Penrose Warrior
First Grade
- Messages
- 9,453
They have always been reluctant, I guess. Maloney was obviously a back-up to Cronk and Ivan knew him from the Roosters juniors days (think that's right). He made that move for career reasons, and stayed for one contract - albeit we got a lot out of him.Plenty of Aussie players have done it in the past though, so we just have to keep finding those players. Look at Maloney, he was homesick (for Sydney/Central West NSW), but he still gave us three years.
The good Aussie players in the past (Luck, McKinnon, Lilyman, Fien, Webb, Villasanti, most hookers from 2000-2011) came as non-superstars but thrived in the environment. We haven't signed many established stars - Price we got at the right time, he got Tate over, Hoffman took overs near the end of his career, could say the same for Blake Green etc.
We'll still get the guys at the end of their career for overs, Kiwis or Aussies, which if they have the right attitude and are around promising youngsters is fine. Hoffman tried, Blair did not, for example. The non-stars, there's just none that come into our shitty environment and thrive anymore. Curran has, Egan has, but bugger all else. That's the issue. So many people turn us down, the ones we do get aren't thriving, and we're not developing anything.