Rebuild at what cost?

[Woodsie]

We have the makings of a premiership winning backline ... with a couple of touted "future superstars" to come in.

In the pack .. we have Huamole, Bully and Paseka who would also not look out of place in a premiership team .. plus TKO and Ben that would both contribute.

IMO we don't need a major rebuild ... we simply need some young powerful pigs ... and I think the club is sweating on the Turbo and Jurbo contracts to provide the salary cap to get them.

Seibold has just been capable of plugging gaps until this happens .. DCE going is the beginning.

 

[Budgie]

Just a thought, what if this is already the plan? Not necessarily the full rebuild as dogs have done but we have Large, Walsh, Laifai, Willet, Navale already confirmed for top 30 spots next year I’m fairly sure. Hoppa & Koula have been 2 of our best this year & are only 20 & 22. Add to this Ashton Large & potentially a guy like Hugo Hart that could come into play 2027.

I said it in the off season but these short term contracts for the veteran players makes me think we are attempting to copy the Penrith Panthers method from around 2017 when they 1st debut’d a lot of their young gun players around the same time that went onto do great things. Will it be successful? We will see what happens but if we manage to snag an off contract prop like Davvy Moale & dump Sipley, Brown & a couple others I think the future is still bright.

I've thought the same. The trick is being sure to retain them when their original contracts are up. This is why there needs to be a strong club culture, something the kids see, believe in, aspire to.

While I've always hated the Roosters chequebook approach (OK, it was brilliant when we were doing it 🤣🤣), I'm really impressed with their Roosters academy. A bit about the results here:

The real story at Bondi isn’t DCE. It’s the homegrown Roosters revival

They’ve sparred with Paul Gallen, poured concrete and defied death. The Roosters’ rookie class of 2025 have brought a whole new dimension to the NRL’s big-spending glamour club.

www.smh.com.au

And more here:

Sydney Roosters Academy

Sydney Roosters Academy

www.roosters.com.au

It's run by Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, and Mitch Aubusson.

This is why we really need a present owner with vision. Imagine poor bloody Mestrov (or the next up or his predecessors) trying to convince the Penns to invest. Sad

 

[Eagle 1]

If you go back to the pre golden era we were a bit of a shambles , bits and pieces players , one superstar ( Beaver ) and the addition of one single player brought the youngsters and the bits a pieces together, Ben Kennedy.

But even with Ben’s influence and an improving side we needed two more pieces to complete the puzzle.

A top line prop forward ( Kite ) & the best half back in the fans at the time ( Orford ).

AND it took 5 years to get to a GF, and 6 years to win one.

Not sure the current crop of Silvertails members have the patience for that , they’d want to “ sack the coach , sack the CEO , sack the owner “ and we’d be arguing about the same **** any & every day.

I however , like your idea.

We aren’t rich enough to buy a competition , so really the only way to get there is develop kids , and hope they stay with you , and then buy the key missing pieces.

Oh , and have patience with the CEO & coach as long as they are working to the plan.

Not sure I could put up with more years of us moaning and bitching about us losing games, we are the sort of club that demands success. I've seen what it can do to a club, the Tigers had to endure 3 to 4 yrs of wooden spoons, coach and CEO sackings, revolts and failure. As a hardcore Manly fan, not sure Manly would come out the other end for the better if we had to go through all of this, anyway, that's just my thoughts.

 

[Woodsie]

Would you accept lean years if there was a plan in place?

Do you need me to a start a poll?

 

[Ned]

I can't stand the bloke but maybe sign Gus Gould on for 5+ years, he does have a good track record.

I'm setting up a sack Gould thread now haha.

 

[Disco]

Also as an aside. Can we chill on the Canterbury love atm.

They are yet to achieve anything. Yet to finish top 4.

They have had a good start to the year but had a decent draw too.

Lets see how it plays out with the Dogs.

 

[globaleagle]

lol. There seems to be a real disconnect between some of those saying they’d be fine, yet scream blue murder at every loss, dropped ball, and even the writing off of seasons.

A rebuild has to be a real one. The Canucks have been going on about retooling and not rebuilding and it’s been a crap 10+ years.

I’m probably not patient enough (prize for first honest poster) but I’d love for us to stop trying to force players out of position. I’d also like us to stop being the retirement payday for players. That’s what the super league is for.

 

[BOZO]

Would you accept lean years if there was a plan in place?

Lean years ? They are not new to us
How many more lean years does it take to learn a lesson ?
The lesson here is
A Organisations Greatest asset is the Great People it Invests in
And God Bless Our Legendary Premiership Winning Godfather and the Games Greatest administrators of all time . The people that we have now in his shoes are not capable of tying his shoe laces and that is the Difference between Reigning supreme and running lean


Look at what has happened at the Dogs who were brought down to their knees by incompetent People .
They Pissed off All the Incompetent People that were Bringing their club down
Incompetence starts at the top and its mediocrity filters down and the Board of was first to go

Now that the New Regime is running the place the club is back up again
More lucrative sponsors , Better choices in coaches and recruitment etc etc
and the Dogs club is up again on top for all to see

The moral of the story
An Organisations greatest asset is the Great People it invests in

 

[globaleagle]

And once again props to the patience of @lsz who asked for comments re owners and mgt to be put to one side, only to get comments about owners and mgt. lololol

“We’re patient enough for a rebuild, just not to read through posts. “

 

[eaglebuzz]

Our problem this year is also the only real thing that needs fixing before we can be a genuine premiership threat - our pack.

Recruit 2 or 3 good forwards (Bullemor level or better) and we will be a very strong side. I just hope we retain, in Fogarty, enough of what DCE brings. Pay cuts to Tom and Jake will take care of the rest.

 

[eaglebuzz]

Our problem this year is also the only real thing that needs fixing before we can be a genuine premiership threat - our pack.

Recruit 2 or 3 good forwards (Bullemor level or better) and we will be a very strong side. I just hope we retain, in Fogarty, enough of what DCE brings. Pay cuts to Tom and Jake will take care of the rest.

Also hooker but I think Simpkin is the beginning of addressing that issue, he has been really good.

 

[bob dylan]

Also as an aside. Can we chill on the Canterbury love atm.

They are yet to achieve anything. Yet to finish top 4.

They have had a good start to the year but had a decent draw too.

Lets see how it plays out with the Dogs.

Let's just hope it turns to sh!t.

They now have their own version of DCE who is already as welcome as a fart in elevator on a hot day.

Good luck with him for the next 15 seasons. If they are lucky he might turn out like Schuster. .

 

[bob dylan]

And once again props to the patience of @lsz who asked for comments re owners and mgt to be put to one side, only to get comments about owners and mgt. lololol

“We’re patient enough for a rebuild, just not to read through posts. “

Josh Perry was a great buy and often overlooked, as was Joe Galuvao. Them two with Kite and King served us very well.

 

[BOZO]

I’m probably not patient enough

You have been Super patient in our long and lean sufferance of premiership winning decline.
Credit to Great Loyal supporters like your Good self feathered friend ,Who will will Always support our Legendary club
But will never support the Incapable ones that bring our club down to their Incompetent level

In a Results Driven Business Our fearless leader and owner once said we must Remove all the ones that fail
After over a Decade of failures Now it is time for our fearless leader and owner to own his responsibility of running the club down to its decade of premiership winning decline and to do the honorable thing of what is best for the club and Remove him self .
After all The Club is bigger than all of us Including the Owner .
We hope the owner sells the club and live a long , Happy and Healthy life and give The Manly club the opportunity to Rise once again to the Top where it belongs with a new Reigning Regime

 

[Phobia]

If you go back to the pre golden era we were a bit of a shambles , bits and pieces players , one superstar ( Beaver ) and the addition of one single player brought the youngsters and the bits a pieces together, Ben Kennedy.

But even with Ben’s influence and an improving side we needed two more pieces to complete the puzzle.

A top line prop forward ( Kite ) & the best half back in the fans at the time ( Orford ).

AND it took 5 years to get to a GF, and 6 years to win one.

Not sure the current crop of Silvertails members have the patience for that , they’d want to “ sack the coach , sack the CEO , sack the owner “ and we’d be arguing about the same **** any & every day.

I however , like your idea.

We aren’t rich enough to buy a competition , so really the only way to get there is develop kids , and hope they stay with you , and then buy the key missing pieces.

Oh , and have patience with the CEO & coach as long as they are working to the plan.

This 100%... I'm very patient to see what occurs from 2027 onwards, because this period is going to look the same as it did before, since Mestrov can't just change the structure of our salary cap on a dime...

As for the people glazing Canterbury, who beat them in the finals? We did!

Also worth noting that our current pack is weakened without Oshay Olay, Jake and Tent, whether people like it or not, and I feel Bullemor is a far better bench player.

I think Lodge should be a starter for 30 minutes per game, or not in the team at all. He has no lateral capability in defence and should not be there during the more energetic periods. Him alongside Tent is alright, but he needs to be fitter.

 

[The Who]

To be a powerhouse club in the NRL you need one of two things: 1. Financial strength. 2. Junior talent.
We, unfortunately, are not blessed by either. Our population within our boundaries is relatively static, especially when compared to those in the western suburbs, the Gold Coast, Brisbane...
We have a limited number of juniors compared to almost all other NRL clubs. And we have competition for them from the sport of surfing (which I've droned on about previously). The exception is Easts, who make up for it by investing in juniors from other areas, interstate, NZ and the Pacifica. If you go through the Easts' top 30 players you'll find there are only four authenic local juniors (Radley, Billy Smith, Savala and Roberts)*. There are several others who have come through their Central Coast pathway, which is damned annoying because this is terriroty Manly should have commanderred. But Easts have the finances to lure young players to their club. We dont.
* My research, so potentially unreliable

 

[mave]

Spamalicious.

 

[Wombat64]

We have the makings of a premiership winning backline ... with a couple of touted "future superstars" to come in.

In the pack .. we have Huamole, Bully and Paseka who would also not look out of place in a premiership team .. plus TKO and Ben that would both contribute.

IMO we don't need a major rebuild ... we simply need some young powerful pigs ... and I think the club is sweating on the Turbo and Jurbo contracts to provide the salary cap to get them.

Seibold has just been capable of plugging gaps until this happens .. DCE going is the beginning.

Captain sensible ..... what's wrong with the sky is falling the sky is falling.

 

[Eagledare2dream]

Josh Perry was a great buy and often overlooked, as was Joe Galuvao. Them two with Kite and King served us very well.

So was Spuds, Roberts, Cement, Hill, Lyons was a great buy to name a few.

 

[The better Robbo]

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I thought it was worth bringing up. A lot of people on here believe we need a rebuild to compete at the top level again (let’s leave the owners and coaches out of it for now so we don’t go completely off track in typical ST fashion).

Plenty of us look at what Gus has done at the Dogs with a bit of envy, but it’s worth pointing out that in his first three years there, they finished last, then 12th, then 15th, with a record of 17 wins and 55 losses.

That stretch is what gave Gus the freedom to cut as many players as he did and really reshape the squad.

So my question is—do you think we, as a fan base, actually have the patience to sit through some rough years if it was all part of a proper long-term plan? Even if it meant copping our first wooden spoon?

For me I would be okay with it as long as I had faith in the plan...

I'd be looking to offload as many players that are off contract at the end of this season, and again at the end of 2026. There's not many id want to keep. This also coincides with Jake and Tom coming off contract. Offer both of them 400k less than they're on now, plus the extra cash from no DCE and getting rid of the off contract players, I think we can be a genuine top 4 team again by 2027. We have a lot of young guns coming through that should be well and truly ready by then and should have gained some NRL experience throughout 2026. Not a complete rebuild but a very decent shift away from the "big 3" that just failed miserably for us.