Tbh we probably should have shed more players as well
Bingo. If you need to shed players because they're overpaid for their performance, do it. Do it hard and do it quickly, because that's the quickest way to getting to the point where you can start to add again. The Tigers have been half pregnant since 2013 and show no sign of getting anywhere else.
For starters I don't agree you get results by cutting 10+ players every season. GC have cut around half their Top 25 each of the last 3 years. You risk losing your combinations / team experience. You talk about Tigers still shedding players, but as an example Gold Coast are clearly STILL shedding players as well.
If you shed players you have to replace them, you need a squad. So a middle-depth player really can only be replaced by another middle-depth, each club only has so much money to splash on marquees. What you need is to maximise the performance of your cheaper players, not just keep swapping them in and out.
Secondly, sure Titans signed a few good opportune players last year, but they didn't already have a Tedesco or Woods in their side. They have very young halves, picked up a returning veteran, a moved-on hooker, a kiwi backrower and an Englishman. Sounds VERY like Tigers in recent years.
Thirdly, Titans have finished exactly one spot above or behind us 4/5 previous seasons: 2016 9 v 8, 2015 14 v 15, 2014 13 v 14, 2013 15 v 9, 2012 10 v 11\. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Look, I'm not holding the Titans up as a recipe for success. I just think that after years of mediocrity their next 2-3 years at the moment look better than ours, because they've managed to import quality at the same time instead of piecemeal. The Tigers seem to be caught in a never-ending cycle of being right on the cap because they're only shedding contracts at a painfully slow rate (often with significant freight being paid for years). As I've said before, barring a miracle in 2017 the Tigers have already wasted the opportunity Brooks, Moses and Tedesco gave them because by 2018 they will either have left or be earning market rate. Once you're paying juniors full whack they are no longer any different to any other free agent.
You're trying to compare their signings with Idris, Ballin, Blair and Ellis - but the Tigers signed those four in 2016, 2015, 2012 and 2010 and no more that two of them ever played together. AND the like-for-like comparison doesn't even include Hurrell (assuming veteran = Hayne, hooker = Peats, backrower = Proctor and Englishman = Sarginson).
In fact, it's possible to make a case that the Titans have done extraordinarily well to avoid bottoming out while they went through a rebuild. It's a testament to how quickly the likes of Elgey and - especially - Taylor settled into first grade that 2015 and 2016 were ok for them. They're taking a side that finished 8th in 2016 and adding mostly class players, including a full season of Jarryd Hayne and Konrad Hurrell. Meanwhile what they've lost is either past it or fringe quality. Look at Greg Bird: two years ago he was a rep quality player, in 2016 he was fringe average and now he's gone. If he was a Tiger you could guarantee we'd still be paying him for 2017 and 2018, probably to play for someone else.
As I say, I'd be cautious to say the Titans are going to be a juggernaut or anything. But you'd have to like their chances of finishing ahead of the Tigers in 2017\. And, frankly, for several years to come - there is categorically no indication that the Tigers will be able to add anything worthwhile to their roster once they've re-signed as many of the 'big four' as they can. If they've got no cap money now they're hardly going to free any up after they've handed out three or four big new deals.
