I have known albert for 3-4 years now and he doesn't strike me as the most loyal kid.
I was having a conversation with him 2 years ago and we were talking about his contract situation with parra. At the time he was still contracted for another couple of years and then his exact words were "then it's time for albey to get paid". I then asked if this would be with parra and he said "nah whoever pays me the most".
Albert was placed with a family when moving from kempsey and he was enrolled at Patrician Brothers Blacktown. His attendance was quite poor and despite this Parra continued to let him play. He even left the family who were putting him up and went to stay in "the block" in redfern and Kevin Wise would go and pick him up for school, get him to Parra training and then drop him off back in redfern.This kid is a prime example of what is wrong with this club and why there was friction between Hindmarsh and the younger brigade last year. Our gun juniors are allowed to strut around like superstars and are paid as such and as a result our salary cap management is the worst in the NRL.
People like Kevin Wise and Ben Rogers are too focused on winning junior rep titles rather than developing first graders. Quite often our Junior Rep squads are talked up as if they will produce many future first graders only to produce nothing. I believe the reason for this is because these squads have 2-3 standouts that carry the rest of the squad to good results and as a result the club loses focus on developing all the players in all their squads. Anyone who has seen this years Harold Matt's would know that Jacob Gagan is miles ahead of everyone else and without him, we are left with a side that would finish 4th-6th and yet some of these guys will still be signed to contracts well beyond their abilities.
Now we are being told a good portion of the money that Finch was on is going to be used to re-sign 2 teenagers who can be easily replaced. This is the same thing we have done for a few seasons now and the results show. We were one game away from the grand final in 2007 and we then let Timana Tahu and P.J Marsh go without bringing in replacements.
Look at what the bulldogs have done in 1 off season. They let go of a bunch of players with crap attitudes, kept some very good juniors and went and signed the likes of Kimmorley, Hannant, Ennis, Morris, Stagg, Eastwood etc.
