It's very obvious the squad needs an overhaul because Wayne has inherited the stalled squad management that Demetriou thought was a good idea. After his 1st season in charge in 2022 when he took the Grand Finalist team that Wayne had left him to a prelim, he (and the rest of the genius R&R team) had the brilliant idea that Souths were going so well that we didn't need to recruit hardly any new players and just save our gun powder - while rivals all looked to improve. We were leading the comp halfway through 2023 and they were feeling vindicated before the wheels fell off spectacularly and we have crashed and burned since.
Wayne managed a few late recruitment alterations for this season but it's still not really his squad until he takes the scalpel to it now that he can. He needs to create as much free cap space as possible, hence the Dodd treatment in my opinion. He kicked okay but he fell off a lot of tackles in that second half - not alone there mind you.
The worst injury crisis in modern memory has also played a role no intelligent person can deny and of course, I mean duh, it filters down to the lower grades.
*We've managed to pinch a good young halfback from a reserve grade side that is doing well despite that club's 1st grade side still sucking.