Now that I've had some time to think about this, I'm going to elaborate.
Stacey Jones is easily one of the best players the Warriors have had, bar a couple of below-par seasons. It's fair to say that most people have high expectations based on his past warriors performances, and this is clearly biasing their evaluation of this signing. There is a chance he might do well for us, but ultimately, I think the general public's expectations are going to be fair too high for him to realistically achieve. He might be objectively mediocre (i.e. still better than Rovelli) but because it's not "SUPER AWESOME YEAH" people will interpret it as being sh*t. Thus he'll either be awesome and meet everyon's high expectations, or fail to meet these expectations and be percieved as an absolute dud, even if he really isn't that bad. I think the latter is more likely.
I also think those who are supporting the signing without question are looking at it through a pretty emotional lense: They want him back in the Warriors for the nostalgic purposes, and not practical ones. I admit to feeling similar emotions, a bit like Napoleon coming back from exile to lead France to glory once again (an abysmal failure). It reminds them of great times when Stacey was carving up the oppostion, and this clouds over the amazing odds that stand in front of him.
My other issue is that it's only treating the symptoms and not the disease itself. The problem with our halves is that we can't get the likes of a Thurston, Cronk, Prince etc. These are all young guys playing their best footy, like Stacey ones was. Instead we're now relying on a guy who's past his prime to treat the symptom of a greater problem that is going to plague our club if we don't fix it. I'd like to think that 3 seasons with below-par halves combos was enough to get this in place, but it seems we'd rather go back to old habits than start afresh.
I'd love for him to come back and be his old self again, but I just don't see it happening. I think this is going to be a bit of a let down.
