People are looking at the on field results this season and conflating that with the quality of our recruitment and retention. I think the recruitment and retention committee have done a pretty good job. They’ve managed to retain Gutherson, Brown, Moses, Penisini, Matterson, Paulo,RCG, Hopgood and Cartwright. That’s a freaking great effort. I’m not happy with the outside backs situation either but the Dunster injury and Waqa Blake’s meltdown have really screwed us over this season. We haven’t played well as a team for most of this season but the recruitment and retention committee have left us with a squad that should be more than competitive for the near future.
Competitive was what we wanted 10 years ago when Potato Head started his for life stint with us. We finally got that about 5 years ago. Yeah!!! What we want and expect now is Premiership style defense and offence. Ten years and counting and he has never brought premiership winning defense to the club. Ten freakin seasons! As for premiership winning offense, he finally got that this season, you know year nine. Thank you Trent Barrett. Yeah again!!!
However another thing he has never, ever brought to the club is full game ruthless consistency, week in week out. Which leads us right back to defense of course. If he ever got that part of the game right I dare say we'll finally be consistent, as long as we still have strike weapons in the team and we haven't sacrificed them for a bunch of defensive plodders instead or it is so far and late in his life tenure that all our strike players and playmakers are long gone or retired and our junior system is still promising us the would but delivering urine soup.
Yes the player retention side of things has been good, but as for the recruitment side of things it has been besides Hopgood, horrendous. Sh*t dummy half, when there were quite a few on the market that most of us were right to be in favour of over the busted geriatric. And a hand full of forwards that were mediocre at best that we even kept signing this mid season to eat further into out salary cap so as to make it near impossible to sign quality down the track. Add to that no quality outside backs or palooka middles at all.
So we get a few injuries and suspensions and we have park footy players to call on. When even last season we all could see we needed a third quality middle to join the two up front in the collision and we were always going to struggle with what we had out wide. Neither of these two areas have been address still to this day. Even with a full complement of players available, we would still be weak in our outside backs and need to bring in another quality palooka even if Emu starts to fire, as insurance for junior who may end up a total lump in 1 or 2 more years. Now is the time to plan and act. RCG isn't getting any younger either. I would rather spend my money on 4 palookas then 10 average players like we seem to keep doing. Most quality premiership teams have 3-4 quality palookas but we think we can manage a power game with just two. I have said it before, the premiers again this year will have 3-4 quality palookas in the starting 17 rotation, not two.
Also the coach's or the retention/recruitment committees, which he is part of, greatest if not greatest failures is their collective inability to address the defensive weaknesses the squad has always had and recruit someone that can steer them in the right direction. I mean a smart defensive coach would have seen enough of Waqa Blake's temperament and inability to read or respond to offensive patterns correctly and made it very clear to the Head Potato and Co that he needed to go if we ever wanted to be a great defensive team. That is just a start to getting it right. A great defensive coach sees things for what they are and changes them to get it right because that is his primary job and neck on the line you would think, right? Unless of course you are the turnip that has been there for years and we seem to have given a life tenure too also. I mean we have a guy that has never gotten it right and he has been there forever and a freakin day. So that to me is probably our greatest blunder and woeful retention and requitement that has lasted for ten whole fu*ken years now and counting!!!
But don't worry lads, they have time on their side to get it right eventually, after all life is life right?
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