Mick Ennis is the glue that holds our Middle third together on the field but most of all we will miss his passion for our club. I still don't know how our club is letting the club captain go. We could have afforded to keep him for two years it's a dog act that in the end falls on Des. If he wanted him all he had to say was keep him. Lichaa had better live up to expectations or the past 3 years good work could unravel. Bottom line don't picka player to be club captain unless you are sure he will retire with us or at very least not have to play against us. Mick is essentially being demoted. He will not be captain while gallen is the there and I can see conflict between them two for sure
Agree with most of this because Ennis has been our most influential player in the last 3 years especially.
In simpler, less professional, perhaps more dignified times, we probably would have found a way for Mick to stay, and Mick might have been less inclined to test his value. In his shoes, I'd like to think I would have taken the one year deal or negotiated one year with a mutual see-how-we-go option, because I'd finally found a long-term home at a truly great and prosperous club and gained some peer respect after short stints at three others. I am sure the club would have also found a long-term post-retirement role for him, which he could then have combined with his media work. Surely this would have been preferable to joining a fifth club (and a rabble at that) after all he has achieved (and still had left to achieve) at Canterbury. Putting his ego aside, he could also have played a key role in Lichaa's development, just as he has Reynolds (remembering that Reynolds was once a threat to Ennis with his standout performances at hooker in '11 following Ennis' neck injury).
All of the above said, the bloke has four young kids and a mortgage in the Shire, so putting his family first, and having been offered more money and more immediate security at Cronulla, he obviously felt he had no choice, and one can't criticise him for this.
