@j77 the gutting thing for me is that over the past 5 or 10+ years, we have shown glimpses of what we are capable of, yet we simply dont kick on.
It is like our Coaches/Board are happy with mediocrity, although, most of the time, we are under that.
We have so many talented kids coming out of our region, but with our poor coaching and lack of success of getting only the very best into super teams, why would a young kid with a big future come back here?
ALready heard of a Northland kid out of St Kents who has been picked up by one of the crusaders vaccums, then you look over the Auckland side and see there are 3 or 4 from up here, even the b side there are more again...guys we could desperately use.
Sure we get some of Aucklands overflow too, but often they are surplus for a reason.
If my kid was looking at signing with an NPC team, I'd be steering him toward another province...I'd hate that!
THis new HP Centre will be great, but if we cant match it with on field performance, it will be pointless.
While it was great to make the final last year, for me, it was the worst thing that could happen, it papered over the huge cracks in our coaching team, and squad selection.
I think a few players may have rested on thier laurels form last year, but equally, the coaches need to take the heat for not looking at the squad and seeing the gaps.
The only real ones they plugged were Reihana and Hallam-Eames, and he was only a last minute one, so probably more luck than good planning.
As I said to @Steven-Harris he needs to get on the NRU books as a scout in the Auckland and NH comps, he watches a ton more rugby than most, is passionate about his Union, and like me, I bet he'd do it for free too!
When you look at our squad, they have the core of a very good side, one that could be knocking at the top 4 side in the Premiership with Olsen, Goodhue, Caird, Robinson, Nock, Gregory, Tua (if he werent made of glass) and then build around them, add the likes of Hyland, Hallam-Eames, Macilai, Wright, Rush, Pryor and there is no reason why we should not be finals contendors in the Championship, pushing for promotion, but it is the average players they put elsewhere and lack of preparation, coaching, and we have 2 50 pointers over us and 2 red cards in 2 weeks...
All of this.
