Quote ="sally cinnamon"It's a different game now with a salary cap and agents.
If there was a new Brian Bevan type player today, when it came to renewal of contract time we would hear stories in the papers of how he "may want to test himself in the best league in the world" or "would not rule out trying out union" and would end up negotiating a contract which ate up half our salary cap and forced us to compromise on the rest of the squad.....other talented young players would have to be released to accommodate him. Then in the end we might get a few more seasons out of him before he went off to union anyway with us all calling him Judas.
The odds of having a player stay with us for a decade scoring 60 tries a season like Bevan did are now remote.
I'm not saying I wouldn't want great players but I'd rather have a world class administrator setting up a club that would be at the top for decades and have a team of strong players every year, than one world class player.
I suppose it's like if you had a rich grandparent who said to you, I'll buy you a house or I'll buy you a Ferrari, the house would not be the sexy option but it would be the better one to take.'"
Yes Yes Solid foundations are the key a top class back room and build and build bigger and stronger youth teams and squads of players prolong are time at the top and don't slid back or it’s hard to get back to the top table as we all well know us older ones that is.