And yet ... Barrett had all these kids in his teams ...
Parker 19
Tom 19
Jake 21
AFB 20
Suli 19
Fainu 19
Bainbridge 18
L Knight 20
Hastings 21
B Kelly 21
Paseka 20
T Wright 20
Cue
@hozza ... I've got him on a string ....
PSS ... also a bit insulting to Dessie to suggest he is maintaining a policy left over by a former coach ... even if that policy didn't exist ...
Oh Woodsie. Not quite as clear as you make it, but there are some good points
Firstly Tom T started first grade in 2015, Jake in 2013 before Barrett arrived. Suli was brought over from Wests after playing several games in first grade. Hastings from Sydney City even more games, and yet he only played 13 games, mostly off the bench...need I say what happened, and then released.
I'll acknowledge Barrett promoted Parker and Fonua Blake into his team in the first year and then Kelly, Paseka and Fainu in 2017
But what of the others. Knight played 1 game, then released, Bainbridge 3 games then released, Wright 5 games, only two full games then released.
My issue with Barrett, and why I am likening his actions to Des, relates to play makers and a certain reluctance to promote them. I don't know the story about Hastings, but he was an attacking player who made things happen. So did Wright, yet Barrett drove both of them out of the club, when it was just that type of player that was needed in that disastrous year 2018.
What I'm getting at with Des is that he has two of the best junior attacking players in the game, and he seems like Barrett reluctant to play them, despite having lost 5 of the last 7 games. I know there are issues to do with injury but both are available. The team, like Barrett's 2018 team, is struggling without flair and we have two players sitting on the side line who would seem the very type of player the team needs. It needs spark and waiting for Turbo to return is just sitting on one's hands.
Now Hasler has promoted Cust, Funa and Olakau'atu, and good on him, but he's done it because he's run out of players through injury, not because they were being promoted by merit over others showing an inability to compete effectively now that Turbo and perhaps Walker are missing. Other teams like Penrith and Newcastle are getting their young future stars into the game.
That is the comparison I was making.