I'll tell you this, if Hasler had his way, he'd go with the statesmen every time. It was Tooves (and Crushers) influence that had Hasler loosening his opinion on only playing experienced players.
A player once told me (who no longer plays with us), that he favoured the old blokes regardless of age, and that's why a lot of youth (Tasi, JWH as an example - but this was said to me much prior) etc went elsewhere.
This bloke even went as far as to tell me Hasler wouldn't pay that much attention to the young guys.
In fact, young guys leaving have even taken parting shots at Desmond on the way out in the media about it.
