I'll take your last paragraph to answer your first. Yes it's almost certain that Farah would be in 1st grade over Mcinnes ( similar to cook). That's why Mcinnes decided to leave, to keep playing 1st grade. Cook seems to be OK with being number 2. Richo can't magically make a player leave if he doesn't want to. If that was true then why the hell is Dane Nelsen still at the club
You say a bloke who just turned 23 last fortnight has no improvement? That's one of the most ludacris things you've said, and that's saying a lot. Name one hooker outside of Smith and Luke who was a premier hooker at 22?. Micheal ennis was a fringe first grader in his early years at the knights, dragons and broncos. It wasn't until his last year at the broncos when he was 24 that people noticed he was a decent hooker. Jake Friend was seen as an Achilles heel at the roosters, until he had a breakout year 2013 as a 23 year old. When peats left us as a 23 year old not many souths fans were dissapointed. When he was available last year, everyone hoped we could somehow sign him back. Robbie Farah wasn't good enough for origin until he was 25. He was dropped after 1 game and didn't get back until he was 28. McCullough wasn't noticed as a key broncos player until 2015 when he was 25. The list goes on . You can't right off a hooker at 22 as being no hope.
Again we have a story of a 'mate' who agrees completely 100 percent with your argument. It's bizarre you never have a mate that disagrees with you.
The reason he's worth $470k is that despite your accusations that he is completely hopeless, he somehow gets good stats. In fact he had one of the top 5 fantasy games of any player last year. This is built on defence, a part of the game I'm 100% sure you close eyes for. Again stats only tell some of the story. I concede Mcinnes has flaws, but being so young he has time to fix them.
You have bizarre limits of loyalty. You regularly run down players who delivered our 21st premiership, who go about their business with no fuss, while idolising players who didn't help who have asked for releases on more then 1 occasion. Tyrrell had to be sacked for putting his hands near his hips at training, as that was a cancer that could seriously harm the club , but cook threatening a release to get more money out of the club was fantastic and a great sign of loyalty
Except McTortoise has gone to a basket case. My Dragons mate has been saying they are a basket case and will struggle to win many games again this season. Cook is not running away from it either. McTortoise didn't have any confidence in taking on Cook or Farah this season. I mean how could you have any confidence when Cook got us going as GI said himself today in which I posted a link in a new thread. Cook is taking Farah head on like a warrior. It's great to see and they'll bring out the best in one another.
Richo can't make a player leave is correct, but he can tell them they'll be no chance of them playing first grade which is most likely what's happened with Dane as he has not featured in any of our trials whatsoever.
Well imo Cam hasn't improved. From his first game for us against Dragons at the SCG in which he played very well in he's gone backwards. Not ludicrous at all, it's how I see it and I'm not the only one to think so.
By the way I was disappointed that Peats left. When he was at hooker he was much better in comparison with Cam.
I do have mates that disagree with me actually. They don't think Gray is a loss with his injury but I think he's a loss.
All Cam does is tackle, that's all he's good at. Definitely will be nowhere near my fantasy side.
If Souths saw a bright future for him we'd have rallied hard to keep him at the end of last season. But they've opted for the better choice, that is the guy who strongly contributed to getting the forwards rolling forward and was quick in his decision making.
As I said Cook asking for a release and the same can be said for Cody is that they really wanted to stay at Souths but looked at options which they wouldn't take to get Souths to offer a longer contract. Nothing wrong with that at all. That's called doing what's best for yourself at the club you want too. I don't think it was all about the money for Cook, it was about getting longer security in a place he loves.
I like Tyrrell but he declined rapidly and sadly should now have the boots hung up.
He is past it. Hands on hips or not doesn't matter, he shouldn't be anywhere near first grade this season. Other clubs players will be licking their lips if Dave is in our side as he's now cannon fodder.