Whip Whitaker
Juniors
- Messages
- 808
Gus made a few bad decisions toward the end of his time at Penrith, but the foundations he had already built are solid. I shudder to think where we would be without the things he did. The whole 5 year plan he gets judged on was a throwaway line taken completely out of context.
Look at our named 17 this week. 1 player only that didnt debut at Penrith. Now that would mean shit if we were bottom 4. But a thing to be proud of when you are sitting on top. The pathways are working, it was never going to be a quick fix, but things are looking pretty good now.
A lot of you may be too young to remember when the Roosters were a shit show. Uncle Nick got Gus over there and things slowly improved. The Super League fiasco gifted them Freddy which helped but it still took time. They didnt win the comp until Gus was out, but he laid the foundations. They didnt have the juniors we have so they went for talent identification & targeted the right kids. We all joke about how they poach, but aside from Melbourne their strike rate at recognising young talent & developing it the right way is extraordinary. Uncle Nick is a brilliant businessman, but Gus taught him how to do Rugby League. It's still paying dividends.
Rumour has it that Gus's last act at Penrith was a Nespresso machine at the academy. I think we are f**king golden for a few decades now.
Gus was coaching the Roosters. Ricky Stuart just posed for the cameras.