Quote: mdean "This is a strange thread, we are a quarter in to the best start to a season we have had for a lot of years and we seem to want to discredit some of our current players.
From my perspective, Danny, Deano and Fozzy are experienced pro's and they will know by August if they can in their legs and in their hearts do another season.
How anyone can bag Jacko this year is beyond me.
Similar for Ferris, he has played three positions, sometimes in one game and people notice him when he makes an error or gives a penalty away, but like Jones he is one of those guys that if you ACTUALLY condition yourself to watching them for 10/15 minutes and dont follow the ball, then you see their value. Stuart Jones seems to be a Marmite player for most people.
The other mentioned; We have to bear in mind that we see them for 80 minutes a week, TM, AH etc..... see a lot more and I think to judge them from the stands is folly.
One thing I do concur with though, even if Danny does another two years, now is when we need succession planning. But it is not as easy as buying someone in, it is a really delicate balance becuase if you go off overseas and buy a big name, you can very easily force your entire crop of U18 and U20 halves to go find other clubs. The way we handled Shenny going was perfect in my opinion. We promoted Arundel and Thompson to be playing in the three quarters, we demonstrated they were part of our plans and sent the right messages, while consolidating by bringing in Isa as well - that makes the whole wheel turn..... if that makes sense?
Only my opinion, not worth more than anyone elses on here!'"
You're right about replacing Danny - we need to groom players from within the club, with the veterans giving them the benefit of their experience. The problem in the past has always been one of needing "instant" success and trying to make "big" signings to replace players that were leaving. TBH, I was glad at how we didn't panic when it was clear that we had to replace Westy and Shenny, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that we'd perform as well as we have done. Now I know this won't happen every time we get big names leaving, but the club needs to make sure that there are skilled people waiting in the wings and hungry to be part of the team.
It looks like we've got the setup right just now, and long may it continue.
