We are spineless.
Brailey/Berrell, Trindall, Atko, Kennedy/Ison won't win too many. When JB, BT, DA and LI were on the whole attack fractured. They couldn't get Iron into the game. DA was invisible. BT has become a "trier". Iron was thrown to the wolves
We've used 26 players this year. Dykes has been hurt. Tacoma is not up to standard. Puru either. Gabrael not ready (why is he even in the top 30). That rounds out the top 30. Terrible depth and balance. Colquhoun made of glass. Others "being managed" due to past or present injuries. Finucane retired. Nicho gone. Williams, currently hurt, has been fading since May. Our pathway to NRL is phuqued. The club relies on bringing in juniors from elsewhere. Players are left stagnating in the Jets side for years. The cupboard is bare in terms of NRL quality. The cupboard has never had any proper hard charnts in it since Fitz's reign. Perhaps Wade.
Sadly, I feel this is all true.
I remember at the end of last season feeling pessimistic on our chances this year for similar reasons.
Fitzy's comments about this year being about "improvement from within", coupled with early season form, papered over all of that.
Maybe he's right, I thought.
Nope.
We need new blood, and fast.
AFB is a good start, but after him the rest of the pack are pretty much "meh".
At full strength we are good enough to beat most sides, but still nowhere near being at the level of the big guns.
And, as you point out, there's pharque all in the way of players coming through that are going to change that.
On top of all that, the squad just doesn't have that ruthlessness about them.
As a club, we never do.
It doesn't matter who the players or coaching staff are, we just never have that attitude.
I don't know what it is.
Too many enablers hanging around slapping players on the back?