We recruit what we can for the money we have until we build the team to win. Thats how it works. We now have Brailey who should have a big future in the game. As for Watson ? He's no spine player but we arguably have one of the best young utilities in the game.
As I said, going into the fifth year since the rebuild started and we now have 3 out of 4 spine players signed - one yet to play a game for the club.
Still no 5/8 and it is glaringly obvious the million dollar half is not the type of player to do it all himself. I think most people would have been acutely aware of that before he signed here.
So, as it stands, we got the recruitment and retention about 50% right after 4 years when looking at the spine. Or we got it 100% right but the players didn't buy in or the coaching of those players was not good enough. In this forum, it depends upon the 'narrative' you follow as to wich one of these points you support.
Apparently we were going to fluff our way through 2020 without a decent 6 or a 6 the coach likes enough to play for more than 3 or 4 games in a row.
So it may have taken Browny 6 yrs to find a spine.
That is not how it works if you want to win at least half your games in a season, each season after 6 seasons. Not the greatest target to aim for either. That is the lower side of some success.
If his plan was to take 6 or more years to find, purchase or develop the 4 most important positions in the team then he was definitely on track and hard done by. But it is clear Wests didn't want that time frame and possibly started doubting where the side was heading, in large part to the spine issues imo.
We had plenty of cash to target a complete spine but put the eggs in the wrong basket re the 9 and the 6. Watson can't pass the footy at all when in motion and doesn't have a kicking game so no chance of supporting the 7.
We got the recruitment and retention wrong there and that went a fair way to helping Brown lose his job.
He has definitely left the place in a much better position than he walked into and fingers crossed the jnrs in the system filter through to first grade and actually make quality NRL players. He has been part of their development and seeing them succeed will add to his legacy.