I'd be interested to know what you felt the indications of a serious downhill slide were ? Admittedly 2015 wasn't great but part of the reason for that was all the turmoil with Tooves and DCE/foran which was part of this "review". So using last years results as a justification isn't valid IMO because the wheels were already in motion. 2014 we stumbled a little but ultimately missed out on another possible gf because a ref refused to penalise Reynolds for being 5m offside.
No doubt you need good cattle to be competitive on the field, and that has been an A+ result for us going into this year. But it's a lot of the other stuff with Tooves, footy club, eagle Angels, life memberships etc I don't get. Seems a little more then just trying to turn around an aging squad. Let's assume for a minute that the only things that changed from last year was the player movements that we have now experienced, do you think we would be still on a serious downhill trajectory with the previous set up ? Probably a simplistic hypothetical I know, but they seem determined to really want to take it to the "franchise" system rather than keep the club vibe.
People aren't just narky for the sake of it, well not all of us anyway, so the fact that the current owners seem to polarise opinion so markedly could be an indication that some of their actions could have been more considered. Ultimately we all want to follow a successful team and I doubt anyone here will be disappointed if we are doing a lap of honour in October. But personally I follow Manly because I feel a connection with them for many reasons that go back many years. I don't want to lose that feeling moving forward, but some of the things that have happened over the last 12 months are unManly IMO. I'm hopeful that it'll all work out but somewhat nervous that it may not and we lose a little bit of what makes us special.
