I’ve been thinking for a while this board and Scott are sleepwalking us into the same position North was in. They (North) went hard, topped up, but failed to develop/recruit young players. When they finally realised that they needed to rebuild, the older players had very little value. They “let” a few leave, but got a handful of second and third rounders for them. All of which left them with the bare bones of a list, no meaningful additional picks and a ten year rebuild.
Covid definitely impacted their rebuild , but Tassie will also impact us.
We’re in a situation where the trade value of Merrett, Langford, Parish, Wright, Ridley, McKay, McGrath, Gresham are all way less than at any point in the last 5 years. We saw this with Stringer, Shiel and Lav, losing them for less than what we’d have got for biting the bullet earlier.
Yet the youngest of those guys i listed is 27. If we take three years to be ready they’re all post 30, many with terrible injury histories, a historical EFC track record of not keeping players going post 30 and question marks on commitment. If they’re all gone and we’ve replaced them with 2-3 successful first rounders (including our 2026-2028 firsts) , how will the team be good enough? Cause it ain’t good enough now.
Which risks us falling into the North difficult rebuild. Let alone if we lose a youngster such as Caddy, Sharp, Robey etc to Tassie for twiddly winks.