For those who don't want to read everything i have spoken about please just read what i have underlined.
I'm not questioning peoples loyalty for wanting new players nor am I asking for people to not debate this issue. Anyone who wants to call themselves a supporter of our club wants to see us hoist the trophy at the end of the year. As fans we all share this desire. I was stating that it annoys me that those loyal to our current players are being labeled as stupid for not thinking we need them. I've seen a lot of people implying that anyone who does not think we need new halves somehow lacks intelligence which is quite simply not true.
It goes both ways, the same people have consistently stated that we either have no salary cap and accused people who think we do as having absolutely no common sense and/or logic. This discussion with our halves has created a huge friction in our supporter base and while i concede that there is no way that rubbishing our current halves is the way to go, having an opinion attacked as "dreaming" "impossible" or "illogical" isn't any better and tends to flare tempers up.
Now in recent years we have seen one of the least creative sides ever win the comp when St George took out the title. They would take 5 hit ups and a simple kick then defend like they had wages subtracted for every metre they conceded in defence. We as a club are far more creative than they were. They won it based on their ability to play error free football and make the most of the few opportunities they were able to create.
2010 St George? They did have attacking flair, hate him or love him Soward was a catalyst for that win and while their general play was boring they weren't in the bottom 8 in terms of points scored, (They were 7th for points scored, 1st for least points conceded, while we were 12th for points scored and 6th for least points conceded in 2014). We didn't defend half as well as St George did in 2010 and neither were we as capable in attack. We create a lot of oppurtinites and our forwards are the reason for that, but we don't have finish very many of them which is an issue that is largely derived from our halves lack of creativity. Like or not, that is the truth of the matter, we didn't have a proper fullback last season and that took away one of our attacking threats but the onus was on the halves to perform and they didn't.
If anything you have given weight to my argument by pointing out that Thurston is at an under-achieving club. The Cowboys usually have quality in either their backline or in their forwards, rarely do they have quality in both areas. So having one of the top 5 halves in the world has not done wonders for them. I would like to ask how many grand finals they have played in the last ten years with Thurston in their side?. You could probably make a historical case about the knights having only won a premiership in a divided competition while they had Andrew Johns at their club. If a single overpaid half was going to win competitions the Knights and Cowboys would have many premierships to show for their years with Thurston and Johns in their halves. Great halves may win origin matches but they alone cannot win premierships unless they have great squads around them.
Lockyer is arguably the best 5/8 that the Broncos have ever had and through him they won 2 Grand Finals (One in 2000 with Lockyer at FB, one in 2006 wiith Lockyer at 5/8). To suggest Lockyer wouldn't have been one of the highest earners at the Broncos is a travesty. To overpay for any one player is i would agree a catalyst for tough times and silly in most respects, but the point remains that not a single team in the past 10 years has won a premiership without adequate halves, that is a half with vision, creativity and the ability to steer the team around. Too often our halves disappear and not in just a physical sense, they don't organise or set up any plays, Graham is more our halfback than Hodkinson is.
As for Johns and the Knights, how you don't consider the 2001 Premiership win by the Knights a legitimate win beyond me, very few clubs have won more than 1 premiership and one of them were cheating the cap for the entire duration of their domination (Storm). As for the Cowboys, i don't buy into the nonsense that they didn't have a quality squad, they've had a damn good squad for quite a while, including an adequate forward pack and an superb backline, they didn't win more due to their coach being hopeless than the Cowboys not having the squad to do so. Leaking a thousand points in a finals match is no way to win and the Cowboys consistently have that happen to them
Generally the sides who compete often in premierships are well balanced. They have quality in the forwards and backs and not always the greatest and most creative halves in the world. Our side is quite well balanced at the moment and i for one think we have a great chance at a premiership this year.
Name a single side that has won the premiership on the back of average and non-creative halves. We might be the exception to the rule in 2015, but nothing in the past decade has shown otherwise, every premiership winning team has had atleast one creative half.
Our squad has its weakenesses and its strengths and i have high hopes for them, i am just as willing to see what Hodkinson is made of without injury, but this year should be his absolutely last chance and the same goes for Reynolds. They both need to play as halves and not as passengers and that means leading the troops around, directing play and not disappearing in the opposition redzone.
