Yeah the gap between Tamika and the rest is like Joey vs the rest of the comp in his day.
Frustrating game in many ways, in the end we won on star power and better cohesion when it mattered in both attack and defence. Can’t keep losing the territory/possession battle in future seasons and expect to keep winning. Other teams will get better.
Definitely a game which made plain some weaknesses in the squad. Centres and wingers are becoming more important in yardage every season (initially in the NRLW teams just put their worst players on the wing and most of them barely did anything), with Ronnie asking for a lot of carries out of them like a lot of other coaches do, but we don’t really have anyone who’s really good at that part of the game in our 2-5. Sheridan is okay, Shanice works hard, Abigail too but definitely there for her pace and skill first and foremost, and Jasmine Strange is both slow and physically weak. Tamika heavily props up the yardage game for us.
#1 recruitment priority should be finding a centre or winger who’s a PCM/tackle busts machine. This would raise both the floor and ceiling more than any other girl we could sign. The good news is there’s a bunch of good ones who only took one year deals. Jakiya Whitfield is really good, but my first target would be Anessa Biddle at the Sharks. I doubt we have any cap space to offer more than the minimum, but I’m sure that’s what most outside backs are getting as there’s so little cap space to offer any players more than that, and we have competing for a premiership to offer to get girls over the line.
#2 would be finding just one more really good middle, preferably a starter. I kind of think the best use of both Rima and Tayla is as impact players off the bench. Maybe that girl I want is already in the system, I don’t know, but I think ideally the other starter besides CJ at prop is another girl that can give you 100+ good run metres, but with better defensive work rate and mobility than the two really big boppers we have. Again there’s a bunch of these girls, good but not elite, who are off contract, where again the pitch should be around competing for a title rather than more money, cos again I’m talking players who aren’t quite good enough to earn more than the minimum. Think girls like Mya Hill-Moana or Tara McGrath-West.