If we are losing 2 quality players in walker and grevsmuhl it's not been worth it. That's on top of losing Stewart and Luke as well with no quality players coming in.
Depth is going to be a huge problem for Souths next year, we will already be fielding the weakest 3 quarter line in the nrl (Johnstone, goodwin, auva'a, oldfield). We've lost luke and off the 2 guys replacing him, 1 is still young and raw (mcinnes) and 1 is a reserve grader (cook, I know he had a handful of good games at the end of the year, but if a guy turning 25 has only played 9 nrl games all up it tells you something). Sam always misses a few games with injury and suspension every year, and with absolutely no depth there will be no one to cover for when he is gone. Sam is a great forward, and gets through a mountain of work, but I think people have been overstating his impact. He isn't the guy who'll win you the tight games in a way that guys like Thurston, cronk, dce or Johnson will, he is more comparable to guys like matt scott and jesse bromwich.
In hindsight it might of been better to let sam have a season with leeds rhinos so we had a year to find a way to fit sam into the team. That way when sam came back he was coming into a competive team. Unfortunately it looks like we will struggle for a few years to try fit him in
