afgtnk wrote: ↑October 16, 2019, 8:57 pm
PigRickman wrote: ↑October 16, 2019, 8:07 pm
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 16, 2019, 7:07 pm
The emotional, heavily green goggled, almost religious like attachment a lot of our fans have to Jarrod Croker has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen to do with the Canberra Raiders or Rugby League. It makes such little sense.
It's not just our fans who have it... It's also our playing group, our coach, our recruitment manager and our CEO.
So it really doesnt matter what the fans think of him. The people who matter are Stuart, Mulholland and Furner, and they've made it abundently clear he's here to stay. They believe he's a vital cog for the culture being established, they believe him to be a good leader for this team, Stuart speaks glowingly of his contrubtions to the club on and off the park, the players to a man adore him, and from a CEO perspective, he's as clean as you could ask for as a captain and role model.
The club specifically mentioned him as someone that is a priority to get sorted out this off season
You're going to have to come to terms with this at some point, asfnaskzala. He's not going anywhere.
The club can say what it wants, it's not the same as what they'll do - you should know that as well as anyone.
When have you see them not back a player, or not talk about his qualities when the opportunity comes up, or say that they don't want to keep someone? Every time you hear them they say they want to keep the player who's in question. Hell, Ricky Stuart has re-signed players only to get rid of them shortly afterwards multiple times now.
He shouldn't be a priority, he's not a marquee player. Nor is he the dominant influence in the team, that's well and truly Josh Hodgson. If we want to be up there at the top it's players exactly like Croker, solid clubmen who no doubt love the club very much but who don't quite have the ability to match their potentially high pay bracket, that we unfortunately need to be ruthless with. Zero time for sentiment.
I agree. There is zero time for sentiment, or at least there shouldnt be.
But if you honestly think the club's praising and public prioritisation of Jarrod Croker is empty platitudes, you haven't been paying attention.
It doesnt matter than you or I may think about Croker, and i suspect away from the forum our views on him would be closer than they appear on the forum... the simple reality is Stuart and DFJ are in Croker. They very much see him as someone who is as important to this team as anyone else, including Hodgson. You may disagree with that. But that just is what it is.
The club writ large is all in on Jarrod Croker, as a player, as a captain, as a leader, as a person. That's what the club has shown us, not with their words but with their actions, when someone/some entity shows you who they are, believe them.