I see everyone saying its been a ten year rebuild etc. And it will continue to be a rebuild unless we stick with a coach and a plan. We are in this situation because of constant change and lack of direction. Now we have direction and purpose. Truthfully the rebuild starts now
Starts now? Madge has been here for almost 2 years and we are starting the rebuild now, so how long do we have to wait, another 2, 3, 5 years?
I know it's frustrating mate and I'm sick of waiting too. The issue effecting Madges rebuild is these big contracts still on the books which are just killing us and no one wants to take them off our hands. Madge is battling with this roster and waiting for some serious funds to play with. All he can do is persist with a change in attitude in the meantime which isn't really getting through to some atm.
Yeah, was more reacting to the rebuild starts now line, there is more to a rebuild then simply getting rid of those big contracts and signing new players. That sort of rebuild won't work, and its not what madge is doing anyway. He started the rebuild the day he walked into the club.
I do have a few problems with how our rebuild is going but you can't say it hasn't started yet. I think people saying that are trying to buy Maguire more time, and no I'm not calling for him to be sacked.
I think so far we have been too reactive and not proactive enough in the player market. We have been mostly signing players who are getting released from other clubs, which to me shows a lack of planning. Where are the signings for next year, we have quite a bit of money for next season and the market has been open since November and nothing as really eventuated yet. Are we again we again waiting for players to be released.
Areas we are doing well in with our rebuild, is we are signing up good young players with potential, hopefully they pay off. The culture is slowly starting to improve, we do seem to be tougher mentally but then we still drop that in games where we are expected to win. Lastly some of our players are showing improvement in their games under Madge, mainly forwards, our skill players have regressed in my opinion.
All I was saying is our rebuild doesn't start now but started 2 years ago as seen by my post.
This is your detailed post?
*I think so far we have been too reactive and not proactive enough in the player market*
With what money? who was available that we had a chance at? Were you in the board room? Are we talking about madge who had a crakc at mitchell and instead got lucy, Bj, douhei etc. Are they improvements on what we had? Yes they have been all let go by other teams but who hasnt. For example lets take para they picked up, sivo, rcg, matterson, moses, brown, takarangai, jennings all from teams that had "let them go"
*Where are the signings for next year, we have quite a bit of money for next season and the market has been open since November and nothing as really eventuated yet.*
Who has been available that would have fixed our issues who would You have picked? Nearly every player resigned with their club outside of fafita who was never an option for us. How do you know we didn't talk to 30 people and just didn't pan out.
Then you contradict your above statement by saying we have signed well with young players. Maybe our focus is to get young players because the older ones are unattainable at a price we can or are willing to afford.
*Lastly some of our players are showing improvement in their games under Madge, mainly forwards, our skill players have regressed in my opinion*
Ok so the area we have whinged about being weak in for years the forwards have improved. Awesome
Which skilled players have regressed i would struggle to name one.
This isn't detailed mate its as general as general gets.
Would take to long tonight to go into a detailed analysis of my opinion so ill do a general one.
The club has had some horrible experiences over the last 10 years.
We signed potter which was a risky move and it turned out bad.
Signing Taylor literally lost us our 4 best players at the time. This was our youth, our juniors, and our hope for the future.
It also cost us a tonne of bad publicity and negative raps from the league due to our handling of Robbie whether you are a fan or not.
Added to this during this time we have the disaster that was the west tiger's board with the Balmain saga and the consistent internal fighting.
Massive set backs both on and off the field leading to an average roster.
Out of all this, we find some stability with Pascoe and Go. They give us a huge leg up financially and set huge goals which they achieve e.g coe, solid sponsorship and board stability.
We boot taylor, Finally have minimal bad contracts club, fans and players buy into our new coach's ideas and philosophy. Due to his conversations on loyalty and buying in he is allowed to sign 4 dudes to massive lengthy contracts as they fit his philosophy. Surely its time a good coach with players HE wants in a system he has total control over.
You know the story so now we are back at the start
Half a salary cap, No juniors coming through, injured players on massive contracts. No coach a bog average roster, a ceo who was punished and cost us even more of what little salary cap we have.
In walk s coach Madge.
Hires super strong support staff.
Starts changing a culture that has had a soft underbelly for 10 years.
Does his best to sign a high profile player in Latrell
signs 10 amazingly talented young juniors from other clubs.
Has a plan from juniors through to first grade.
Has set a focus on producing local juniors.
Holds players accountable.
Shows emotion.
ISnt happy with the status quo and shows it.
Has signed decent players on decent contracts.
So am i optimistic? yeah, I am because after all those years we were a basket cases we have a chance to finally come out the other end. We have clear goals, we have a developing identity, we have a future in player development, we have a solid coaching recruitment staff.
So while not super detailed that is were my optimism comes from. Jumping up and down about where we were in the past has zero benefit.
Its the same reason we study history in schools, it so we dont make the same mistakes again.
