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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3057946, member: 1899"] Bringing it back old school for the run home to the finals. Six weeks to go in the regular season with 13 sides still a realistic chance of qualifying. That means that St. George Illawarra, Canterbury and the Gold Coast Titans have to fulfill the role of spoiler. I actually think St George can provide a headache to the Eels, Sharks & Tigers in the run home to the finals. They actually get to play the Gold Coast twice who are basically on auto-pilot at the moment waiting for the announcement of their new coach so I wouldn't be surprised if they finished this period 4-2 with a feeling of what could have been. Canterbury could be a headache if they tinker with their side. Ordinarily I wouldn't begrudge a coach taking a conservative approach to team selections, but with the season over I can't believe he's persisting with a lot of those selections. The season is over, it's time to start building towards 2020 and giving the club something to think about moving forward. If it was up to me, Nick Meaney, Kerrod Holland, Adam Elliott and Chris Smith would be on the chopping block. I wouldn't be opposed to adding others along the way but start there and build. It seems like a real gut-check week for a lot of sides. You've got four matches where a Top 8 hopeful is taking on a Top 5 side where a win could really do wonders for the run home. I think all four 'underdogs' have a decent case for pulling off an upset and it'll be curious to see how those teams handle the occassion. Tigers-Cowboys is one of those games that you could market as a sudden death finals qualifier. Personally I can't see either side making it, but it's the most 'even' game of the round. The return of Michael Morgan should provide a big boost to the Cowboys, mostly because he's their most potent playmaker but also because it allows Asiata to return to the middle where he's most effective. The Cowboys have really missed his creativity and energy around the ruck. It's been an odd season for the Tigers. To their credit they didn't fall into a heap after the extradinary circumstances surrounding Cleary but in a lot of ways it feels like a stop-gap year. They've got a handful of players they can push on with, but it still seems like it will take at least another two years for the roster to be in any decent shape. I like a lot of their junior recruitment, but it'll take years to see what kind of dividend they'll receive from it. Meanwhile 2019 has been a disaster for the Cowboys. The sooner they can welcome 2020 and address their structures and personnel the better. The one positive is that they'll have a pre-season to work on their combination with Drinkwater, Clifford, Morgan and Robson but I can't see their fans looking back on the past two years fondly. [/QUOTE]

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