The Cowboys are an interesting case study. In the context that they found themselves in, dropping Jake Clifford for John Asiata was actually a sensible decision but it should never have come to that. When Clifford was handed his opportunity he clearly struggled but there wouldn't have been many halves who would have thrived in the structures Green put in place.
Their roster was a shambles. After Ben Barba got sacked they ended up having to bring in two replacements because they got it wrong the first time with Kahu. To make matters worse they already had a full-time fullback lined up for 2020, so Drinkwater was really just taking up room. Their forward pack was completely unbalanced as well with a strong middle but weak edge forwards and bad defensive players. They never got anyone to replace Fensom who was a key player in their 2017 resurgence.
Even the junior players they had coming through like J. Bowen, Gela-Mosby, Wright, Hoare, Laybutt etc. were shown too much patience over the years and they really should have made a call and brought in other prospects while they had a chance to play alongside JT and the like.
As always they had some bad luck along the way as well. Te Maire Martin was one of those selections but he had his share of injuries and ultimately had to retire when he should have helped them with that transition from JT.
Coming off this Wiremu Greig signing, it reminds me of the Broncos and how they're still feeling the after effects of 2020. A lot of these issues in a regular season would have been contained if we had a proper season and the struggling teams could make a few blue-chip signings but since there is so much uncertainty in the game we really didn't see a lot of movement in the player market. So we're in this position now where the struggling clubs aren't rebounding as quickly as they would so these young prospects are jumping at these large money offers at other clubs where their roster is doing slightly better.
With the Cowboys, they really need to assess the damage and see which players they can move forward with. For all we know, they may need to bulldoze the entire squad and start over but ideally, they can start making in-roads with Val, Hamiso, Drinkwater, Robson, Taumalolo etc. pick up a solid edge forward (if I'm the Cowboys, I'm looking at players like Stimson) and I'm just looking to rebalance the team.
Back to Clifford, unless he was willing to stay on less money I don't see the sense in keeping him at the club. He's a bad fit for the club and it's gotten to that stage where he really needs a change in environment if he's going to make something of his career. I just think there comes a time where both parties just need to move on.
