Agree horrible management, the club must have thought Matai, Lyon and Stewart would all play another 4 years. Stupid. We could have waited a year for walker and kept hiku. Gutho has no future at manly if he wants fullback that is Toms spot.
In their defence 2 of those players you mention are signed for next year and Lyon was favoured to play another year. If that had played out we would have zero room in the salary cap for a new 5/8, centre or anybody.
A decision was made that we needed to boost our forwards with Myles and Kapow.
In hindsight that same management might well make a different decision.
You can only play what is in front of you Turbo, and at the time the decision was defendable.
PS ( If Snake, Lyon, Matai, T-Turbo, Walker and Jorge are all fit, where would you play Gutho?)