I can't believe we haven't made an approach to this bloke. Sure no one knows if we have or have not for sure, but even the doggies CEO has been quoted in the papers that he doesn't want to play out future signings through the media, yet they are still linked to chasing his signature as so are Illawarra.
And let us not forget, that for all the apparent new found secrecy associated with our club, we still were all aware of our interest in Junior Va Vai way before he signed.
Which leads me to believe that we are NOT interested and have Not approached Hoppa's people.
IF, this is the case, I find it ludicrous and an outrageously bad decision by our coach/management, to say the least.
I mean look at the Dogs or Dragons, they lose one star player, and straight away they search and seek to replace him with another star player in the making that IS available. Whether they succeed or not is not the point, but to me it shows a management team that is switched on.
We on the other hand have done sweet FA. Sure we have signed a Souths junior and he may or may not turn out. Reports are mixed. But to me, well it just doesn't seem good enough.
I'll state it again. Why not make Hoppa our highest priority first and throw a bucket load of cash his way. An offer to good to refuse, hell we have the dosh, and if he should accept it, cut three bodgie nobodies from our squad of many bodgies, who are on around 100 thou and don't sign or sign Vai Vai if we still think we need him.
I mean, sure we need a top half and by all means we should move hell and high water to secure, if we can, an established one or if not try to lure the best available two or three junior half/5/8ths to our club. But even if we do have a great half, we still need more then one strike player in our backline. And Hopa certainly is a player that can break tackles find a hole and can stand up his opposite with relative ease. How many of those sort of players are there on the open market at present. Especially when you think that he is only 19 at present.
But no, we go for the solid bargain buy, even though we have the means to buy from the top shelf.
Also from a fans perspective, a coup signing like that would finally be getting one back on Manly after decades of them pillaging our ranks and also instantly instil a hell of a lot of confidence in our new coaching/management structure.
