The problem with the player to player comparisons is that whilst we know exactly what the outgoing players did in 2013 we can only speculate on what the replacements will offer in 2014.



Familiar players tend to be looked at warts and all whereas new signings are shiny and unblemished.



We also know who missed loads of games through injury in 2013 but can only hope for the best that most of our new signings have better luck.



And the real $64m dollar question is how Kris Keating goes. Sandercock rates him so let's hope he excels in more than just defence because frankly although that is welcome it is not top of the tick list for a half back.



Sandy does tend to tell us how good his Australian signings are going to be but so far it's been a mixed bag. Mika, McDonnell, Paterson you can make a case for all of them but they all came and went in rapid time and with the same question marks remaining as when they arrived. Let's hope that will not be the case with Keating.



There's no doubt Sandy has tried to toughen up the team and teams will not welcome coming to Craven Park, I feel. Will it be enough to threaten the top 4 probably not. Sandy will still be able to talk about opposition teams as 'full of superstars' safe in the knowledge that nobody will be saying that about us.



Really looking forward to the new season any team that is not up for it will get bullied by us which will be a welcome turnaround. There was only a cigarette paper between 5th to 8th last year so we are not talking step change to climb significantly albeit the upper limit probably 5th IMO.

Yeah, I think that is the way many of us are seeing it at the moment too.



Sandercock said soon after arriving that we'd be defending better - then in 2012 and 2013 we had our 2 worst defensive records since promotion. Tbf, he had a slightly different remit and challenges to Morgan - but I think he's realised that much as coaching is important, you need the the right type and quality of players to deliver on your plan.

It's taken him two bloody years to realise that he needs players that can tackle in order to defend?



The bloke's a ruddy genius.

A way to look at it is that he signed a bunch of players Wayne Bennett got rid of for reasons that seemed unfathomable at the time, and now he has figured out why and is signing guys Wayne Bennett used to win premierships.

I think he's been given a bit more freedom (ie budget), but it's also been a learning curve for him. About the game over here and being a [uhead[/u coach.



Kids and talented but erratic players - they have their place, but relying too heavily on them has significant downsides. As does being solid, hardworking but a bit predictable - that took us to 4th in 2009 though.

Not been funny but shouldn't all Rugby players be able to tackle? It is a fundamental basic of the game after all.



Really don't understand why it's been such a problem or so difficult for us, pick your man out, he runs at you, you tackle him....easy!



IMO We have a problem with winning the floor, both in attack and defence, most teams seem to get up and play the ball much quicker than us and in defence they manage to slow us down and get there line set.



Hopefully we will see some improvement there too.

Players obviously show varying amount of aggression when going in to make a tackle. When watching footage of Weyman & Costigan and then watching Mika & Paea its really evident. Some players are just simply stronger in that area and fail to drop off tackles due to determination & heart whilst others are alot more technically good at tackling and use there body weight to really good effect.



To say it's as simple as picking your man out and tackling is very poor. The man running at you has varying degrees of power, intensity, speed & agility. Your having to compute this all in a split second half the time. Not sure we are giving rugby players enough credit here.



Still it not only missing tackles that makes for a bad defence Rovers at times have been positionally poor we also jump out the line far to often leaving large gaps for teams to waltz through whilst we've also failed to stop teams offloading at will against us.

The big issues as well is composure and discipline we give to many free sets away to teams which really punishes us. We can't expect our line to hold when it's subjected to 4 or 5 consecutive sets due to poor discipline of players.

Good to see we're no longer relying on foreign imports.

Zzzzzz

2014 is only our 8th season in SL though. We need more tarm.

I don't care if we had 17 chinamen taking to the field. I just want to see a winning team.

you do know were the only team in the world to have overseas players