With the new year approaching, Edinburgh Monarchs are still not able to name their line-up for next season. While it was confirmed that Robert Eriksson and Kevin Little have signed, Monarchs are waiting to complete their top-four before completing their bottom end of the team.
John Campbell added in the Scotsman:
"We're talking to Peter Carr and have entered negotiations with Peterborough over Ross Brady who rode well for us on loan last season."
In the case of Carr, who is a Monarchs' asset, it appears that is merely a matter of finalizing details. With Ross Brady, the complication is that Peterborough hold his contract. Another year's loan should not present any difficulties since Brady has expressed his intention to ride for Monarchs next year. However, Monarchs wish to go for a full transfer. Peterborough are embroiled in putting their own team together so little progress has been made.
The remainder of the team should present no problems assuming that the aformentioned top-four are signed. The remaining second string place appears likely to go to Blair Scott although Stewart McDonald would also fit the bill. Either would leave enough points left to allow David McAllan and a new three-point rider to come in at reserve. Brian Turner is another possibility to replace McAllan should he fail to recover from the operation on his injured knee.
The likely team should certainly be competitive. It could contain five of the team that started last season. With Robert Eriksson a straight swap from James Grieves, the only substantive change would be the replacement of a five to six-point rider (Stewart McDonald or Blair Scott) by a three-point rider. By contrast, Sheffield will probably end up replacing a nine-point rider (André Compton) by a three-pointer. Newport are likely to be ripped apart to accommodate the points limit.
Armadale is statisically the biggest home fortress in the Premier League. While Monarchs were twice beaten there last season by the Newcastle team stffed with Armadale specialists. The likely team Monarchs team should be capable of dominating most, if not all, teams at Armadale.
However, the key to success is performance on big away tracks. The Premier League is biased towards the bigger tracks and last season Monarchs generally struggled at places such as Sheffield, Exeter, and the Isle of Wight. Ross Brady is excellent at such strips and should score a lot more points next year now that he has experience on all tracks. Robert Eriksson doesn't carry the mental hang-ups with big tracks that afflicted James Grieves last season. Kevin Little and Peter Carr are normally good performers on big tracks but both struggled at times last season for different reasons. Kevin suffered from a loss of confidence following several bad falls and was also affected with engine problems. Peter's problems were largely related to getting out of the starts on his Dunlop tyres. Blair Scott was always regarded as an excellent big track rider but was very inconsistent last year.
If Monarchs can get Peter Carr and Kevin Little back to their best away from home with consistent double figure scores on the road, then Monarchs should be capable of challenging for honours once more.
Hard information on the composition of the team will be given as soon as it is available.