Hawkins was number 2, Walker will be the new number 7 come this afternoon, this Dodd character will be number 4.
We let Taaffe go, and he was a number 7.
Don't agree you can't have 4 elite players in your spine:-
Grant, Hughes, Munster, Papenhuyzen.
Kenny, Cleary, Luai, Edwards
Walters, Reynolds, Mam, Walsh
Smith, Walker, Keary, Tedesco.
Croker, DCE, Brooks, Trbojevic
The Storm do it and haven’t been a genuine shot at a premiership since those guys all signed upgraded deals.
Re Panthers, Kenny isn’t on elite coin, he was a gamble. They’re also losing Luai.
Re Broncos, Walters isn’t on top coin. He’s a gamble that is working out. Ditto Mam TBF.
The Roosters are losing Keary and haven’t been a threat with Keary, Tedesco, Walker and Smith. They have shortfalls elsewhere like the Storm. Funnily enough also in their pack IMO.
Re: Manly, Crocker is a cut price option at 9 that is performing above his pay grade. And they also aren’t going to win the premiership FWIW.
I’m not saying we can afford for Dodd (or whoever plays 7) to not be good (we saw that with Ilias - even though we had bigger problems).
I’m saying that top squads generally have a 50/50 gamble that pays off in their spine.
And you’ve highlighted that with your post.
I actually hope the Walker at 7 experiment pays off, because the more flexibility the new coach has the better.
Whether someone has the opinion Dodd is better or worse than Ilias is somewhat irrelevant. The club have tried Ilias, they are ready to move on. And Dodd is the best they can find for the price they are happy to pay. We’ll see how he goes.
There are few guarantees in recruitment.
When a Crocker or Walters pays off, everyone accepts it as a given. Prior to that being a thing, we all would have looked at their spines and said they’re weak at 9.