Technical Coach
Bencher
Yes i agree with your views yet at the same time all those players on the value they are on shouldn't be contributing factors either.
Early in Toms career i stated and was laughed at that "He wont surpass Brett as the No1 Manly fullback" and was laughed at for making such an early seemingly "unfair" call. I stated at the time he would be too injury riddled and is mostly a straight up and down player lacking "footy speed"(as in a change of speed and direction), it is 9 seasons now and one stand out year of 28 tries and his second best output is 12. In saying that the game and defensive structures have changed and improved----just chiming in from the back on sweeping plays lacks the same output as the previous decade before his arrival.(Dylan Edwards and Tedesco don't have large try tallies for example)
I'm not saying Brett is the better player far from it, Tom at his best easily surpasses anything that Brett could achieve and his off the ball movement in terms of km's distance run was mind blowing in some games i watched.
You have Jake who has great first contact defensive qualities and you can never knock his efforts, when Jake is not on field the lazy defensive efforts of all get highlighted straight away but he does struggle with the pace of the game in both attack and defense.
Another view is----is he lifting the efforts of those around him and a leader when on the field(which would justify the big spend) or merely just covering the lazy efforts of those around him with his big efforts and contributing nothing more.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be in the squad, that they shouldn't be starters, that no other club wont take them in a heartbeat but for the price we are paying the downsides are too overly obvious and are contributing factors to the make up of our squad and performances along with limiting the depth.
I also stated before last year that as DCE slows down we will see the best of him and from the extended highlights i saw last year i noticed many good things in his play and finally showing the quality i wanted to see in his mid 20's.
A new way of judging future performance and potential of a player(even in a physical sense) in line and keeping with a style of play a club wants to achieve has to come into play beyond just looking at a great player and thinking "we must have him at all costs". An example is Brett's style of play and change of speed complimented the crisp wide early structured spreads of Ballin, DCE, Foran G.Stewart, J Lyon, so many ball playing options to feed off.
Mind you the amount of talent in the previous generation squad i have no idea how you would fit that within the salary cap especially these days but the bond they all shared may have offered a considerable taking unders component.
