My biggest fear was from the comments Liam Foran made when he signed. He was adamant he was the man, he was confident he had the skills to organise our team, he talked a very good game. It sounded to me he had been given express permission to talk himself up and that he'd get a good chance here. He had no chance once Jones was resigned. The worst thing is Stacey couldn't run in 2004, and Foran had just completed U20s. On one hand we're converting Moon into a five eighth, and on the other hand we have a bloke whose already tasted first grade, was a junior rep sensation, and then we place this massive barricade in his way. If you could read Liam's personality from his comments you could tell that he thought he was going to get a good chance and he was confident he'd succeed. From what I hear he's going very well for Newtown at the moment, kicking game is extremely accurate, as is his passing game, and above all else he has speed. Stacey's speed went out after he got injured in that Kiwis debacle of 2003. Yet 5 years on we entrust him with the duties of guiding the team around.
This season has been a horror of short visioned decisions. I have a feeling young Foran will bite us hard. He was someone who wanted to play for the Warriors, and could have attracted his extremely talented brother across also, and we decided to screw him around for a pensioner.
I'll put my hand up and admit I fell for the hype after round 2, I guess just like the coach did and the management did. They've had such faith in this bloke that they've axed Rovelli, Witt, Fien and Foran all this year, I guess as a combination to make him feel comfortable and secure and also because those blokes wanted to offer something and had no chance. Rovelli I can live with, Fien I can live with as he needs someone like Bennett to assist him I think, Witt... I think he'd be good for us right now (and, I can't believe his lack of willingness to play #7 when he owned that jersey at Parramatta, and the 3-4 games he played there for us he was I thought extremely good), plus I reckon his goal kicking gets us wins over Saints and Melbourne away which puts us in an awesome position going into the bye full of confidence, but Foran... I'm scratching my head most on that one. I don't rate Isaac John, I do rate Shaun Johnson but its next year at least not this year, and we're now stuck with a bloke playing on crutches. I don't blame Stacey, if I was offered a job I had done well in the past I'd have a crack at it, but I think John Hart, Ivan Cleary and Wayne Scurrah really should take a good hard look at themselves, admit they made an error, and admit Stacey's best role at the club was assisting... not hindering... young halves.
make some pretty snappy decisions, then it absolutely will be same old, same old.
