Well I did say "it is a question of degree", so we are in agreement with that. So far, besides Moylan, we have not missed one single player we have let go in the alleged "high turnover" a significant degree. Api, TMM, Segeyaro are all good players, but not great players and certainly not worth losing any sleep over.
Not everyone you miss has to be a superstar or even that good. Certain players fit a role or plug a gap. In isolation I don’t lose any sleep over them, but in terms of the squad we have missed players.
A few examples -
Peachey - Provided our backline with X factor. His form was has been bad at the titans but that doesn’t mean he would’ve played like that for us.
Rein - We let him go despite Wallace being broken and our back up options were poor.
Robert Jennings - at various points we lacked decent backline depth, we had to play guys like MWZ instead.
But you ignore my comments about the starting position. You can't be stable if you are starting with a poor spine. The Roosters will be on their third halfback in 4 years next year. Coupled with a new fullback and a new five eight the Roosters have turned over most of their spine in four years. Because of their status, they are able to sign proven performers like Tedesco and Keary whereas we get old stagers like Soward and Wallace and have also tried a few juniors. Meanwhile, we have at least been competitive as we have looked for a quality spine to take the club forward.
Obviously a spine is vitally important, but it’s not a great spine or bust. You need experienced players around a good spine when you find them. How is someone like Cleary supposed to lead an inexperienced team? He doesn’t have the skill set to do that.
You can't reduce turnover until you get something worth holding onto. Our red zone attacking stats over the last four years highlight this in dayglo orange. Whether Cleary is worth holding on to is open to debate. I think if we complement him with the right players he can succeed, albeit not as a star $1m halfback.
You seem to see everything as though it’s Black & White. They need to be a star otherwise get rid of them. Squads don’t work like that, there are many role players, many journeyman.
A major reason our red zone attacking stats are bad because we put everything in to a halfback who can’t create points. That’s on Phil Gould. It’s going to be much harder to find players to compliment Cleary because we gave him a $1 million contract.
