AtlantaFalconsGuy84 wrote: Yeah but are you sure its not superior personnel as the reason for their success, not scheme. They do have a large amount of NT defensive players.

Yes, and that was exactly the point. i.e. maybe keeping Raines out of the mix.

If I was you it'd be a coin toss! I played a 5-3 vs the yanks and they put 59 on us BUT they did have 11 players on offense who all started and ended with a 5* rating. The French held them to 14 with the same D in the previous match which was why I tried it.

hosh13 wrote: Bad luck mate. All good rolls on the player's ratings but no luck in the game! The story of our last 3 campaigns - all the winning done too soon!

Thanks mate, hopefully we'll get there before the current players get too old.

But very, very good try. Defense was great throughout each game considering the reshuffle. May have lent itself to an extra TD allowed in the second group stages.

Offensively though other than the 21 points on the 4th qtr of the Denmark game in the second group stages. Our second half performances weren't even close to our first half performances. Huge declines.

A 14 point swing would have seen us win two games and loose one by 4 points.

The Argentina game was a huge kick in the teeth. No way we should have lost that by so much. If at all really.

It was a difficult roster to work with considering all the old blokes declining. Top points for still going with a 6-3 winning record as a NT coach.

Surprizingly we topped Poland twice in the qualifiers, and they now are in the final 8. Grrr!

TE Groses replacement is better than Grose. And also plays WR.

LB Mourishs replacement is still 2-3 seasons away.

LB Reid should last another cycle, but only good for the qualifying stages. Will need a replacement for WC stages. His replacement is not as good. But Reid was/is a machine.

I also have a RB/WR that physically sh!tes on Carlile. Just slower to train and one year younger.

As for secondary. Unless someone has a gem hidden, we are cooked for a season or two. I have 3 up and comers that are 2-3 seasons away from readiness.

We can play Cleve Faulks at LB in a pinch. He's 5* BPOS there, physicals say more of a DL (which is where I play him and how I built him), but he's still got green speed. I'll top up tacticals a bit to match the rest if that's what whoever is in charge wants to do. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the intel/con that we'd expect of an MLB, and might be a bit slow for OLB, but if it's that or an ageing 15/15 fart, then...

I dunno how good Rick Buckley or Howard Greenwood are, but that's 3 non 31 year old LBs for next season + some of the ageing physical monsters could still help in qualifying.



As for the secondary, I guess we just have to trust Mason Whitecross for a season and potentially play Lynden Dawes somewhere (he appears to be able to CB/Safety AND LB). Either go single safety formation or play Dawes as a safety and shift one of Johnstone or Kiel down to CB with Whitecross.

Could see how some of Kamikaze's secondary are coming along, like Winston McEvoy and so on. Or Jarryn Mann from the Behemoths. He's a former youthpull of mine that had acceptable physicals from memory that the Behemoths bought for a lot of money (though unfortunately not off me directly ). Matt Bradley (SF) from Bergertrons could be another one. I'm sure we'll find one or two that we can at least call up to the squad. I have some players (albeit non-Australian) who started the season at around the same salary range as those guys and are now definitely at a level all around where they can compete with a balanced build (assuming their physicals are ok).

I'll have a look around the international leagues later when I have time, but those guys are potential starts in the search for new secondaries


As for WR and our ageing core there, you could always play Nick Chatres (even though he's enjoying the easy bucks playing KR). He is 20/19 physicals afterall, ok trained, and 15 consistency.