I can't help but wonder what management are thinking with this latest incident (re: Nate Myles).
How do they fix this culture that seems to have reared its ugly head at the Roosters in the last couple of years?
We've had problems with Myles, Mason, Pearce, Friend, Earl, Cherrington, Sa, SKD and even Freddie himself. There's been apparent problems between players and the coach and it seems to have reflected on our position on the table.
We have the makings of a very good side next year but they will also probably be the youngest side in the NRL. Apart from the kids we had on the field on Friday, you can probably throw into the mix Haergraves, Kennedy, Cordner, Williamson, Towers, just to name a few.
Losing the likes of Fitzy and Ogre won't make it any easier on the young ones coming through. Who are the senior players that will lead these kids? Mason and Myles are repeat offenders. Braith, Mini, Sammy and Lopini? Why we went for Mason and Ogre and didn't go harder for Petro is beyond me.
With Carney hopefully coming, well we all know what could happen there if the existing culture is not changed.
Do we need to bring someone in at the top that is a disciplinarian, the likes of Bennett or Moore. They have done wonders for their respective clubs. Is Freddie capable of getting the discipline into the players?
Going forward I have no doubt that our fortunes on the field will change and you can see where O'Sullivan is heading with his recruitment policy. The future looks quite bright in that aspect.
But these young kids need to be nurtured and as much as I truly believe that Freddie can offer so much to these young kids, he either needs to have the right people around him and that means a mentor over the top of him or he needs to step aside if he can't work in that kind of environment. JT at Souths hasn't seemed to have handled that very well.
We can blame the players all we want but that is not going to fix the problem. We just need to get their heads right.
I wonder what those two South African kids parents are thinking right now.
