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I suggested him in the Brandson Smith blog as more suitable. Him and Smith rotating would be chaos, in a good way.
All the teams that go aggressively for players they want, are certainly more successful than us. Credit to BA that got a squad together that was very competitive in the NRL & was competitive for final positions & Grandfinal, he signed some great players & some that he turned into State players & Internationsls reps. Now we have to pay overs to try & rebuild, it's going to be painful for a few years. Poor Ryles is going to cop it, I feel for him. He could have kept the same squad & start this year ok, competitive anyway, yet he chose to go all out. Patients is the only way, you just knew moving BA was going to bring us to step one, so now we are here, no better but with hope. Let's believe in Ryles & support him & his team all the way.
BA and those who worked with him in recruiting, went with the moneyball approach of going for outcasts and he got a lot out of them. RCG, Cartwright, Papali'i, Opacic, Lane, Jennings. Then got others that became available for certain reasons Ferguson and Matterson.
Then managed to develop the likes of Mahoney, Niukore and Kaufusi mainly. All together made a top notch squad around 2019-22. BA just never evolved to do it again and look to a few years ahead as well.
Ryles needed to go to square one. To do what he wanted and how he wanted to do it he needed to go to square one.
Good call out LB on BAs inability to refresh the squad multiple times being why we're in this mess. In terms of the Moneyball approach, I don't expect much to change with Ryles in that regard.
I expect a handful of "experienced heads" signing from Ryles will come over the next year and a half given our squad is young and developing, and I'm anticipating that most people will find some of these signings very underwhelming the same way we did under BA with his many journeyman signings.
Squad composition is a pretty well worn science - you need youth who develop faster than their pay packet, old heads who provide leadership and experience without breaking the bank, and a few genuine superstars. The salary cap means there aren't too many ways to vary this equation.
Unfortunately where BA failed was bringing through enough youth and letting go of the old heads. He became too tight and loyal with the experienced players and it ultimately stopped the squad developing. Ryles is obviously trying to reset that approach quickly by fast tracking a bunch of youth - it's a strategy that can work, but it definitely opens us up to short term pain (example the Broncos with their wooden spoon 4 years ago).
Honestly if we look at the Broncos trajectory we're probably in for a rough season or two ahead before we start building the experience to succeed.
You need a mixture Cap, bringing in signings and bringing in rookies. Instead we flooded our team with players who never reached their potential and could be anything; Murchie, Momoisea, Hopgood and Doorey. Then brought in depth players who BA trusted from the past but weren't good enough anymore in Davey and Lussick. Also had their big signing in Hodgson who was seen as the older head we've needed for a while who can guide the forwards and it backfired as he was finished.
Out of the signings above, Hopgood worked out. But we tried to make Isaiah Papali'i 2.0 but with numerous players and tried to replace those that left before with players that had failed or couldn't crack it at their previous spot. Where BA could have bitten the bullet with a junior or two. Had he done that similar to 2018, he could have survived 2024.
Chammas said something very fascinating the other day, he said the relationship of BA and the club wouldn't make a rebuild work. I wonder what he meant by that, but the only time BA brought along certain rookies was when he sort of was forced to in 2018 to save his job.
As for Moneyball, i think Ryles will add certain amounts of that since Melbourne do that and the market dictates that he has to. But he is not going to make most of his squad moneyball acquistions.
I reckon BA's inability to focus on recruiting fresh guys to develop was clouded by his desire to promote his sons to first grade. I surmise that his judgements had been clouded by this desire. Likewise, he was hard headed and appears to be don't want to take any advise from anybody. Case in point might be Ryan Carr + why did he move out of the Eels coaching staff.
our horrendous R&R was coupled by the inept HOF MON, who was incapable of getting good recruits.
Mate, if that kids name wasn't Arthur , it wouldn't have been such a focus. He was better than that plodder we've trotted out to partner Brown the last two weeks. He could kick , pass , and his defence improved plenty and wouldn't be regarded out of place in the current squad. People need to realise that our funds were skint , he was a band aid . In Reggie's he was a stand out , so who do you use ?
Let's not forget also, Brown wasn't exactly setting the world alight . But everyone blamed JA . Maybe now people are more open to seeing a Browns flaws they should go back and re-watch a few of those games. You might shock yourself.
He tired to refresh the squad. He went for a whole bunch of players that MON failed to get to the club. The coach can only do so much. Look yeah maybe his time was well up, but he was sabotaged by MON due to MON fuckimg our cap up . Arthur's personality probably played a big part in the detachment from his collegeues , but at the end of the day , he can only request players , after that he's stuck with what he had to work with.
It is an odd link based on what we have and what type of Hooker we want. Starling is so much different to the type of Hookers we've had. The last time we had a running Hooker had to of been P.J. Marsh. Does Moses prefer a steady foot Hooker or would he like Starling drawing markers as well as the A defender creating some space for him? He worked well with Mahoney as his passes would hit Moses running.
Plus what do we already have. Lussick is gone, i reckon he is on an OK salary so he will be gone, not surprised he is gone earlier. Hands was talked about as impressive staff, seems he is a place holder until Smith is ready for big minutes. Smith looks decent, hard worker. But he has not really set the NRL alight in two games and could benefit from experience.
Starling can play a roving middle role as Smith comes on as a 14. Ryles might like to use two Hookers, not really a Melbourne thing but Ryles might prefer it. Starling starts, moves to Lock as Smith goes to Hooker and both them are attacking Hookers.
I would not mind Starling signing. Use the rest of the money to get more forwards.
Defence is the first thing I look for in my hooker he has to be able to lead or be up there in the line speed stakes.He absolutely has to have a huge motor and has to part of the solution to tying the middle together.
With the ball distribution and a kicking option are also huge no hooker we have on the roster is overly good with either of these skills.Running is the cream for me.Defense is #1 whom ever the eels bring onboard in the fowards it goes Motor & Athleticism urgent athletes is what we have to add in the foward pack.
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