I love the people saying let’s go after these bottom of the table fringe players, last thing we need to do now is panic buy, we need to be patient, otherwise we will be back in this position we are in, 5 years from now. We got api and papli’i, some experience in our pack and also a few to come back from injury that will be better for it. Promote a couple of our better young players (there’s not many in nsw cup) and then take next year as a loss already, go big in the market the following year. By then stefano and a couple of our other young forwards will be well versed in nrl level as well as simpkin if we can keep him. It’s not gunna be a matter of sign Lodge, sign brown now! That’ll just set us back, realistically they aren’t the fix and unless you get them for biscuits it’s only gunna set us back, we need young, hungry. Hopefully if we somehow convince Ciraldo he can convince a player like Leniu to come over.
The problem is the chicken comes before the egg.
That is the law of attraction.
You have to be appearing attractive to attract someone or something. Or you just throw a lot of cash at something as an alternative.
Hanging out for the next huge marquee to be interested in helping a bunch of kids grow within this comp is not realistic.
We need some experienced players in and around the squad to complement.
It doesn’t have to cost us an arm and a leg but it will be a worthwhile consideration of our cap money.
The problem with our past signings
Cleary era.
Paid over the odds for average to good players at the top of their game.
If, Packer, Matolino and Reynolds were fit and firing 2 seasons in to their contract it’s possible they wouldn’t of been terrible signings but they declined and we’re surrounded by other players on a similar decline.
Madge era.
Tried to bye players that can deliver the culture without being able to deliver a performance.
Tamou peachy etc are value signings from a cost perspective. But from an output perspective they were also on the decline,
paid a bench salary but we’re signed with the hope that we can extract starter performances from them.
Both strategies had merit and could of paid off to a point.
But they failed because the personal they contracted were on a decline.
Similar to signing Nathan Brown.
We might pick him up for 500k, he will work his but off in defence but will wear out quicker then he would at a club where he isn’t the focus. So you need to ask yourself if your signing Nathan brown on his own, is he worth 500? What if he lasts 1-2 seasons max.