Sale Sharks Diamond Revolution

The second in this three part round up piece of the off season ventures of the teams I support will focus on the Sale Sharks and in particular the Steve Diamond revolution that is going on at Edgeley Park. With 25 players leaving the club and as of now 16 coming into the club a revolution is for once the right way to describe the off season antics. Diamond has a mission which is to get the team bigger, stronger and more physical than they have been over the past few seasons.

While the team had several key injuries and player omissions due to internationals and discipline reasons this was a group of players that had severely underperforming and was massively over paid. When Diamond arrived half way through the season after the departure of Mike Brewer he gave the squad an open challenge to basically ‘man up’ and prove you are good enough.

Of the 25 players leaving I can genuinely say I am only really concerned about four. Charlie Hodgson will be a huge loss to the team, Carl Fearns could be a future England captain, Paul Williams was one of the few bright spots in a poor season and Kristian Ormsby is a quality international that has suffered through injury. Of the rest I would rather have Chris Jones as he has been a great servant to the club and Effion Lewis-Roberts is a beast up front and Chris Bell is the epitome of a professional athlete but has never had the top end talent and Ben Cohen still had at least a year left but his decision to retire has quelled any nerves on that front. The rest are a series of average club players or non effective foreign players that have never lived up to there billing.

The players brought in are very intriguing, there is a good mixture of seasoned veterans and exciting young prospects that could see Sale moving in the right direction again following several years at the foot of the Premiership.

The front row has certainly been bolstered with the arrival of a number of big men. Tony Buckley, Joe Ward and Alasdair Dickinson will certainly bring power to unit that was severely stretched last season. Ward will likely split time with the impressive Neil Briggs and Dickinson and Buckley will join a prop core with the likes of Andrew Sheridan and the impressive young duo of Lee Imiolek and Henry Thomas.

The rest of the pack has also had a drastic makeover, there are only three regular second or back row forwards retained (Wame Lewaravu, James Gaskell and David Seymour) and seven new players, almost half of the new recruits, will join the revolution either at the start of the season, or possibly in the case of Richie Vernon, Andy Powell and Hendre Fourie after the World Cup. Joining them are Frasier McKenzie, Kearnan Myall, Andrei Ostrikov and Mark Easter.

The new players in the backs will hopefully bring an increased flair and precision to the team that was really lacking last season. Scott Mathie will compete for time at scrum half and could be a valuable addition if Dwayne Peel is selected by Wales, he can also play at fly half which is a position that Sale are still to properly address.

Tasesa Lavea is certainly an exciting prospect and can also cover the fly half position but has been a better centre throughout his career, also brought into the centre are the New Zealand powerhouse Sam Tuitupou and Luther Burrell who has risen through the National Leagues before impressing last season with Leeds. These will join Rob Miller, Kyle Tonetti and Iain Thornley in what could be an exciting midfield if good quick ball can be secured.

The final addition (as of right now as three more players, all backs, are to be announced with Argentinean Joaquin Tuculet rumoured to be joining this week and Ben Blair also being touted) is the speedster Charlie Amesbury, a wing/full back who has 25 Premiership appearances under his belt. Add to this the return of former Grasshopper Tom Brady from injury and the impressive Will Addison along with the experienced Nick Macleod and club captain Mark Cueto (who will be representing England at the World Cup) and a dynamic and well rounded set of players could once again set Edgeley Park, or a new stadium, alight).

So a post World Cup side;

Sheridan, Ward, Buckley, McKenzie, Myall, Gaskell, Fourie, Powell, Peel, Miller, Brady, Tuitupou, Burrell, Cueto, Amesbury. Replacements Thomas, Briggs, Seymour, Vernon, Mathie, Lavea/Miller, Macleod

World Cup Side;

Dickinson, Ward, Thomas, McKenzie, Lewaravu, Myall, Gaskell, Easter, Mathie, Miller/Lavea, Brady, Tuitupou, Burrell, Amesbury, Macleod. Replacements - Imiolek, Briggs, Ostrikov, Seymour, Cliff, Miller/Lavea, Addison

One final note is that Sale has announced a dual registration with Leeds Carnegie. This is a wonderful thing as Sale have taken four of Leeds best players after they were relegated and not only will they benefit from some of the young players that Sale can lend them but those players will get a chance to play in a very competitive Championship league rather than the Jets. Yes the Jets and the loaning of players to lower league, Grasshoppers if you don’t mind, must continue but players such as Iain Thornley will really benefit from playing with Leeds.

Back To Football

As we prepare for the start of the three premier winter sports seasons (football, rugby and NFL, if you disagree please state an alternative) it is interesting to see how my three teams have coped with varying degrees of chaos surrounding the team. While I will go into greater detail on the expectations I, and the media, has for the Chicago Bears, Sale Sharks and Sheffield Wednesday all three have had an off season of upheaval for different reasons. I will try a pick my way through the off season activities of each team before embarking on a weekly roundup throughout the season.

First up the Monsters of the Midway that are the Chicago Bears;

The Chicago Bears, as all 32 NFL teams, have been caught up in the NFL’s labour dispute and subsequent lockout. With no interaction allowed between players and teams since March but with NFL staples like the draft, in which the Bears addressed a couple of needs with the selections of Gabe Carimi, Stephen Paea, Chris Conte, Nathan Enderle and JT Thomas, still happening teams have been trying to figure out how to build teams for a season that may not have happened. Luckily labour harmony happened on the 25^th of July and business was able to get underway.

This meant, in every fan and columnist’s eyes that the Bears would begin to pursue one of the experienced offensive linemen that were due to hit the street under the reinstated free agency terms in an effort to strengthen the league worst pass blocking group. Secondly the team would make moves for a premier wide receiver that the team desperately needs. With several big name free agents to hit the streets including Sidney Rice, Randy Moss and Santonio Holmes added to a group of intriguing youngsters the Bears never had a better opportunity to upgrade their two glaring needs.

In reality the first few days of passed with relatively little action from Halas Hall, while other teams were waxing lyrical about new additions such as Rice, Holmes and various key talent nothing was mentioned in the windy city. Even the Bears own unrestricted free agents (a term used to denote a player who can leave a team without any compensation to the franchise) were not seemingly being offered new deals with the speed that other teams were securing players and with the Bears usually a franchise that prided itself on taking care of their own this left journalists a fans alike concerned that the team would be left behind.

Then out of the blue an email from Greg Olsen’s agent Drew Rosenhaus sent a shockwave through Bears fans across the world, the team was actively trying to trade the tight end who most considered to be the best pass catcher on the team. While the email was apparently retracted a few minutes later it proved to be true and the Bears shipped Olsen off to the Panthers for a 2012 third round pick, that’s a third for a former first you do the math. But it is something now for a man who wasn’t going to be retained beyond this season as he doesn’t fit into the ‘mad genius’ Mike Martz’s offensive system/philosophy. Even the Bears fans that were not truly enamoured with Olsen would agree that he needed to be incorporated into the offense more and that the team was at its most successful passing the ball when he was at the focal point.

More action was to take place at Tight End with the signing of Matt Speath from Pittsburgh, Speath is a 270 pound monster who will act as a blocking tight end in the way that Martz hoped Brandon Manumaleuna would the season before when he was signed to a 5 year contract, Manu was let go hours after Speath signed due to injury/lack of fitness.

The Bears then finally dipped there toe into the free agency pool with acquisition of Roy Williams and Vernon Gholston who were both released from their previous teams and thought of as ‘busts’ Gholston especially came into the league as one of the college games best pass rushers but the change to the New York Jets 3-4 system did nothing for his game and he recorded no sacks in his three years at the Jets. Williams was also seen by most as the cheap option as he had been unconvincing since his trade from division rivals Detroit Lions to the Dallas Cowboys, but it was in Detroit under Martz that Williams had his most productive seasons and is said to be eager to get back to work in a system that suits him more that Dallas.

Two more former first round picks, who had not lived up to the billings were brought in as Marion Barber and Amobi Okoye signed up over the weekend. Barber is a combative running back who could add the explosive short yardage game that the Bears truly needed and did not get from last year’s big free agent acquisition Chester Taylor, but that combative style has had its effect on Barber who had seen his effectiveness diminish in Dallas. Okoye is the prototype 4-3 defensive tackle that could be a direct replacement for Tommie Harris and should split time with second round draft pick Stephen Paea. After being selected in the first round by the Houston Texans Amobi put up steady numbers but not ones that merit the tenth pick in the draft, his 11 sacks in four seasons is only one more than Detroit Lions Defensive Rookie of the Year Ndamukong Suh achieved in one season, but at only 24 and the chance to work with one of the league’s top defensive line coaches there is a ton of upside to this young man.

This still left the Bears with the Offensive Line to address and as they headed to camp in Bourbonnais no word had been mentioned about several key unrestricted free agents. Daniel Manning headed to pastures new in Houston and the Bears finally came to terms with DT Anthony Adams and LB Nick Roach (they have also just resigned Desmond Clark to bolster the TE department, even though Clark was the forgotten man of 2010 and rarely used) but the man seen by players, coaches, media and fans as the one player who must be resigned was nowhere to be seen. Olin Kreutz has been the heartbeat of the Chicago Bears in the 13 season since they drafted him 64^th pick back in 1998. While his best days are certainly behind him he is the undoubted locker room leader and one of only two veteran players that would start on the O Line. He also plays the one position that requires a direct link between players as the center/Quarter Back exchange starts all (baring a trick play) football plays. After a drawn out process the Bears parted ways with the teams second all time leader in games played and a six time pro bowler, all for a difference of $500,000, he wanted $4.5m the Bears would pay $4m. Now to me and you half a million dollars is a ton of money but for a franchise that has to spend 90% of its roughly $120m cap this season, and that gave a backup tight end $15m with $6.1 guaranteed this is chump change. The Bears then announced the signing of Chris Spencer, who surprise surprise is another under achieving former first round pick that was jettisoned by his team.

So to summarise, the Bears have lost their locker room leader, their only pro bowl calibre pass catcher and replenished the team with former first round picks who have under achieved. Whether this will be a successful policy will remain to be seen but for a team that was in the NFC Championship game and with so much talent around to bolster a good core and some exceptional players this is back to the old cheap and underwhelming off seasons that Bears fans are used to.