People need to understand Jnr and N.Brown won't be great forever. Better to let guys go a year early then too late.
Jnr will be good for next year. Maybe even the following g few but at some point he will be a plodder. Age will get him and everyone has to be replaced at some stage.
I still think we have a good side for 2022 but 2023 we most likely will need to re shape our squad. Signing Jnr and Gutherson long term might keep us more competitive for 2023 but then potentially we may fall off a cliff for 3 yrs. And those could be D.Brown,Mahoney and Moses best years. That would be a terrible way to blow a good chance of a title.
I agree totally with this hindy. My problem though is that I still don't have enough confidence in our management/retention and recruitment committee to successfully pivot from these ageing great players we now have and bring in new high end quality ones to replace them.
Sure they have done a great job to assemble this squad in the first place, but I still feel that we are just a bad decision or two away from going backwards and becoming chumps again. I know this feeling may not have recent substance to justify it but I can't shake it. Maybe it's because we have had so many terrible decades and false starts that I am now to weary to let myself go and believe in us as an organisation. The stink is strong and needs a hell of a lot of long hot showers, cologne and deodorant to remove for good.
Although I do see some green shoots here and there taking root and our trajectory is mostly upwards in recent years so maybe we have turned a corner and will stay this way and just keep building these foundations year on year no matter who stays and who goes and be considered by all that this club is a career maker and great destination club that is always strong and most years a serious contender because we have finally built something special here that the best will always want to be part of.
But I think that we are still a fair ways away from that and only when we can transition from one good group of players to another without losing momentum, like the Storm and the Roosters do, will we be considered that way and of course finally winning the premiership again will probably cement it. As long as we don't fall off the cliff again after we hold up the trophy and just keep being successful no matter what that is. That is the mark of the best organisations. No matter what, they just almost always just stay up.
No Excuses!
I hope that when we finally lose players like Junior, that we have the clout and people good enough in our organisation to identify the next best up and comer or established quality to replace him and that we as an organisation are thought of as one of the top 3 clubs to play out your career, just like those other two organisations are. That can only happen if we don't regress and just keep attracting the best to our club and having year on year success that lead to premierships here and there.
So yes Juniors best years are probably numbered at one or two more, but it will be a huge task to replace him as he is probably the most unique prop in the NRL, not that I expect to, but it will be interesting to see how our club handles moving players on or losing players from this squad and who they bring in. Lets all hope that they are totally up to it and make it as seamless as possible.
As an example wouldn't it be great if we could do what the Roosters did all those years ago with JWH and identify the best, most aggressive metre eater young front rower and make him an offer to good to refuse and bring him to Parra just as he is about to be ready for the NRL. Now that would be something.
