For me, like most NRL fans, 2022 cannot come quickly enough.
For some coaches though, they need every day (and then some) to make the decisions that will shape their club's future.
With positions in the eight at a premium, the smallest of decisions can alter a team's season. We've seen it recently with coaches reluctant to make changes, only for fortunes to improve when a difficult call was finally made.
There are a host of big decisions to be made before Round 1 next season. Below are the five I believe will need to be made ASAP and stand to have a huge bearing on early season results.
3. Moylan or Tricky?
Rookie head coach Craig Fitzgibbon has a few questions to answer during the off-season. Does Andrew Fifita feature? Does Ronaldo Mulitalo move to the centres? What to do with Connor Tracey?
The most pressing, and important, question however is where to play Nicho Hynes? That question will ultimately decide who partners him in the halves; either veteran Matt Moylan or exciting prospect Braydon Trindall?
On the surface this seems easy. If Hynes is the seven, then obviously it's Moylan. If he's six, then Trindall. Right?
I believe it's far more difficult than that and will come down to whether Fitzgibbon is able to name Hynes his dominant playmaker right off the bat.
For all the jokes re Moylan's injury history, he was the Sharks best half whenever he was on the park in 2021, except of course their final game of the season where Moylan had a nightmare.
Hynes kicking game, or lack thereof may ultimately decide this. Trindall's long kicking game trumps Moylan's by a long way, literally.
If Hynes is trusted with the chief playmaking role and can kick his side out of trouble, then Moylan looks the obvious answer in the early rounds.
I would be shocked if we don't see Trindall named more often than not though from Round 4 or 5 onward.
Sorry I’ve seen nothing from Cody Ramsey to see him as first grade material let alone fb material. His defence is every bit as bad as Dufty’s, his handling is atrocious, he dropped so many bombs and conceded us so many tries this season it was embarrassing. Also his passing game is weak and he simply did not make up for any of this by scoring a lot of tries. Ramsey should be our fourth choice winger after Ravalawa, and the Fegai’s. Sloan showed more promise in his few games at fb than Ramsey did all year on the wing.
Alas Griffin is clueless and Ramsey will no doubt get the #1 slot and we’ll end up releasing Sloan and Amone.
I agree with Mr Majestyk about Cody Ramsey for exactly the same reasons PLUS he cannot tackle……the guy is an out and out dud whereas Sloane is an up & coming superstar – no doubt about that – if Hook gives Ramsey a start in the Top 17 – let alone fullback – then Hook has to get the Hook!!
Potential Sharks halves: Trindall, Moylan and Hynes. If only it were that simple. Potentially, the best of the lot is Luke Metcalf. Unfortunately, they have not promoted him to a top30 spot, and are seemingly unlikely to do so before the middle of the season. If I were the coach, I would get him into the top 30 now (somehow) and make him a starting half – telling the others they will have to fit in as injury demands.
Or if that is too hard, and Craig Fitzgibbon has no intention of using him, approach Newcastle and offer him – for a transfer fee – for 12 months, until he goes to Auckland.
… or better still, approach the Warriors and see if they want Metcalf a year early – for a transfer fee, of course. Then the Warriors could give Ash Taylor the punt (to Newcastle, perhaps) and have Johnson, Harris-Tevita and Metcalf to provide quality in depth for their spine.