Swarzey, I wish it was different but frankly, it ain't and hoping it will fix itself it's helpful.
Right now there isn't a single voice of reality in that club.
It's run like a family business and typically they are the last to embrace change irrespective of whether their very future depends on it.
I am dealing with exactly that at the moment, I am trying to save a family business from itself and unfortunately tough calls need to be made and hiding from them doesn't make it easier.
The board are supposed to be the adults in this instance but no one seems to want to take Stone aside and give him the facts of the matter.
Just look at recruitment, we've signed Sione and his brothers, but don't know where to play them, we've signed Gagai but can't get him the ball, it seems that we'll happily sign Gids if he decides he wants to play, we've lost Scott, Smith is fading fast and one of the next signing priorities is Mamo? How many outside backs do we really need? We've had a deficiency in the front row for 5 plus years and zero movement in that area, in 2016 the only back rower worth feeding will be Rochow, so we get ready to sign another outside back.
In all seriousness, where the **** is the recruitment strategy.
Additionally, the Gids situation is a joke, he shouldn't be making that decision, irrespective of how many games he played for the club. Today somebody should be telling him it's time.
We've had three change agents at the club, Ryan and Smith got driven out by vested interests to the long term detrement of the club and I actually think that Bennett eventually realised that it was a basket case and just decided to move on.
In the case of the coach, we didn't take the brave option and bring in new blood, we again took the soft option.
Doesn't anyone aspire to winning a comp anymore, don't you?
If we do, we just can't keep making the same mistakes every single year, and we just can't keep recycling insiders because they are in the clique.
The chairman was in the Herald several days ago talking about the need to reconnect with the community. That goes beyond sending players to primary schools. You want 20k members and a bulging sponsorship portfolio, get a genuinely competitive team.
If you want 10k members and limited sponsors, keep heading down this path. It's really simple.
As nice a sentiment it is to have rise for Alex on the jersey, the reason it's there is because we don't have a sponsor interested in that spot.
Sometimes the reality isn't nice but it's still the reality.
What stands out that the club is run by the old boys?
Should Matt Gidley have stepped down immediately? Hardly did anything wrong in the years before, no reason for him not to leave. He has a new board to work with him and help him along the way yet even they are just a few months into new roles.
Should they not have installed Rick Stone? Short term memory loss is clearly the theme with you and some others here. With a bottom 4 side we made the finals. It hasn't been a pretty start but we're not the only team to have lost four on the trot. Stone isn't the soft option and you're a delusional twat if you think four weeks of bad form is worth calling for his head.
Our recruitment has been fine. Gagai being resigned is a major, major boost for us, even if it does mean we have a selection headache. Him getting enough ball or not falls on the halves not playing well and I'm fairly sure when Mullen was playing well in the first half last week and early this week, Gagai was getting plenty of ball.
The club is happy to resign him because he's been loyal as f**king hell but it doesn't ensure he's going to be signed on the same dollar he was last time, nor being the captain or even f**king playing first grade. YOU'RE ASSUMING. That's all. You've got absolutely nothing to back anything up. Furthermore, if you took a second to listen to the presser, look back over numerous articles, you would see that he realises his days are numbered and knows he can't hold back talent for the sake of his own career. Should he move on? Absolutely but there's nothing to suggest right now he'll stay for sure.
Are you forgetting the fact we had an U20's team that did pretty damn well last year? Why go out and spend our cap on players who we would need to pay overs for when instead we can for once develop a squad that comes through our system. Scott is leaving? Rochow gets his spot back. Smith retires? Tapine into the starting side. Our bench? Randell, Vaivai, Yates and whoever is deserving of a chance. Not every team that's successful needs to be comprised of well proven talents; look at Penrith last year and how far their youth took them. Fact is there is very little out there worth actually signing; at best we'd be getting another Houston or Fa'alogo for about the same coin too. You bring up the amount of backs and think we're about to become Broncos 2.0 with a plethora of them which again, nice assuming bud.
Year in and year out it's the same for Newcastle. We're inconsistent and it's been a long time since we ever had a solid season of enjoyable form. Even then we went out in week two. No matter who we bring in; Wayne Bennett, Rick Stone, Robinson, Maguire, we're still going to be that same team.
You EXPECT these things to come out of thin air. High profile sponsors aren't just going to come out of the wood work for us, they're always going to invest in Sydney clubs, Melbourne and Brisbane. There is very, very little we can do there. That's half the reason why clubs like the Roosters, Bulldogs, Souths, Brisbane and Melbourne will always be a head of us; they have the sponsors that can offer third party deals and literally buy premierships. Wake up, that's not us. It will never be us. The closest we got to that was Tinkler and it didn't get us very far.
That's not to say it isn't within our reach, it's just whether you like it or not, fact is, or reality is that the only way we can be successful anytime soon is holding onto players that come through our ranks and develop them. Snag a buy here and there, sure, but we've got much better luck turning players like Tapine, like Yates, like Lamb, like Cogger, like Clydsdale, like Korbin, like Gagai, like Sione, like Mamo into the talents we see them as. You can put a broom through the club, get rid of the "old boys", sack whatever talent you think needs to be sacked but NOTHING would change. You hate the idea of being local yet it's the only way we're ever going to succeed.
We're eight weeks into a competition that spans 27. Losing four straight isn't something we want to see, but there's absolutely no reason to be so depressed. Then again taking a quick flick through pages and you seem to have always been a depressed f**k looking for a reason to shit on the club in any way, shape or form. We could get rid of the Gidley brothers and Stone but you'll still clutch and whatever straw you ca reach to justify shitting on the club. You want to talk about reality? The club isn't as f**ked as you make it out to be. That's reality here mate. Could go further but your post above where you still find a reason to bitch and moan is enough to say that I'm done here and there isn't anything myself or anyone else can say to convince someone so deluded.
Thing is, you could be right, but again, just a few weeks in. The constant doom and gloom is f**king tiresome.
