Nothing this man does will ever be good enough.
You need a little bit of perspective here BTN, so let me give it to you.
- Losing Dugan sucked, sure, but the contract he was offered by Millward was sound. He was worth no more than 750k a season for the quality of player he is. Did Millward make a mistake by labelling Dugan as a centre? Yes he did. But ultimately, he f**king IS a centre, he doesn't have the body to maintain the intensity at fullback week in week out, his injuries come far too often and his lack of passing game stifles our backline shifts. Sharks swooped and offered more than he is worth, a big loss but a fair loss.
- We were outbid for Packer. The Tigers are desperate and offered Packer MASSIVE overs. There is absolutely no way we could and/or should have matched it. Besides he had the extra incentive of joining his old coach and best mate in Matulino. Packer's management negotiated with the club that they weren't interested in rushing into re-signing the contract, therefore keeping their options open. It was a fair loss, out of Millward's control.
- Hunt was a massive coup and you know it, don't even pretend he wasn't. Are you really expecting him to make a serious Origin debut with Thurston and Cronk in his way? He was out of the game for 8 weeks this year and has been playing himself back into form whilst guys like DCE and Munster have been on an absolute roll, give him a break. Did we pay slight overs? Perhaps, who knows. If you believe everything you read in the papers then maybe, but Millward made it clear that the numbers talked about in the media were way off the mark. We needed a halfback and he was the best on the market. Period.
- We've retain Widdop who has been instrumental in our top 8 surge so far this year and alongside a natural halfback in Hunt he will flourish, De Belin who played himself into the NSW squad, Frizell who is a current Australian/NSW player, Kurt Mann after everyone was on Millward's back to re-sign him, he picked up Paul Vaughan who should have played for NSW this year, he signed McInnes who almost played himself into NSW selection and has completely straightened up our attack, re-signed Lafai who has completed turned his form around this year (and even though he's plateaued a little in recent weeks, his stats and performance on field are still impressive), and promising juniors in Host/Lawrie/Leilua/Field/Aitken/Lomax etc.
- There is currently NOBODY on the open market. Millward said in the latest recruitment update that there are no front rowers out there that fit their criteria and I agree completely. All that is left is deadwood. Being patient is the right decision because you will find that teams have overestimated the cap and will need to shed players as a result, that is where we swoop. It happened with Vaughan, and look how that ended up for us, best signing of 2017.
Has Millward make some mistakes? Sure, but plenty of other clubs are losing quality players as well. So before you get on your high horse, think about what you're saying and read into it a little bit more rather than being so glass half empty.
