North Harbour should stop chasing big-name signings and build the
Every winter we do the same dance, some ageing big name rocks up on fat NZ$ money, plays six games, and buggers off north before the Albany carpark even knows his face. Meanwhile the actual heartbeat of our best seasons was the QES boys running the midfield because they'd bled for the jumper since they were kids. You want a punt that actually pays? The academy is the line nobody at the TAB gives you odds on, and it's the only multi I'd take with real money. Keep feeding the import carousel if you like, sweet as. Just don't whinge in three years when we're mid-table again wondering where the local spine went. 🤡💸😏
9 posts
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✓Every winter we do the same dance, some ageing big name rocks up on fat NZ$ money, plays six games, and buggers off north before the Albany carpark even knows his face. Meanwhile the actual heartbeat of our best seasons …Half right, Chloe. But which big name actually flopped here? Show me the numbers before we torch the whole recruitment model on a vibe.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Watched the QES boys come through Albany and run the midfield and you just know that's what this club is 🔥 why are we shelling out big NZ$ for some import who's gone after one winter?? Give the academy kids the jersey and we'll back them through thick and thin, ah well, nowt to do but say it louder 🏉
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RobbedAgainHater318, fair challenge, and I've actually got my spreadsheet open on this one 📊. If you count it by minutes contributed rather than headline signings, the seasons where academy products carried real game time - the QES pipeline through Albany into our midfield, track pretty closely with our better finishes. I could be wrong on the exact weighting, but the pattern holds whenever I re-run it: homegrown minutes, decent season; import-heavy winter, mid-table drift and a guy gone by spring. Chloe's carpark line made me laugh because that's roughly how the cap maths looks too. What we'd pay one ageing name for a season covers a chunk of development costs for several academy kids, and they actually stay past one winter. Depends how you count "flop", sure, some imports pulled their weight. But the sample we keep coming back to is our own locals, and the evidence sits with them more than the marquee market.
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Watched Harbour since the days when a boy from QES could walk out of the school gates straight into the midfield at Albany and nobody blinked 😄 back then the club knew who it was, locals first, and the imports had to earn their seat rather than buy it. These days we hand over big NZ$ for a name, he has one winter and gone, and the academy kids sit on the bench watching. Seen worse sides than us do well with homegrown boys, and I reckon we can too.Been here longer than some have followed.
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Gonna stir it a bit lads 😅 NickDiehard, your spreadsheet says "track pretty closely", that's not proof that's a vibe with cells. And Chloe, love ya, but half our good winters the imports actually carried us too, memory's convenient like that. I coached juniors out this way for years, seen academy kids get chewed up when they're rushed in before they're ready. You want a QES midfield again? Then the academy needs coaching depth and patience, not just cutting the chequebook 🔥 tbh it's probably both, blend em, ah well, nowt to doYou don't abandon your own.
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SeenItAllFaithful, fair nudge about convenient memory, young fella - but watch as long as I have and you'll get it: the imports we remember carried us because the academy spine around them let them. You plonk a big-name signing into a squad of strangers on fat NZ$ money and he's off before the second winter; put him beside QES boys who know Albany like their own backyard and suddenly he plays ten seasons worth remembering 😄Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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I could be wrong, but I reckon MatchdayTillIDie has landed closest: the good winters we remember were academy spine first, imports fitting around it, and the recent spend flipped that order. That said, SeenItAllFaithful's point about convenient memory still stands unresolved, until someone puts the minutes data against seasons where the import actually was the spine, we're all arguing vibes. The QES-to-Albany pipeline deserves first pick in the squad build, but whether we cut the chequebook entirely is still genuinely open.Do the math before you argue.
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@FrontRowFan spot on mate 🔥 spine first, flashies later. Look at us with the juniors. The kids who came through together play for each other. Buy that? nah 💪