I just want to say one further thing about where this club should be heading. It takes every person in an organisation to build a strong and successful culture and at the same time it only requires one bad apple to bring it all down. If you recruit even just one person with a bad influence they can have a ripple effect that will impact on the mentality of everyone, especially the younger and more impressionable people in your organisation.
Now I think back to the period when we were a strong club. It was a team of mostly Newcastle juniors who dreamed of pulling on the red and blue and representing our great region. Names like Paul Harragon, the Johns brothers, Mark Hughes, Danny Buderus and Kurt Gidley. At the same time we brought in some outside players who completely bought into what the club was about, names like Robbie O'Davis, Adam MacDougall, Ben Kennedy and Matt Parsons. These were blokes you would want to play with.
Ever since the early 00s though we have moved away from what made the club successful. Under Hagan in the mid 00s we drifted too far towards a "locals first" policy, where mediocre players felt like they were entitled to a regular first grade position without putting in. Later on, we went too far in the opposite direction and recruited players like Darius Boyd and Joey Leilua who lets face it came here for a paycheck but never really appreciated the significance of pulling on our jersey.
I feel like we are on a path back to where we were so long ago. I know we have more outside players than locals in the team, but I don't think it will be that way forever. Already we have blokes like the Saifiti twins and Mitch Barnett showing the way, and exciting young players like Bradman Best, Star Toa and Phoenix Crossland coming through. But most importantly we have a coach who is hellbent on eliminating entitlement and complacency, and players who are starting to buy in to what he's saying.
I just don't see how TPJ fits in with what we're trying to build here. He's not humble, he's not as tough as he makes himself out to be, and I don't see him as the player that other players want to play with.