Completely agree with this.BadnMean wrote: ↑June 12, 2022, 10:23 pmis our position in the player market more disadvantaged by being in Canberra or by dud decisions like tying up $1.3m of our cap each year in ridiculously over extended and overpaid contracts to guys no-one else wanted to sign and who are no longer FG standard?Bluesbrother wrote: ↑June 12, 2022, 8:04 pm Thanks for the replies. Rickamando, go and have a look at the 2019 grandfinal teams on paper and consider that we got within 6 points of a premiership and were in many regards the better side on the night. That's a pretty fair result coaching wise. You saying the club is in poor shape is very wide of the mark. The tigers, knights, warriors, dogs are in poor shape. We have some great talent coming through with the likes of Savage, Kris, Timoko, Smith-Sheilds, Mooney, Esera, Rushton and many beneath them with promise.
No doubt Ricky has his deficiencies, I'm yet to come across a human that doesn't but he has done a fair job with the opportunities presented. Could it have been better? Absolutely, and as fans we hope he does recognise that. I'd point to the large turnover of staff over the off season of an admission that the team of staff assembled over recent years wasn't up to it.
The one obvious factor that isn't spoken about enough is that the raiders are consistently at a disadvantage in the player market. Canberra doesn't have the appeal of the roosters or the storm for many sub 30 year olds so we are playing with a team that is often, on paper, no where near the opposition. Again though, the fact Ricky recognised this, diversified the recruitment strategy and got better results than those before him, apart from sheens, speaks to the fact that the man has some idea about what he is doing.
We are now in a position where we grow our talent and cherry pick where we can to fill the holes. That's about as good as we can hope for, unless the NRL gets serious about evening the playing field.
And GE, yes appreciate the work you do to keep us informed. Thank you.
I say the latter.
There are other coaches players want to play for. An ambitious club will try to get those coaches in.
We got within 6 points of a trophy 3 years ago... How long does Ricky dine out on the almost coulda shouldabeen? It was 3 years ago! He stuffed the chance straight afterward by not refreshing/improving the squad and resting on his laurels and the "good bloke" factor. Which might be forgiveable- if it wasn't the EXACT SAME fault he made after 2016, leading to 2 more seasons of dross in that case.
He keeps making the same mistakes. And they are not even hard mistakes to forsee. It's as dumb and repetitive as his bench use. You'd THINK you use the impact hooker just before and after halftime and the controller to start and finish... but no... repeatedly...
The press conferences... Yeah I guess we don't deserve straight answers or honestly. Just condescending crap and aggression to journo's who ask real questions. Try watching a Trent Robinson presser- win or lose he treats _everyone_ involved in the game with respect and answers in a way as open, transparent and forthcoming as he can be. Night and day. We get treated like idiots by Ricky for giving a crap or showing interest, it's awful.
The "Ricky alone can solve it" is rubbish. Get a proper CEO in, not the family farm nepotism choice, a proper admin and let them select the best coach. Raiders have an enviable financial position, a one team town advantage, a cost of living advantage and many bike paths - a professional outfit could make a go of it here but we have a Stockholm Syndrome to the same old stooges who've overseen decades of mediocrity and tell us it's luck and the bounce of the ball every week.
Ricky did well for us. I appreciate it. But I reckon he's taken the squad as far as it can go and I've thought that for a couple of years.
1. We hamper ourselves with the recruitment and retention.
2. We hamper ourselves by not subjecting Ricky to KPIs which every other senior employee of an organisation would have. We are tracking for another 10th place finish.
3. Really don't understand what happens after half time - this year already Cowboys, Warriors, Parra and Broncos games we were leading at half time. And in games we weren't such as the 1st Cowboys game, Manly, Storm and Penrith - it got worse. That is just this year. Last year and 2017-18 the same.
4. Bench use has been bad for several years with players (and wives complaining). Tactics have been bad.
5. We haven't recruited anyone good in the last few years since the GF - just rejects that either were let go or had their contract terminated - think CHN, Adam Elliott and Curtis Scott. Cotric was let go by Canterbury as he was too expensive. Only player of note is G Williams but that didn't go down well.
6. Canterbury, Wests and Warriors will only improve with a new coach. Brisbane have gone past us.