Major talent for 2021 has already gone. Being ... ? Holmes we were never in for. Was never going to happen. Turbo boys from Manly. Were never going to leave. Ramien. Still not official but wouldn't call him a major talent. Drinkwater. Not in the market for a fullback. Scott. Hasn't signed for the Raiders yet. I could go on and on. I honestly don't think "major talent is already gone" and there's still plenty for us to potentially get.
My main issue so far has been about the hooker position and us settling for 4th best choice. But ...
Along the same lines are the players we've allegedly 'missed' - which I would pretty much all file in either:
a) They were never leaving their existing clubs (Turbos, Manu, JWH)
b) They were leaving an existing club, had their hearts/minds set on somewhere else and maybe spoke with the Dogs as a fallback if that didn't work out (Api, Ramien)
c) The Dogs didn't want them (players/managers who've allegedly approached us and we turned them down - and ultimately Mitchell)
I'm yet to see one player we genuinely wanted, who genuinely wanted to come, where we failed to secure their services.
@Slovenia - as for hooker - you could probably count Api as a hooker we were speaking to but see b) above for that. Who knows if we were talking to Grant for 2021, but he's re-signed for the Storm anyway.
So I'm not sure we've 'settled' for anyone - it's the way things have turned out so far. As it is, JMK appears to be developing OK and 2020 will tell us a lot more whether he can hold that spot longer term or not.