We've heard it all before, Very few actually turn out and even fewer actually stay to be part of our NRL squad. Something is wrong in the joint and we seem to be just treading water. For starters, most of our best players only want to stay if they can extract the highest possible dollar out of our club. That alone makes it almost impossible to create and maintain a premiership capable winning roster long enough to in the damned thing.
For all the self hype and praise our clubs management keeps feeding us, we still can't compete with the big boys in the corporate(real) world. But it also says a lot about the coach and his pulling power to be able to get the 50/50's over the line and come to our club. We as a club just don't get it. The right coach in the modern game has to be the best league of recruiters too. Ours is middle of the road to slightly above average. Players don't come here because the think that they will get a footy education. They come for an opportunity, a fair coach in his treatment and truth to players, for the money and at present to play at a decent team. But after nearly 4 decades of diddly squat in the trophy department, they have very little expectations of a GF ring, especially when we persist with middle of the road albeit hard working coaches.
If the grass looks greener somewhere else even slightly, when almost everything is on par, very few quality players choose us unless we pay for it handsomely. Look no further then the last to established front rowers that we tried recruiting in Lodge and Taupau who both opted at the 11th hour to go elsewhere. We just don't have a high quality recruitment closer at the club. This and our inability to develop quality NRL junior consistently and retain them is now looming ever so conspicuously over our heads.