He's a scumbag journo fishing for stories, no doubt, but a) the club deserves this discomfort, despite Jammers passionate defence.. and not because of tough love, but because b) jammer rightly said the mental health issues don't and shouldn't shield you from criticism, nor should the "5 year" plan defence he put up.
Just because it's year 1 doesn't mean that what has transpired was unavoidable.
There is enough talent in that squad to have at the very least missed out on the eight in a Manly or Parra way. Not a "out of it weeks before September" situation.
And I've said it before, part of our failing have been keeping that talent on the field. Injuries happen, and you have to accept that even with the best conditioning, that happen... The part that annoys me is, we really can't afford to lose player both in-play to questionable sinbins and/or through subsequent suspension.
There's a rot that has set in in the NRL where officials are making highly subjective decisions that have high cost consequences. Previously, our clubs administrators would at least try to, even through alliances with other clubs, correct the league's behaviour. Not just for our benefit, but for the entire league.
We've lost that permanently. If there's something buzz could go after Gould for, and he may be doing that indirectly, is, if you hold such weight in the rugby league community, why has the season appeared as if you've lost that weight?