That Sandow and a couple of centres will turn the club around are deadset kidding themselves. Clean out is required of the highest order.....
Dragons are the benchmark and they haven't even made it to halftime and they are getting pantsed. Sure, they are completing their sets but their is no commitment to defence in the slightest.
The club need to make a serious commitment to moving ahead and look at some clubs ho have basically started their recruitemnt at the lower levels and re-built from there.
The Academy is pretty much a good start, but we have had five coaches in a similar amount of years yet we still see the same results time and again.
Pick the eyes out of all of the Under 20's teams, give them an opportunity at first grade and stick with them over 12-18 months and develop a team around a few senior players.
The current mob, 1-17 are basically a f**king rabble and few are deserved of a first grade jumper.
We are a f**king disgrace, that much is clear. We're an embarrassment made up mostly of park footballers and has beens. There are literally only 3 or 4 players worthy of a first grade spot in our side at the moment...Horo was good today, but niether half is good enough to put him in the holes he hits. Mannah is a star, Fui always does his best and McGuire is a handy player. Hindy is still solid, as is Burt. Reddy and Hayne are horrifically overrated and on todays performance Reddy would get the chop if I were coaching. He was shocking.
We have some good young talent, but that's not much good to us at this stage. Allgood looks the goods, Lasalo has had flashes, as has Loko...but they're clearly not ready. Stanley today showed what a young fella who is ready looks like and sadly (apart from Allgood, maybe) none of ours are. Loko did well to come back from being shredded by Gasnier and make a few good tackles, but his defence on the whole is rubbish. Lasalo, as well, has issues with defence and concentration. Keating and Poore are injured, Mitchell can't get a run. Shackleton has been a let down and has a lot to prove, but he's not playing his preferred position.
Basically, outside those guys, none are worth the price of a jersey. Ben Smith has become a burden, the halves are absolutely shocking, all the outside backs are horrible and not ready or not up to it. The few weak links in the pack wouldn't be an issue if not for the rest of the rubbish on the field.
Sandow would make an instant difference, though. We had a chance to put some points on today, and we couldn't do it. Our halves are horrible. Sandow will make us so much more competitive at least. Sure, he won't take us straight to the top 4, but he'll sure as shit make us a more dangerous side. A couple of good centres, too, would make a huge difference given the hacks we have at the moment. If we (and this is an example based on the rumours, nothing more) signed up Chambers and Tonga, for example, then all of a sudden we have a half who can get the ball to the backs, and two backs who can score tries (and TACKLE!). That's double what we have at the moment, with clueless halves and backs who may as well be statues.
But otherwise, I do agree. They won't make us premiership contenders. We'd be there or thereabouts, but we still wouldn't make it all the way. Hard decisions need to be made at that might mean losing some players that will be unpopular.
Personally, I wouldn't sign Reddy on if we can replace him. He's a good bloke, but seriously, as a strike centre he's way down the list and his defence is very, very overrated. Ben Smith would go as well, to whoever would have him. Hicks might as well retire now, he could have been good for us but at his age a decent ankle injury is pretty much curtains. Mortimer can be sold to whoever will take him...actually, scratch that, I'd PAY them to take him. Hayne needs a rocket, there is no way I would keep an underperforming kid with a god complex on his money. It'll be an unpopular decision but he soaks up so much of our cap, if he's going to be playing like a busted then a business decision will need to be made. He has to show that he deserves that money and that he deserves to be seen as our go to man, and since 2009 he hasn't been. Inu was pilloried and no one wanted him to stay...well Hayne has been nearly as disappointing. Hindmarsh, sadly, is getting to the point that he is past it honestly. I hate saying it, but I think it might be time for him to give it away? Obviously he still makes his tackles and does the clean up, but his inability to attack is becoming a real problem for us.
