I agree. I have defended nighty for a long time now but I think that he should make way for a more potent player. If we are to compete in the finals we will need to find another level.
We need to take a risk and bring someone new in.
Mary must make the hard call and be less conservative.
The Melbourne result was a long-time in coming. The reluctance to drop Nighty and instead play him in a manufactured middle position to which he was physically and positionally unsuited due to sentimentality in what could be his last/ testimonial year is just one element in the disaster.
Firstly, SGI has skinny depth in both backs and forwards- selling Joel Thompson to Manly left us particularly short on seasoned NRL forwards. Ah Mau is the only bench forward that could command a starting position at SGI or any other club. Jeremy Latimore is a trier but past it. The media and Mary can pump up our ISP bench forwards all they like and talk about how they've been prepared for by our HPU staff for the Melbourne game but Leilua (in particular), Sele, Host and to a lesser extent Lawrie are overrated in my opinion and got found out when the whips were cracking on Thursday night.
On the other hand, the Melbourne pack , who had more forwards out to combined injury and Origin than we did, (as well as more backs) ,. outplayed us. Stimson, Asofa Solomona and co, even with their less experienced teammates looked more dangerous in attack. I have watched Jacob Host running edges for years and have yet to see him make a clean break. His injury was unfortunate but Melbourne lost Stimson later in the game as well . Also, our backline defence apart from Widdop and Mann was woeful. If Widdop, in particular, hadn't been playing, it could have been a complete rout and the score probably flattered us.
So the problem is a long-term one of misguided faith in average players, poor recruitment and retention practices and an emotional attachment to Nighty who should have been farewelled after his spectacular try scoring feats of last year- which is really just poor judgement by Mary. I was just as guilty as anyone that he was worthy of another year when an analysis of his tries would have shown that they were all scored from close range and he really lacked the high end speed required of a winger as well as the height and bulk to effectively compete for bombs against the Vulivalus of this world.
Much is made of the fact that SGI has the lowest number of 3rd party agreements and so we struggle to recruit. Why is that? The Illawarra is a large region with its own newspaper and TV station. Sharks, Souths and probably some other Sydney clubs don't have the geographical and financial reach of SGI and manage to recruit in depth.
There are problems at all levels with this club. We are no chance of the flag this year. TIme for a clean out of Millward, Mary, our defence shy backs and the underperforming ISP players. Doust has already announced his departure so that's one less problem to contend with.
