There has been plenty of talk about the junior players we have coming through. Although this paints a good picture I think many believe that they are ready now to play NRL. I personally think this could be the start of something positive if we invest in our pathways model.
Having said that I think that we (certainly on this forum) are over-valuing our 'elite' juniors and not signing the hardened veterans we need to stop the rot. That is easy to say - but until we up our on field performance and table position this will be a big battle for us as we will be pinning our future on players on the way down and those on the way up withough having the necessary hardened core to make it all work.
It is a chicken and egg problem though - and the key to it is having the draw cards to bring in the players who are FG proven and starting to hit their straps. Benji and Richo have enabled us to improve in this area but we still need to develop a critical mass of peak level veterans to carry and develop the junior talent and enough elite players to keep us in the top 4 on a regular basis.
This isn't happening overnight and our performances to date have been underwhelming. To get there though we need to stay the course and turn our developing players into that hardened core and maintain them. So while we talk about pathways and how important that aspect is (as it gives us cap space), probably more importaint is our retention plan.
