I think that's spot on. It's too easy a story. We haven't won games this year, and the reasons/excuses for that are well documented, but that is really obscuring that we've done pretty well with recruitment and retention so far in Leppa's tenure, as Eons was getting at.
Last year we picked up some excellent players (Beams and Christensen) and Robbo who has added a substantial amount, all for different reasons, and all have seemed happy at the club. We also re-signed most of our kids, including some really promising ones who would've had options and important reasons to want out (Paparone for example). I doubt we could've done much to keep Aish, and we don't really know why Stef is choosing to leave yet (assuming its accurately reported).
I think we still face the exact same systematic retention issues that the Lions Roar focused on last year, and the tightening of academy rules is galling for that reason. Right now we're hearing a lot about players that want out because it is an easier story to write about, but if we picked up (for example) Dixon and Suckling to offset Stef and Aish leaving then it looks more like player movement is a growing phenomenon and (slightly) less like we're a feeder club.
