london blue wrote:
Thought I’d given up on posting.
Ah, well here goes.
50 years of following the club and this process of change is painful. Very.
Seems we have two paths to go. Change strategy now or hang tight.
Easiest thing to do would be to change strategy. Soothes those that are disgruntled and serves the media.
Our current position reflects an investment. A punt. Anyone with anything to do with the club would be reflecting. Human nature.
A couple of recent experiences have given me some insight.
Friday night, I was at the Saints Presidents Dinner. Fitzy and Lo Giudice were there. Fitzy was by no means jumping through hoops, nonetheless he encouraged patience.
Recently a conversation with Steven Trigg, revealed his deep belief in the direction of the club. While disappointed with the way he left, he was deeply passionate about the new direction the club was headed. 3-4 years ago we were regarded as THE boys club with a supporter base measured as the least engaged. He recalled the biggest challenge he faced 4years ago was wrestling with the likes of J Elliott - convincing the need to invest in a future
....he shared our immeadiate challenge is to stick with a program of change that started 3-4 years ago. To support our strategy and keep it on track the club must leverage the surplus $3 million of funds we’ve accumulated through salary cap savings. SOS and the club need to secure established FA talent to compliment our emerging young A graders.
Trigg is a lovely chap, he would like to think that he changed that perception, but he was ultimately unsuccessful.
MLG was courting Triggs's successor before Trigg was even out the door.
The justification used to replace Trigg was membership numbers/disengagement... and unofficially, football department issues.
Trigg removed McKay from his role managing contracts/the salary cap in 2015.
Trigg didn't appoint/wasn't able to appoint a national recruitment manager for 2 years because SOS wanted to wait for his buddy from GWS... so we did without.
SOS was given his role, and since Trigg's departure, he's had the freedom to build a nice little department for himself.
We're solely dependent on SOS for free agents which he's whiffed on so far, as well as the list composition which is incredibly unbalanced with huge gaps.
He's under no scrutiny because he's mates with MLG.
The plan is good, doesn't mean it's being implemented well.