2003 was a good season for us, we made it to the semi-finals of the CC and to the final of the Grand Final. We were all raving at how bright the future was and how great the youth coming through was. IMO the best win that season was against Leeds at Headingley in the GF Eliminator, following is the squad, highlighted are the players we still have:
Kris Radlinski, Brian Carney, Martin Aspinwall, David Hodgson, Brett Dallas, Sean O'Loughlin, Luke Robinson, Quentin Pongia, Terry Newton, Craig Smith, Mick Cassidy, Danny Tickle, Andy Farrell. Subs: Terry O'Connor, Paul Johnson, Mark Smith, Gareth Hock
WNAC you are right that bad (higher) management is to blame, that squad has a mix of experienced players and talented youth, no poor players there. That season our defence was outstanding, with the exception of Hodgson the backs are still the same. I still stick by my opinion that we were daft to let him go. He's playing really well for Salford and has been named in the provisional GB squad, he was our top scorer that season too. I bet we are paying Vaealiki a greater wage and getting less out of him so far.
Gareth Hock and Sean O'Loughlin have improved game upon game since 2003, unfortunately both are injured this season, very unlucky but nothing we can do about it, it's just bad luck.
Robinson was recieving praise from all areas of RL, he was first choice scrum-half (with Lam injured) and was playing superbly. Now at Salford he is again playing fantastic. Whether there was more to it than we are led to believe on the face of it we were daft to let him go. With forwards, last season we let too many go and recruited poorly and have been very unlucky.
Poor recruitment and bad luck with injuries is to blame for the state in which we are now in. At the same time though we have acquired some decent players (Guisett, Moran, Seuseu, Orr) that just need find their best form and stop making silly mistakes.
I think Lindsay has had his day, money is his weapon of choice, and you can't use it with the salary cap in place. Time for someone else to come in that will let the coach pick the team.
The next step is to get the most out of the players we have this season with Denis Betts having the final say in every decision to do with the playing team. Then we need Betts to choose who he would like to recruit for next season, I'm sure he knows better than us the positions we need to strengthen. Then and only then can we comment on how good a coach Betts is.