In a salary capped sport the only premium you can "pay" is prize money, and when we paid it regularly we had a loyal squad and were able to bring in other teams better players/international class overseas players to fill in the gaps. GH got lazy when at the top and now we are in a position where we have to try and catch Saints when they effectively have a bigger budget, even our best signing this year, a new coach was a gamble and was probably pretty cheap.
Player wise we continue to gamble on other teams cast offs, lower league maybes and the dregs of the overseas market, its a long shot that rarely pays off. The academy can be a good route, but as a whole the game in this country is played by less and less players, so there is less and less to choose from.
