To answer your question Ballane; "Agree with most of what you say WB however i would ask where you get your confidence from that there will be a decent effort made on recruitment i certainly havnt seen any comment out of Welnix that would cause much optimism in this regard.While their attempt to focus on local talent is to be commended if they think we will win the league taking this direction im afraid they are sadly mistaken".
The owners are smart men - they will understand that the quality of imports is all the more critical if we are not going to spend on a marquee and are to focus on home grown talent. They will also have a more informed and, in my view, realistic assessment of Herbert's (and Dome's) recruitment capabilities and will look to source additional expertise. They showed with cutting Daniel loose last off season they will make the hard calls.
I also do not buy in to the view that focusing on developing home grown talent and staying within the salary cap means we cannot realistically apsire to win the league.
We have what should be a significant advantage over all other teams as we are able to sign Kiwis as non imports - that gifted us Brockie and Moss and is why we just about have the market to ourselves for young Kiwis.
Finally I live in hope.