Almost through the entire interview now, and putting the pieces together (certainly regarding the ‘culture’ issue) it seems we have become a club where a player can become ‘comfortable’. We’ve had a lot of older, experienced and more established players who have been there and done it, and seemingly don’t appreciate being asked to develop their game or adjust the way they play to fit into new systems. I think this has become a systemic problem for the club - a ‘just enough’ mentality maybe?
We’ve spent the last 20 years buying up top talent on big money, without getting the relative results (and yes I know we’ve had the cup victories). Instead of recognising that we’ve been going about business the wrong way, we seem to have perpetuated it with a ‘perceived quick fix’ by buying the next ex-NRL big name player available without getting the best of the current crop or our academy. So we have a perpetuating cycle of ‘player comes in and gets paid lots while career winds down before retirement’. It’s a happy enough affair for them - there’s not a huge amount of pressure to justify the salary, and they can go through the motions each week having ‘peaked’ at their previous clubs. This then seems to become the toxic ‘path’ that filters down through the rest of the squad. The senior players maybe feeling a bit entitled, and the squad fillers following suit - either sitting there enviously waiting for their turn at the big salary and cushy life, or getting demotivated with the lopsided state of affairs where their own performances better that of the seniors players without fair reward. To have members of your leadership group confirmed as resisting change, refusing to play a new way, or not wanting to develop their own game because they’re already a senior player, just says it all for me. Can you imagine Wigan or Saints tolerating that sort of attitude, no matter who how ‘famous’ the player is? I also like the fact that Powell has admitted he called it wrong on certain occasions coming down too hard, too early, but it’s clear now that this likely wouldn’t have made things much better when we’ve got pushback from the leadership group over changes.
I think we’ve had the perfect storm of a huge amount of pressure on the squad from day one, combined with a lot of senior players coming off contract and facing a coach who’s pushing them hard to change when they’ve become comfortable. That’s a lot of anxiety and displeasure brewing underneath, and for those being let go, no motivation to drive the standards being asked for. I think things were broken early in the first few games - certain senior players didn’t like the criticism after a victory and this pressure combined with the anxiety of May 1st just resulted in a big collapse. Then every next game became the ultimate pressure pot situation - this manifested in games seemingly being won, only to have a score against us which opened the floodgates as we panicked. Although I’m not a massive fan of NRL imports based on our recent failures, I’m happy that Powell will be putting Maguire and Vaughan straight up there in the leadership group (both on the field and in training) driving standards from day one. The culture filters from the top down and hopefully they’ll be on board with Daryl from the start, and the atmosphere will be conducive to change and raising the bar.
Going forward into 2023, I don’t want to build up any hopes but I do at least get the feeling that we’ve been through a necessary demolition that will build us back up in a better way. A way that eventually puts us closer to the way that the likes of Saints, Wigan and Leeds operate. I guess we'll see. It's going to be a long off-season.
Admittedly a bit of a waffle post. Sorry.
