I understand you are a fanboi, as is your right. I am not but you seem to think you can convince me otherwise, which will never happen.
I have read and heard enough of his opinions to form my own. His biggest problem is his ego, he believes in his own publicity but he says some very unintelligent things for mine and he speaks in rhetoric quiet a lot, which is normally a sign that he hasn't thought the details through or doesn't have any detail..
Penrith and Dragons fans dont think too highly of him either after his efforts to improve them, Panthers only improved after he left yet he spent 5 years there.
To the contrary, I'm not trying to convince you at all because I think you are a stubborn old goat. I am only stating my own opinion which is contrary to yours. I am fairly cynical overall, but when it comes to one of the few passions I have in RL and someone as capable as Gould even with his immense ego and agendas at times, I feel he too has a genuine love of the game and its overall growth and development.
I can't see anyone else with his pedigree taking on this massive task to get the game up off the ground and actually push back the steady infiltration and growth of AFL in all our RL backyards. He at least has the ear of the most powerful man in RL at the moment in V'Landys and together they may work out a good way to use the limited funds the NRL has to grow the pie at grass roots level here, the Pacific Islands and NZ as they have already stated.
As for leaving the Panthers in a bad state, what? If he had left them in a bad state how on earth would they be leading the comp just over a season after he left? Sure some of his hiring and firing look weird to say the least from the outside, but we don't know for sure all the circumstances do we? I for one could not understand why on earth he sacked Ivan Cleary in the first place, who to the contrary of many here I rate him and always have very highly.
But his junior development and pathways are producing quality players, are they not? I mean they have lost so many quality players in the last 3 years or so and yet they are still replacing all those players with quality that has seen them take the lead in the competition now for the last to weeks. So hardly the failure or disaster there mate as much as you would like to paint one.
As for the Dragons, how does he get the rap for their years of failure. Just because the fans don't like that he didn't recommend Mary's sacking? Well he wasn't tasked with that and no one knows exactly what he recommended anyway. Maybe they took on board Gould's recommendations, maybe not or maybe some and not others. Who knows, but hardly his fault for them being crap.
So again, this post is not one trying to convince you of anything. It is more me trying to set the record straight over all the negative baggers that delight in whinging and criticising at the drop of a hat people they just don't like for whatever reason. Yeah, Gould can be polarizing, but he can also be brilliant. So I want and am willing to give the brilliant Gould time to do what has been desperately needed for decades to restore the game at all the lower levels. If he stuffs it up well then he would of tried and failed, but at least someone tried. At the moment no one is doing anything different so we are slowly sinking in a forever expanding and very stormy AFL sea.
Maybe you should stick to your "slow news day" comment. It seems to be more your speed.
