You don’t have any self awareness bro. I literally told you that people don’t take kindly to having their concerns dismissed
I already knew this because I don't like having my concerns dismissed either. But I also don't expect others to give a shit about all the things that bother me or even agree that my concerns are valid.
and you responded with the rabid supporter base “fails to comprehend” the signing decisions like every decision the club makes is somehow infallible.
Not infallible, but definitely justifiable. There is risk in every recruitment/retention decision, yet you assume the clubs aren't aware of this fact. As the CEO said in his recent interview, every club makes recruitment/retention mistakes. The key is not making too many. Given the risks are realised (or not) after the decision is made, there is no way clubs could predict every outcome. The only way to avoid risk is to not have an NRL club.
I gave a recent example from another club (so it shouldn't be emotive for Eels fans and you merkins shouldn't automatically piss your knickers about it). The Tigers are prioritising Koroisau (33 next year) over Da Silva (21 next year). Are they making a good decision or not? Does Richardson know what he's doing? If Koroisau gets injured and barely plays, or if his performance declines while TDS becomes a star. Should the Tigers have foreseen this? Do you think they aren't aware it could play out this way?
You’d be a lot more intellectually honest if you assessed each signing decision on its individual merits instead of trying to explain everything away by presupposing that the correct decision was made each time.
We don't have enough information to assess each signing individually, because the key piece of information is how much cap space players are getting. All we can see is the strength of the roster in aggregate. And I'm not assuming the correct decision was made each time, because that's not how risk management works. Ever. Even referring to these decisions in terms of 'correct' or 'wrong' simplifies all the probability away, to make it easier for dopes to get their heads around. And keep consuming rugby league media.
Also you’re strawmanning me by claiming I said we can buy our way out of mediocrity. Where did I ever say that?
There's an assumption in your position that every club (if you assume we should be able to do it then you must logically believe every other club should be able to as well) should be able to sign all the players they need at any time to fill every gap in the roster with the ideal player at an appropriate price.
Also I’m not sure what you mean with your spiel about clubs overpaying players. Who said it doesn’t happen? Does that mean teams don’t buy good players at reasonable prices for their rosters anymore?
Well I'm certain that's what we're trying to do, which is why we're not announcing huge signings and instead being linked with players not in huge demand. Ryles even said we're not in a hurry to recruit players. There's an expectation within the game, and amongst player agents, that Parramatta is a place where you can go and get a big pay day rather than taking a reasonable contract and compete for premierships. If we ever do want to win premierships this expectation needs to change, and it starts by not agreeing to overpay every external signing that might benefit the club. For the fans it means we miss out on the likes of Galvin and probably TDS. It means we might offer a solid first grader like Garner (who would improve our squad, whatever you might think) a two year contract, because he turns 30 this year, but miss out because another club offered three years. Ideally, we would offer Garner one year but then he has no incentive to leave Penrith, because he is already contracted for 2026. Are we better off missing out than matching the three years? He's a better player than Tuilagi, at least in defence. Will Garner still be good enough for first grade at the age of 32? Does that question matter more than whether Garner will improve our team in 2026? Garner just wants to get paid and will almost certainly go wherever he can get an extra year in the NRL before he needs to start driving forklifts or whatever. It's up to the clubs to decide how long a contract they should offer (and for how much) and every club is aware there is risk, which is largely uncertain.
The merkins who don't understand concepts like risk and uncertainty are the fans who, when the risks are realised, happily complain that everyone should've known this was going to happen. And anyone who didn't is incompetent.