A lot of the terrible recruitment / retention complaints come from a few very bad (seemingly) decisions, not so much the little ones (though people’s opinions vary wildly on the likes of Hunt, Arrow, Wallace, etc).
The signing of Bird made no sense and looks worse by the day this season. The four year extension of Boyd who is playing on one leg. The extension of Gillett despite the possibility he may not play again, million dollar Milford and the Kennedy, Barba, Sims (possibly harsh) flops and Thaiday going too long.
Most of these are legitimate concerns.
Taylor was the first genuine halfback we have developed in 20 years with real potential and we let him go for nothing.
The issue is signing players and misusing them or not understanding why we are signing or firing.
Other examples:
Milf was a great signing as a fullback but before 20 we go why not make him a half despite halves don’t mature till late 20s let alone ones that need training. Doubt we would be talking about Locky as a future immortal if we shifted him at 20.
Roberts great but picked up his defence but no game plan aside from throw it to Robert late and hope he does it all himself.
Boyd on one leg. Very good player but for what we lost as opportunity cost (Taylor at 7, Milf at 1) arguably one of worst buys in broncos history. Arguably worst captain in broncos history as well. I see Wayne’s logic and he played well a couple of half seasons and had bad luck but not what we needed. We were right to let him go first time.
KNik. Great bench hooker or maybe 6. But let him go if only desire is to use him at halfback.
Lodge. Good on field. Too damaging to brand off the field as ashamed as must say.
Macca. Isn’t a origin or premiership winning hooker. Attack faults are too much to overcome at this point. Unless he wants to play 30 at hooker with full energy and 20 as tackling lock then off then rather we found a new hooker.
McGuire. Great prop. Why use him at lock when we had arrow instead we plodded along with Sims and Thaiday.
Thaiday 2 seasons too long. Although admit during last month been good with injuries but a ticket to England would have been better and kinder. 90s WB would have dropped him at the airport himself.
Sims. Good cheap buy but when it became obvious was performing was never demoted.
Arrow. Huge loss. Can’t keep them all but never gave him a shot. To make 13 his own and therefore feel he had a place if stayed.
Ese. Huge loss. Again can’t keep them all but wasn’t even a huge deal in context of salary cap.
Moga. Smart sale but why was he used so much in first place.
Opaic. Guy is wanted or he isn’t. Seems like for 2 seasons we didn’t know.
Blair good signing initially and very good release.
Hunt good call to let go but should never have been in that situation in first place. Maybe he was always a choker but don’t think so. I think we did it to him by trying to force him to be something he isn’t with no real support in the spine.
So would say hardly batting at 95%. Decisions are easy in retrospect but in my opinion this stuff has been obvious at time it happened and it just keeps repeating. Don’t mind WB being head coach till 2021 since we for whatever reason didn’t get Bellyache but only if he the board forces him to take an honest look at the past 4 years and has some deputies installed that disagree with him to work past his biggest weaknesses in tactics and inflexible mindset. If it’s going to be the same bs then at end of this year demote him to off field role far away from hq and make him serve out his contract if he wants to be paid and be done with it. Board need to reassert control and guide a future including succession plan. Can’t let the coach (no matter how great in the past) dominate the whole club or be impervious to such obvious a deserved criticism.
