I don’t think I’m alone in suggesting Blair went downhill rapidly in 2017 in terms of effectiveness, whilst the grub factor got turned up to 11, leading to McCullough being taken out for the season and seriously affecting our spine... We have lost nothing letting Blair go, even if we didn’t replace him, but we did free up salary cap space in doing so.
Ese’Ese had a mixed year. Started strong, had a poor middle of the season to the point he got dropped to Q-Cup and then finished the year back in the team better, but not as good as was at the start.
Arrow? The bloke who could barely get a bench spot? Yeah, I don’t see the loss there, particularly given the lock ahead of him just won the Ron McAuliffe medal as the Qld Origin player of the year and is the current starting Australian lock and if he was to be moved back to Prop, Bird would be ahead of him, to play lock...
Hipgrave? A bloke who has never played A, grade even from the bench? Yeah, there are a few more important players ahead of him...
We have lost them, but added Lodge, Mago, Savelio, Taueli. We have easily gained over what we have lost.