If Mellars can overcome his injury dramas and be the player you believe he could be, with Munro also doing that, do you believe we need another winger that we would be spending big money on?
You've talked Mellars up quite high.
Do we trust in the pathways or not?
I’ve always thought both Mellars and Munro shouldn’t come into NRL consideration until probably mid season this year with the view of being full time in 26
Both needed to mature physically particularly when you consider the role NRL wingers should play in your structures
That being said atm we can’t bank on either due to their consistent injury tolls. This is why I believe the club should of hedged their bets and gone for big wingers like Skelton and Junior Tupou who are one lower tier contracts
It’s obvious now we have massive cap constraints so chasing wingers like Young or Turuva in that $500k plus category doesn’t work for us, so no I don’t think we should or can get a higher priced winger now
But I do think we should be looking at, at least one big fast mobile winger for depth
In regards to trusting pathway's, it’s a dynamic environment. IMO due to our lack of depth on the fringes Munro was rushed and Mellars we are sweating on coming good.
But you can’t just have one kid for each spot earmarked to come through. There’s injuries, attitude problems and even illness that can come into play
It’s why I think our talent needs to run deeper. These two are seriously our only two genuine wing stocks throughout the club.
We saw back when the club sacked James Robert’s and AFB back in the day that this didn’t really hurt us as our talent at the time ran deep
These were two absolute standout pathway players both earmarked for grade. Yet their loses were covered
If Munro and Mellars don’t become more durable we are back with NSW cup level wingers playing the bulk of the season
Yes we still have Aj. But most players don’t bounce back from an Achilles. It took Dodd 3/4 of the season before he started moving freely again
But here is hoping for a great year injury wise. I believe the players will be fitter and better prepared so hopefully that translates into a great year