Psycho Doggie
Kennel Immortal
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2014
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They are largely unrelated, not completely unrelated. The problem with recruitment from outside is that it doesn't work like SC. It is not as simple as offering someone what they are worth and they join your club. We got the players that we got in the last 3 seasons because they were the ones that looked at Belmore and said "yeah ok". With some players you could offer them overs by $250k and they will still say no, for whatever reason they just don't want to be here. The same basic process meant we ended up with JAC, Burton, Waddell, Sutton, TPJ, Perham, etc, and didn't end up with SJ, Hunt, Latrell, and who knows who else. We all know how Gus operates, he spends time to be in contact with players from across the sport. It is only ever possible to recruit players who want to be here.The 2 are completely unrelated.
Nothing wrong with Gus sorting out our juniors pathways.
But that doesn't hide from the fact that the recruitment over the last few years for our first grade team has provided a negative return.
We've made poor acquisition choices for no improvement. We've spent all our SC and have signed on big money contracts for way too long.
And that's all on Gus and TB and CC.
You can hide behind the mask all you want but you can't fool me
The players who come into the system as 14, 15, 16, 17 year olds and make their way up the system until they are challenging for NRL honours are more likely to stick around for reasonable coin. Penrith is the current ongoing example of how maintaining a strong junior system for 10+ years ends up being a major benefit to your NRL team.