Low expectations Wests Tigers fan motto circa 2006..
soon to be followed by the 'next year' posts as we re build onwards and upwards..
We have had good years between 2006 and now.
If you expected Cleary to do better than he has with what he was given then you had irrational expectations in my view.
Cleary recruited or re-signed more than 75% of the current starting 17..Yes I expected him to do better
Yeah but he recruited / re-signed them in the space of, what, 6 months Apr-Oct/17 (not including Mbye)?
One recruitment drive and all issues are fixed, Top 8 here we come? Just because the one coach did the recruitment for that period?
I could have expected Cleary to do better if he'd recruited top-quality players, or a few tactical signings into what was already a pretty good roster. He could not do either in his first season, we went after blokes like Widdop and RTS and they said no, used us to up their current deals.
Most of Ivan's signings were good - Reynolds has not delivered yet, Packer been better than average, Mats a bit average, Rochow was a value signings anyway, Thommo great, Fonua great, Milne self-destructed, Godinet another bargain-bin buy, Benji worked out well so far, Mbye is a pretty good one pending play…
Brooks, Lawrence all clearly improved since Cleary became coach. Marsters given a run and now one of our better players.
Overall I reckon pretty good effort in one-round of signings. Not Cleary's fault either that Tedesco left.
But he's still encumbered with teh rest of the squad. Perhaps yes he recruited 75% of the current 17, it makes sense he'd play the blokes he recruited, but what about the other 13? Aloiai, Sue, McQueen, Grant, Felise, MCK etc. all fairly average FGers