Not sure if anyone else listened to the Triple M call this morning but they were mentioning how teams like Easts and Melbourne maintain such good sides by having that winning culture that people want to be a part of and are prepared to accept less money to have a shot at winning the comp.
The further mentioned that they don’t panic buy and offer a workhorse more than their budget affords.
We find ourselves in a pretty unique position next season with a million players coming off contract. I’m hopeful that we similarly don’t panic buy or offer overs and start assembling a squad that can be not only competitive more often than not, but have a shot at winning the comp. It’s going to be interesting to watch it all play out. You’d think there would be a few more players showing a bit more tenacity and desire while they’re in the shop window, so to speak.
Tbh, I think that's exactly what Arthur is aiming to do.
While I was over-emotional last night, I gave it in spades to Moses; however, after sleeping on it, and calming down, I think he is far from our greatest issue right now.
Parramatta's biggest issue, and it has been for some time now, is our forward pack.
While we have some genuinely good players - Manu Ma'u, Nathan Brown, Shaun Lane, Junior Paulo -, the rest are either workhorses (there's nothing wrong with workhorses, as every side needs them), getting old (Mannah and Gower, but it doesn't mean they're no good), or inexperienced.
Inexperience leads to miscommunication, and that often leads to performances like we saw last night.
Pou made what I thought was a great observation - we don't move off the line with speed when we defend, because there seems to be a lack of communication and/or trust. And I think that is a very astute observation.
We need forwards - rep-class level forwards -, but more importantly, we need leaders.
I do think that Gutherson will become a good captain, but it would benefit us enormously to find our next Beau Scott/Nathan Hindmarsh type of leader.
Perhaps we should look to the Super League? Perhaps we should be looking at trying to entice already-contracted players to jump ship?
I'm not happy with where we are at this current point in time; however, I genuinely think that smart recruitment will make a world of difference.
Somebody else astutely pointed out that our best performers have been our newbies - Lane, Ferguson, Paulo, etc. If we can strike oil again, any side that has the likes of Michael Jennings, Moses, Dylan Brown, Sivo, Ferguson, Gutherson, Mahoney, Ma'u, Nathan Brown, Lane, Paulo, Oregon Kaufusi, Stefano U, etc. should give it a red hot crack.
