I actually think Hartigan was a smart recruit when we got him and the fruits of his work needed time - it was never a quick win. He was one I wanted to stay around for a while.
With Sheens coming, having a GM of football as well was never going to work. Sheens is hands on, he was always going to bring in his flavor to our setup and Hartigan role was always going to reduce.
With another NRL team joining the fold our method of not paying overs and sticking to our principles 100% of the time just isn’t smart business.
I just hope Sheens doesn’t blow our budget, he does like to throw money at recruits and just hope in 2-3yrs we aren’t looking at a bunch of wasted $$$ on the sideline or has been players.
That is my worry too, I'll back Sheens as he is here now and in control, but he did stuff our Cap on multiple occasions while he was here the 1st time.
Time will tell.
One thing is for sure ….. we desperately needed some circuit breakers and I always thought the first of those would have been a high profile signing.
But this change, from another angle, may also prove effective and hopefully may push us into a better position on both fronts ….. coaching and recruitment.
The club had to do something to effect large scale change and they now did.
So we can now just watch, hope and pray that it brings positive results to the club and us fans ….. on and off the field.
We had to buy a real solid FG, Hodgson may be that one, but prior to him, we didn’t seem interested in getting into that game, unfortunately that was on Hartigan, if he thought we needed to up our bids to players, he had the chance, which he didn’t appear to take?
Maybe he thought that all clubs were like Easts, where players are drawn to there success? Instead of getting us the players we needed?
The TPJs, JACs and LMs of the world are not the ones I would blow my money on though.
It’s semantics who, but we need someone , is my point. Sitting here waiting for development to evolve is not acceptable either imo.
Yeah you get one shot though so it has to be the right person. You blow it and it effects you for years. So we don't just need someone, we need the right person, that's what got us in this mess to start with.
Sorry, but the right person, is someone, I never indicated that it should be a Neville?
I’m not sure how someone like JAC would have gone, but he brings cred and other players attention to the team, that may have been interested, but moved on and looked elsewhere.
But I don’t mean to blow our load on someone obscure, I hope we retain the philosophy we currently have, of looking at solid players.
Unfortunately, with the pressure on the club (and now Sheens) to get some success, they may well do something from left field?
That is the worry. We are already seeing clubs dangle their cast-offs in front of us, and we are biting regardless of need, cost and what they will add to the side. It is about perception and nothing else