parra-matters said:
Looking back why did Norths, Balmain, Wests, St george and Illawarra all have to merge? I would rather have some of those teams back and send Souths to siberia.
They didn't have to merge. Apart from Norths, they all chose to merge.
parra-matters said:
They are the Joke of the league, once the pride now the joke.
Hard to argue with that at the moment. However, even if supporters of other clubs can't see it, there has been dramatic improvements at Souths off the field in the last 12-18 months:
- Piggins, Tapp and Langmack out
- Pappas, Richardson and McRae in
- the hiring of a full-time recruitment officer for the first time that I can remember
- a football club that for the first time since 2002, will show a healthy profit in 2006 thanks to changes made by Richardson since he came to the club (Telstra, Souths Juniors taking over the running of the lower grades, Real Insurance and The Cinderella Man sponsorships and a host of administrative cost savings)
Sure we are still struggling on the field and are probably not much better off in terms of depth than we were 3 years ago. However, Pappas and Richardson have made the changes necessary to get us going in the right direction. On-field performance is the next part of the process. It isn't going to be easy for Souths to lure big name players for next year but we would be less likely if Piggins, Tapp and Langmack were still running the joint.
Our juniors are starting to filter through now too. Last week, for the first time since readmission, the majority of our premier league team was made up of Souths juniors. Sutton is the first real good quality one to come through but there are others only a year or two behind him. We now have the set-up right off the field to limit the loss of these players to other teams.
On Piggins, I really just wish he would stay away from the media. Even though he has nothing to do with the football club anymore, he is the first one the journos go to because they know he is good for a headline.
