In all honesty the best way to build a team is with the best 16-17 year olds in the game. Get them in young and try to develop them. Fair enough not all will make it and some will leave but for long term success it's the best way.
Fair enough you can recruit players. But 800-900k for Mitchell Moses is obsurd. If you pay that much over for a player based on potential you are playing with fire (we already have another moses on big coin).
Hats off to the panthers and the roosters though. The team they have developed/recruited which are full of young kids coming through. You would think they have 4-5 strong years coming up.
Hats off to them?? How do you get there? Merrin, Tamou, Martin, Whare, Hiku, Peachey, Cleary,Latu and Harawira-Naeru are all imports. This from a club that has the biggest junior nursery on the planet and there just the ones I can remember. Gordon, Keary, JWH, Carter,Aubusson, Guerra, Tetevano have all been bought from memory. The reality is that every side probably with the exception of the warriors buys the bulk of their players from somewhere else. Has nothing to do with development and everything to do with talent identification and luck. We had the choice of Hokko on one leg or a young Mbye with a lot of potential and we made the right choice. I've always liked Hokko as a player but the future is in Mbye. Same argument with Lichaa and Ennis. $350K for a hooker is pretty cheap these days and he will get there.