Beyond the inserts and Panthers set, I hadn't really had a proper look through the checklist before now, and I'm a bit surprised just how few rookie cards there are.
I know there are limitations in terms of production deadlines and NRL involvement/control of player choices, but to have no Adam Reynolds, Conrad Hurrell or Corey Norman - who were in their clubs' top 17s from round 1 - just hammers home the point made by ESP in another thread about the content/players in Select releases being too state.
Compounding the lack the rookies is the inclusion of several players who were out for the season from about round 1-2 - Brett White, Nathan Smith - who have had no bearing on their clubs' fortunes in 2012.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in past years, I thought the Series 2 usually had stats until about round 7-8 of the existing season. For Dynasty it is only round 4. Maybe Select had tougher print slots this year or maybe they just wanted to pump out their last NRL set and be done with it, but the earlier cut off shows when you look at the checklist.
It probably won't irk a lot of folk, who are more insert-focused, and I appreciate Select has tried to give rookies more attention in insert sets over the past two seasons (though usually a season or three after they've debuted), but it annoys me when the common team sets end up being a fairly non-reflective record of the season.
I'm still looking forward to Dynasty, liking the insert variety and hit-rates, and haven't been able to get excited at all about ESP's upcoming rep set - but their comments about more relevant/fresh sets still has me welcoming them having a shot with the NRL licence.