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Perhaps, but then he had the luxury of picking those players out of an underlying competition where they had already proven themselves as the pick of a large near-ready bunch. Aside from the few good picks we already know about, we'll once again get largely unknown quantities that on the balance of probabilities won't make it or will spend their whole time here just trying to get over the big step up. Five of them prove to be fragile, we'll be picking amateurs out of club ranks again. Five of them prove inadequate for a year and a half, we're stuck playing them as you can only replace injuries.
There will always be a few journeymen in the squad - this is Australia rather than NZ and there is nothing underneath but shifting sand. And this certainly isn't Sydney where we get all the assistance in the world to accumulate players. Perhaps better at least a few of the devils that we know well enough to build tactics around for a bit, rather than roll the dice each year. At least until we can genuinely identify (or preferably develop) genuine alternatives 'cos this isn't a once-off, we do this every year. When was the last time we fielded anything like the same backline one year to the next? We always talk about building something, but how do you build a strong structure if you knock out and replace half the bricks every year?
Alternatively, find a way to get fifty potentials training as full professionals so we have a half decent chance of finding five that'll make it. Because right now we are just doing exactly what we have always done and it has never worked yet.