Very surface level, anti-griffin take. Do I think he should continue as coach? Absolutely not. But I won't just roll over and accept over the top criticism on a guy who clearly has given our club the opportunity to head in the right direction roster-wise. Griffin walked into a club who had McInnes on ridiculous money for what he offered the team, Sims was on ridiculous money, de Belin was too, Norman was, Hunt was on 1.2 mil, Dufty was overpaid, Vaughn was on heaps of money, Lomax is on a fortune. The list goes on. Our salary cap was the worst it has ever been, we still haven't recovered from its terrible management. In 2 years, Griffin has gotten us into a position where we have cash to splash. Sims, Vaughn, Norman, Dufty, McInnes, all gone. You can look at the players they were replaced with on face value and say this isn't right, but it has actually been what is necessary to get our salary cap in shape.
Musgrove, Liddle have both been positive signings. Last year it was Moses Suli and Jaydn Su'a, who by the way, club management decided to overpay for meaning we had to restrict ourselves coming into this season as to who we could buy. But, they have been very good signings for us and who brought them here? Ben Haran didn't i'll tell you that much.
Hook debuted Sloan, Mat Feagai, Junior Amone, Toby Couchman along with others. Sullivan had played one game when hook got here, he's had more since. Ramsey got extended game time. Max Feagai has had more game time despite his unfortunate injury concerns.
The likes of Villiami Fifita, Alec Tuitavake, Haele and Sione Finau, Savelio Tamale all signing with the club after meetings with Hook, (Tamale could have gone to the roosters by the way). The St George Dragons are winning games in the SG Ball which is a massive rarity. Under Hook, guys like Loko Tonga, Carlos Pauli, Joven Gyemore have been brought into the club externally. For Illawarra, players like Jett Liu have been brought in externally. Dylan Egan, both Couchman boys, Zach Herring, Aaron Johnson, Lobb, etc, etc all got a taste of mixing it with the big boys in the St.Helens trial, showing our pathways development is improving drastically since Hook's arrival. Further, our Laurie Daley side just won the comp for the second year running.
So yeah, I'd probably say he's got a fair eye for talent and knows how to start building a successful pathways system.