Sticking with the kids.

Bull Shark said:
hope we're sitting here in a year or two saying 'we were wrong, they were right' ...
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We won't.

Some will be saying, get rid of Wallace, Norman sucks etc.

We will be baying for blood, over why we aren't 'buying' players.
 
I don't understand how Melbourne had one QLD feeder club, and they found Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis. Why can't we find a superstar in one of our 4 or 5 feeder clubs? Developing young players is great, but you need to find those special players too, not just safe ones.
 
Kaz said:
We won't.

Some will be saying, get rid of Wallace, Norman sucks etc.

We will be baying for blood, over why we aren't 'buying' players.
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yes, that scenario is about $1.20 at the moment ... "we were wrong, yay we're legit" is at $5.80 ...
 
Alec said:
I don't understand how Melbourne had one QLD feeder club, and they found Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis. Why can't we find a superstar in one of our 4 or 5 feeder clubs? Developing young players is great, but you need to find those special players too, not just safe ones.
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That isn't how it works. The Storm signed a young Slater, Cronk, Smith and Inglis before they played for Norths.
 
Alec said:
I don't understand how Melbourne had one QLD feeder club, and they found Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis. Why can't we find a superstar in one of our 4 or 5 feeder clubs? Developing young players is great, but you need to find those special players too, not just safe ones.
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The Storm also payed huge overs for much of the best junior talent in the land. It's not like they were unique in being the only ones to identify Cronk, Smith Ingliss, Hoffman, Folau, Blair, Tomane, Chambers Proctor etc. They were all junior superstars. What was unique about the Storm is they were able to throw more money around than most. Problems arose when they got greedy and wanted to retain them all as senior players...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Buying established players does not equal success. You need to develop from within. Rubbish article from Craddock - he has NFI.
 
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To a point m1c. You also need to identify deficiencies and fix them. If that means supplementing home grown talent with a purchase or 2 then so be it. Stubbornly sticking to talent which plateaus is a recipe for years of being ordinary.
 
We do buy talent - just not a level that gets the plaudits. Buying them young is the way to go - before they debut or before their real worth has been established. The club should be given kudos for their recruitment with the retirement of Lockyer in mind. Do you think it's a coincidence Hunt, Norman and Kahu - three genuine options for the #6 jersey - are on the scene at the same time?

Someone's made some great decisions over the last 3-4 years to secure that trio - all of whom have great junior pedigrees.

My real recruitment concern is that there has been no replacement sought for Gagai. He was the man earmarked for Hodges right centre position. Using this as an example - It's far better to buy a prospective strike centre at 20 years of age rather than a 22-23 year old who's now a regular first grader and on the cusp of rep' honours.

Recruitment shouldn't be looking at short term solutions. Long term development is the gold standard..
 
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Dexter said:
To a point m1c. You also need to identify deficiencies and fix them. If that means supplementing home grown talent with a purchase or 2 then so be it. Stubbornly sticking to talent which plateaus is a recipe for years of being ordinary.
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that's right .. to label that a "rubbish article" is ridiculous .. the story wasn't condeming the broncos for the direction they're taking, it was weighing up the potential risks vs the potential payoffs - ie it was balanced.

Craddock wasn't for one minute suggesting the Broncos clean house and make wholesale changes via the chequebook, he was suggesting that one or two key elements or "zip zip men" as he put it, might be what is needed to take this team over the edge.

for goodness sake, the team has just plummeted from 3rd to gone in eight weeks of crap football ... People are entitled to be sifting through the wreckage and asking questions.
 
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There's nothing wrong with sticking with kids as long as you remain open to the market. The real problem is that our kids aren't as good as they used to be and I'm not really sure we have properly adapted to this.
 
I see where you are going but I don't see how a 23 year old on the verge of rep honours is a short term solution. To me that is the perfect time to get talent.
The club should always be looking forward but you need to build a side that can be a premiership threat as well.

Can you see a premiership in the next 3 years with the current halves we have. If you don't then it will be a lot longer than that, because we will be losing Hodgo and Parker for sure and Thaiday and Hannant will be 32 ish by then.

If this squad is to be a contender we need a playmaker to either step up or we need to buy someone and buying someone is more likely at this stage.
 
Successful clubs think longer term than that - Why sign that established 23 year old for next season when you could have been proactive, identified what appeared to be a future shortfall in that position, and signed him years earlier?

I understand it has to happen at some points, however we still have preferable options to explore in the halves before heading onto the open market and paying well overs for a quick fix. Players such as Maloney and Sandow are evidence of why you need to think these things through carefully.
 
The thing is, sure Broncos have great recruitment & junior system, however it's not like we haven't brought talent before. We actually have a decent history of making those 2 or 3 buys to complement our squad.

From Lazarus, Tallis to (unfortunately in hindsight) Wallace, we have & always will need to make key buys to be competitive.
 
m1c said:
Successful clubs think longer term than that - Why sign that established 23 year old for next season when you could have been proactive, identified what appeared to be a future shortfall in that position, and signed him years earlier?

I understand it has to happen at some points, however we still have preferable options to explore in the halves before heading onto the open market and paying well overs for a quick fix. Players such as Maloney and Sandow are evidence of why you need to think these things through carefully.
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Yeah, I'm still not quite with you mate. Why not have the established 23 yr old and identify the 17 / 18 yr old as well. Any young gun who is good enough will probably cost you as much by the time they get to 23 anyway.
 
Because the earlier you get a player the cheaper they are - it's the only way to build a stand-out squad. As an example, Matty Srama is on the base wage at the Titans - Do you think he'd still be earning minimum wage if another club poached him?

As I said - there is a need at times to recruit from outside, however only as a last resort.
 
It's not just underperforming players, there's a culmination of things that need to be fixed in pre-season.
 
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