Darren said:
Huey, I'd be happy with inconsistently making the gf, minor premiers and topped all 3 grades??? (thought I heard that as well) We saw the 5 year plan we had. It takes time but so does a winning culture. Also, a winning team makes it.
If we had such a great culture we wouldn't have lost the best coaching staff and team in the country. They would have stayed for less and been signed up long term and not go through the drama's they did. Penn vs Perry vs Max vs Quantum vs Zorba vs Reilly. Where do we stop? No likeable culture there. This is embarrassing what has happened here! We would laugh ourselves silly if this was the Dogs!
Money talks, T-Rex was offered a good package from us but being around Des and more dollars clinched the deal. You could say what team would T-Rex rather play for in 2013? Doubt he would say us anymore. You only have culture when you are winning. Ifwe have a bad 2013 you will remember the early 2000's.
Manly have achieved in the last 10 years what the Dogs can only wish, despite the Sea Eagles doing it on $6m per year less.
Greenburg (and their fans) can point to lower grade results all they want; they mean very little to NRL success as there is no trend towards a top grade Premiership and your lower grade setup. That is a fact and has been for over a decade.
And why did Manly rise from near death twice to win 2 GFs in 3 turnout, making finals every year since 2005? Certainly isn't the money. Why are we the only playing group that can retain over half a dozen top shelf players out of an era when we did suffer poor results? Money?
And T-Rex comes from a culture and generation that is driven largely by family, to the dollar. Loyalty to clubs and teammates comes second to opportunity and subsequent payrises. The raft of re-signings would suggest that there is nothing wrong with our club culture, despite your doom and gloom comments.
You seem to think that there is some sort of magic culture that a person can carry from one entity, and transplant into another. That's Greenburgs thinking as well, but when you look at the strengths of our current culture, you'll see that it is something that has been there for well over 40 years.
It is the one that sees our club as having the largest number of 200+ players in the top grade; it is the one that doesn't need to talk about being 'family' when we let our actions speak and see past legends return as coaches and inspire premierships; it's the one that sees Foran choose club over his loyalty to the coach that gave him a chance.
Canterbury used to have a real soul but they got greedy and started to look for shortcuts, beginning with Moore and Anderson taking the club to Super League. Since then it has pushed against it's histories and burnt any notion of 'fair play' or 'gamesmanship' it may have once had. It's heart is now a rotting lump of muscle that runs in fits and starts, at best.
You can worship Greenburg all you want but his actions on football matters are nothing to do with vision and building a culture. It is all about a gold star on his resume in the quickest time, with the funding to back up his big cash giveaway to tempt others into it.
You need a serious attitude adjustment if you actually believe that the Dogs have got something special going on, to the detriment of our great club.