I see Moylan and Cartwright have just re-signed for Penrith until the end of 2021\. This is why the Panthers are succeeding with the building from within approach and the Tigers - so far - are not. They identify the players they want to build round and move to lock them up long term.
*cough*Chris Lawrence*cough*
Two things on this.
One: we'll never know what Lawrence would have been had he not had his hip injury. Any player can have a horrible, one-off injury that lowers their ceiling, so either clubs shouldn't give deals of more than a couple of years at all or they have to accept that injury will make some of them bad investments. In theory it's part of how you get discounts for longer-term deals: we'll give you five years at less per year than someone else will give you for two, but you're now covered for injury.
Two: I mentioned in my first post that a club has to back its assessment of talent. Maybe Cartwright will always be shaky defensively and prone to turning over the ball, and the Panthers won't get their money's worth. But if you wait until a player realises their potential before backing it you end up with what the Tigers are going to have with Tedesco and - possibly - Moses: young players off contract at the top of their game with dozens of clubs chasing them and willing to pay full price.
