP to prop up the table.
Top points scorer is hard to pick- depends on if Prior starts or who our fly-half is. I'll call Pasitoa. Top try scorer- Mataele closely followed by Anstee- who will be the Nathan Sharpe medallist.
Australian Team Rankings (at end of 2022 Season)
Reds
Brumbies
Force
Rebels
Tahs
I think it's going to take some time for Rodda and all the Brumbies to gel with the rest of the boys, so despite the fact that we'll be overall stronger than last year, I think we'll start slow again, finishing with a flourish. As for the others, I agree with Sheikh re Reds and Brumbies, but I think we'll end up just behind them due to the slow start.
Tahs problems seem to be in the brain so they'll continue to be soft targets until they can toughen up. No contracting moves made by Coleman suggest anything other than the "miracle" he engineered with Gordon was nothing more than buying a winning rugby team.
Western Force Ranking within Australian Teams and Overall.
I've done aussie teams so I'll try the overall
1 Crusaders
2 Highlanders
3 Blues
4 Reds
5 Hurricanes
6 Brumbies
7 Force
8 Chiefs
9 Rebels
10 Drua
11 Tahs
12 Pasifika
The Kiwi teams might shuffle a bit, but I think (unless there's been a lot of movement since last year) the Chiefs look to be the most fragile, coz they seem to blow really hot and cold. Crusaders are perennially good and I reckon it's time the Blues strung a couple of good seasons together.
I went with Drua over Tahs since they actually have a bit of background and the Tahs are looking pretty done, Pasifika might just need a year under the belt to tighten things up.
Force Top Points scorer
Out on a limb, with no solid reason whatsoever I'm going to say either Mataele or Pulu (assuming Pulu can stay fit) Toni Pulu was our only really devastating ball runner last year when fit, the bloke looked like he was covered in spiders. I can't imagine we'll have a kicker taking the field consistently enough for that to pan out.
Nathan Sharpe medalist
I reckon it's likely to be Feleti Kaitu'u or, out of the backs, maybe Kyle Godwin, I can't see anybody really challenging either of them for game time at the moment so it'd really depend which direction play goes, If we're going to play "Jake Ball" Kaitu'u will score a gazillion maul tries, but if we're trying to spread the ball, Kyle has a good variety of skill sets that will see him involved heavily.