Yeah...
Greg Alexander... to Craig Gower and now Nathan Cleary. Its only around a decade between us developing quality number 7s.
Losing Cleary wouldnt be a big deal at all.
No club can claim to produce players of that quality in every four or five years. Genius players do not arrive every few years. Canterbury produced Thurston. Who have they delivered since then of the same standard? Ditto the Storm and Slater? But that isn't how we should measure ourselves. We should be measuring ourselves against those clubs who have managed to be competitive year after year. The Storm, the Broncos, Manly, the Roosters.
This club has never been so competitive in the juniors and lower grades. We have been in the finals nearly every year for five years and have won a few premierships and been runner up. If we can continue to do that we will have steady supply of first graders. Every so often a Greg Alexander will appear. I am not convinced that Cleary is as good as Brandy yet, but he is at least a very capable player.
We have made the semi's twice, the team is starting to be made up of mainly juniors. If we can do that regularly, we will win a premiership every so often.
Gus wanted us to be like Bennett's Broncos. A team made of mainly local juniors, make the semis every year and be competitive. The other thing that the Broncos did well was to move the juniors into first grade in managed way so they could actually compete when they arrived. Gus made comments about 'breaking' players by putting them in too soon, or leaving them in too long. He signed journeyman to fill spots so we wouldn't have to do that. I have never seen the Panthers introduce so many players into first grade as they have in the last six years. It started with Ivan and Hook has continued it. What is surprising though, is when they play they are competitive.
If you put any number of smart football people in a room and gave them the facts about the Panthers and said 'what should our strategic plan be?', I would be amazed if it didn't look very similar to what Gus has come up with. Only time will tell if this is sustainable and in five years time whether the production line really is working and it can deliver success.
The idea that a single player leaves and we just trash the whole plan makes no sense to me. You don't build clubs around a single player because when they leave, retire or get injured what do you have left? The Alexander tragedy is a perfect example how something unexpected led to the loss of our best player. If Cleary leaves good luck to him. Hopefully, behind him will be a club steadily producing quality first graders that keep the club competitive for the foreseeable future. If we are lucky, we may see another little genius like Brandy come through, but that would just be icing on the cake.
