The Donkeys 4 of their 5 spine players (I include lock) are local juniors, only Reynolds is an import. Which is exactly what Gould is saying and doing, under the Cap you can't afford to be signing quality established NRL level players in every position, the majority need to be locals.
The Donkeys also have a well developed pathways system which until this year we had dissmantled. Which is exactly what Gould is saying and doing, reinstating and developing new pathways.
The Donkeys also have locked in junior clubs that develop players for them, they have literally hundreds to recruit from. Which is exactly what Gould is saying and doing with links to clubs in NSW, Qld, NZ and more recently Fiji.
The major difference with the Donkeys is that they had more developed locals than we do because Hasler got rid of the pathways that ours should have come up through. Plainly with 4 locals in the spine that helps immensely.
Adding Reynolds was their 1 missing spine piece, I wish we only had 1 missing piece. KWalters also recognised that his 2022 support staff weren't up to it, for 2023 he got rid of SWalters (ouch nepotism) and Terry Matterson and promoted Matt Ballin and John Cartwright.
Always a Bulldog
