This year is ours.
We've had a pretty good run actually. It's been 10 years since our last truly poor season. At the end of 2003, there was very little internally at the club that you could look to and say "that gives me hope". We employed a turnstile called Cory Pearson, a great touch football player called Hasan Saleh, a tryer called Fitzhenry and a reserve grade half called Ben Jeffries.
But Benji came along, Princey, Richards and a few other fringe players got signed, and most importantly, the first real products of our junior systems came through the following year. We reaped the benefits of this, particularly the junior crop, up until this season. We weren't great for all of that time, but we weren't as bad as now either. But with most of those juniors now gone, it's time to rebuild. And to truly rebuild, you need to bottom out, which is what this season represents.
Over the last 10 years, current powerhouses Manly, Souths, Easts, the Cowboys, and the Dogs have all had dreadful years. We've hung nearly 50 on all of those teams in their lean years (bar Manly). Manly's bad year helped uncover Anthony Watmough. The others, caused by financial mismanagement, poor recruitment and injury toll, helped sweep a broom through clubs, be it in player ranks or admin staff. I see similarities between these clubs and our current predicament.
Those clubs above, and others I haven't mentioned, like the Warriors, the Titans and the Raiders, all emerged from bad years with better playing rosters and a realisation that things needed to change. That process is already beginning here too and I doubt in coming years they'll be too many 50 point losses.
So please, some of you, suck it up. This is the year that had to happen.
We've had a pretty good run actually. It's been 10 years since our last truly poor season. At the end of 2003, there was very little internally at the club that you could look to and say "that gives me hope". We employed a turnstile called Cory Pearson, a great touch football player called Hasan Saleh, a tryer called Fitzhenry and a reserve grade half called Ben Jeffries.
But Benji came along, Princey, Richards and a few other fringe players got signed, and most importantly, the first real products of our junior systems came through the following year. We reaped the benefits of this, particularly the junior crop, up until this season. We weren't great for all of that time, but we weren't as bad as now either. But with most of those juniors now gone, it's time to rebuild. And to truly rebuild, you need to bottom out, which is what this season represents.
Over the last 10 years, current powerhouses Manly, Souths, Easts, the Cowboys, and the Dogs have all had dreadful years. We've hung nearly 50 on all of those teams in their lean years (bar Manly). Manly's bad year helped uncover Anthony Watmough. The others, caused by financial mismanagement, poor recruitment and injury toll, helped sweep a broom through clubs, be it in player ranks or admin staff. I see similarities between these clubs and our current predicament.
Those clubs above, and others I haven't mentioned, like the Warriors, the Titans and the Raiders, all emerged from bad years with better playing rosters and a realisation that things needed to change. That process is already beginning here too and I doubt in coming years they'll be too many 50 point losses.
So please, some of you, suck it up. This is the year that had to happen.
