Everyone seems happy to be getting rid of these big contracts for these guys.
One thing that most are overlooking though is who is going to mentor and bring the new guys through, providing experience in all things preparation and professionalism off the field?
This off season we have lost 756 games worth of top grade experience, with 37 pre seasons worth of preparation, 15 SOO apperances, 57 Internationals, 35 finals appearances including 7 grand finals and 2 premierships, out of our starting pack.
Our remaining forwards (Api, Twal, May, Hunt, Seyfarth, Pole and Fainu) combined - are a pale comparison to these 4 blokes we have lost in terms of experience. Yes we were shit the past 2 years but I think most would agree that Pole, Seyfarth and Fainu have all improved and that is in no small part due to the influence of the experienced guys in day to day preparation - both at training and on game days, eating correctly, mentally adjusting to professionalism and just in general living within the public eye. These guys are still a work in progress and yes we have brought some experience in with hunt and May, but they only have 130 games between them as well.
Our senior mentors are Api and Twal. Api speaks for himself but Alex is only really experienced in club land prep and having experienced 0 Finals, 0 Origin and a couple of Tests for Lebanon in a world cup, he hasnt got much big game knowledge to impart either. Our coaching staff wont be much help either except probably Heighno and Benji to some degree.
So while yes, its a positive to have all this money and under performing stars off the books, what we have lost off the field could prove very costly indeed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.