People who are quick to come on here and bag Ricky need to sit back take a few breathes and look at how the club was run the last few years, its here you will get your answers to how/why the 2013 season has become what it has.
This all started back when the club sacked DA, we sacked a coach who got us to a Grand Final a season and a bit before the sacking, I cant remember the last time a coach was sacked that close after reaching a GrandFinal.
We then went out and decided SK was the next greatest thing for our club and from early on (well for me anyway) it wasn't going to work. In his first season incharge of recruitment he went out and signed players at the end of their careers, players like Webb, Hicks, Walker. To me it looked like panic signings, and not decisions of that of a NRL quality head coach. We had the perfect opportunity to make 2011 the year to have a young team and get rid of dead wood. Now SK decided to play it safe and made the wrong decision for the club moving forward.
Now not only that but he decided to resign some players on big contracts both year wise and money wise that again put our club behind AGAIN!
Then the club brings in Ricky, now he came onboard far too late to have a crack at any half decent players for our squad for 2013, and also due to some contracts players were on didn't have the money we should have had to play with. So he decided to stick out 2013 with some dead wood, and bring in as many younger players as he could (keep in mind the 2nd tier cap) We have seen some real bright lights make their debuts for our club this year, Kelepi, Tangino and Kaysa, these are the building blocks towards the future of our club.
The start of the season Ricky HAD Izzy signed sealed delivered, only for Scumbert to say no.
Ricky then has both Matthew Scott and James Tamou a step before signing a contract only for loyalty to come into play for both players to stay at the Cowboys. Im not even going to start on the Papalli mess.
Since Ricky has signed some great talent and a key to this is age, a lot of youth, if you can see what he has done this year he has thought about the Future of OUR club. The cleanout had to happen and we need to start from square one again, he finally had the balls to do it.
We have had a very bad run this year in regards to injury (not a huge toll like the tigers) but of the quality that has been injured. Hayne has missed almost half the season, Sandow has had his problems, Loko has been missing, Tonga for most. We don't have the quality depth though to replace key injuries thanks to past management.
I really hope Ricky stays, I truly believe what he has done so far for this club is exactly what we have needed done for about 3 years. The talk around the club is 2014 is the start of the climb and then 2015 we are real contenders.
Start buying into this Fans and support the changes Ricky has made because this club is almost past this mess we were left in, the future is starting to look bright and we are about to become a force once again.
(probably forget to mention some things, will add to this later)