I can see the logic in what is being said by Woodsie and yourself Peter C, but do we continue to 'give away' players who show special gifts because they seem to have some flaws at a young age. Gutherson, Ramien, Hiku, Whare, just in recent years...where does it end where players who become established first graders elsewhere, some in top 8 clubs, are shown the door, while we go chasing reserve graders from other clubs, who generally found to be just that...reserve graders. We could really have used a couple of those guys we let go in the past season. Are Matt Wright, Johnno Wright, Parker, Suli, Croker etc better prospects than Tom Wright and Anderson? Suli and Parker look potentially forwards, not backs. And the players Manly are reportedly now chasing are also reserve graders. One might turn out OK, but surely if you have players with those special skills, you hold onto them, coach them so their flaws are overcome. You can teach some things such as defence, but you cant teach X factor abilities.
The Manly of the past, even only a decade ago, and I can speak to over 50 years of watching, would never let go players with serious potential. Today, like on the football field, there seems to be no strategic thinking. Fulton got us a few top liners, but since he has gone, no one seems to be making serious recruitment strategies...other than perhaps getting Elgey, the one potentially bright light coming to us in recent years. Unless Manly have a couple of serious signings coming up, with the potential that we could lose Taupau or Walker or both, our playing stocks will have gone seriously backwards, as it has been for several years now. We have young talented players coming through, but we don't give them time to develop. Very few players become a star by 21. Arthurson must be shaking his head in horror. .
