Opinion What's your opinion on our recruitment so far for 2022 ?

[bradtalo]

Which marquee players in those positions were available ?

I think Hynes, B.Smith and Reynolds are pretty close. How we couldn't afford all 3 demonstrates that we must be paying overs for current mediocrity. The way were are going (and have been for some years now) we should have had the planning and cap in place to sign the "best available" in all 3 positions. Cronulla gets Hynes but still manages to beat us to getting Rudolf. Broncos get Adam Reynolds but we couldn't beat them to sign young Paikura or Staggs. We should have increased our offers even if it was just to make them pay more so less $$$ for them to sign new stars. With B.Smith it seems we failed to offer the Storm a decent replacement. Maybe we weren't willing to trade a couple of our best players. No-one deserves to be hands off the way we are playing. Did we even put in an offer to Jarome Luai ? I doubt it.

 

[Spoonman84]

With B.Smith it seems we failed to offer the Storm a decent replacement. Maybe we weren't willing to trade a couple of our best players. No-one deserves to be hands off the way we are playing.

How do you know the Storm would even want any of our players? In your other thread you say just to trade 4 players to clear cap space its not that simple.

 

[kmr07]

I think Hynes, B.Smith and Reynolds are pretty close. How we couldn't afford all 3 demonstrates that we must be paying overs for current mediocrity. The way were are going (and have been for some years now) we should have had the planning and cap in place to sign the "best available" in all 3 positions. Cronulla gets Hynes but still manages to beat us to getting Rudolf. Broncos get Adam Reynolds but we couldn't beat them to sign young Paikura or Staggs. We should have increased our offers even if it was just to make them pay more so less $$$ for them to sign new stars. With B.Smith it seems we failed to offer the Storm a decent replacement. Maybe we weren't willing to trade a couple of our best players. No-one deserves to be hands off the way we are playing. Did we even put in an offer to Jarome Luai ? I doubt it.

Lol Hynes is far from a marquee player. 3 good games doesn’t put you into marquee category. Let’s see how he goes at the Sharks before deciding that.

B. Smith, it’s been well documented that we are after. Not sure what more we can do.. no one knows the details of what the hold up / issue is.

Reynolds, no one would have ever thought he would leave Souths. We signed a halfback last year, and even though it hasn’t proved to be the correct decision, it’s not just as simple as saying to a guy on contract you’re not wanted anymore and replace them with someone else. They have to agree to move on and/or another club has to agree to take them and pay part/full salary.

 

[berries1935]

going by recruitment so far...we are looking at 2023

 

[Kempsey Dog]

I didn't want the club making a play for Reynolds. Burton and Averillo are our halves next year (I wouldn't rule out Flanagan coming back into the team at some point) and we have BBO and Khaled Rajab coming through. We need a hooker, prop and second rower before another back/half (limited salary cap).

I didn't want the club making a play for Dufty. He's been good this year (in attack) but I've never rated him up until this year. There's also something terribly wrong with him behind the scenes. I think JAC can and will be a better fullback than Dufty (we also have DWZ on the books at this stage, Meaney probably should be re-signed and Allan - whose signing alone pretty much meant we couldn't get a Hynes or Dufty). We need a hooker, prop and second rower before another back/fullback.

We should have made a genuine play for Starling, even tho I want better, e.g. Brandon Smith (who's a must get at this stage if we want to do anything next year), he would of been a good stop-gap solution/back-up if we failed to get Brandon Smith (now best case scenario is Turpin - if Hodgson goes to the Broncos and Kenny).

I'm torn on the club making a play for Hodgson. I'd only want him as a short term option, but he's going to want a long term deal (which I'd only consider if Brandon Smith was no chance, even for 2023).

I'd give the Storm almost anyone for Brandon Smith, obviously there's a priority list and I wouldn't want to give them our best player (I don't think it'd come to this), but I'd do it if I had to.

There were some other props we should of gone for (e.g. Guler), but missing out on Leniu and Rudolf are big misses. The Sharks ended up re-signing Rudolf for almost 600k a season (I think, not 100% sure if that was reported) and that's what our max offer should of been anyways.

Naden was the best centre off contract and with Schoupp and Alamoti our only genuine centres in the top 30 next year (assuming they're both promoted) we obviously needed another one (even tho someone like Allan will probably play there).

Missing out on Rudolf was excellent news, worst defensive middle forward in the comp

 

[D.O.W.]

I think we may have genuinely missed out on a couple of potential signings, when your competing with 15 other teams, it’s going to happen, but I think there’s more to recruitment then meets the eye…

It’s not a simple process, one has to be forward thinking, strike the right balance and there’s strategy that goes into it above and beyond what we will ever know… things like fake offers to push other clubs to their limits, letting teams load up salary caps and be that club with the wiggle room to accomodate.. player swaps that mutually benefit respective clubs etc.

2021 recruitment = fail
2022 recruitment = pass (with room to improve)

 

[the12thman]

Fox and burton huge plus , TBAZ will kill it in 22.!!

For all of our sakes and sanity I hope you are right Scoooby

 

[Mr. Ditkovich]

If we secure a decent hooker and a prop or 2 for next year, I’d rate the recruitment 10/10, especially given the fact we’re last on the ladder, making it harder for us to sign players.

 

[Isaac]

Which marquee players in those positions were available ?

There isn't anyone available until 2023

 

[halfcast]

C...who's playing FB 2022..need gun prop..young off loading 2nd Rower..obviously a 9

 

[D0GMATIC]

What we have done so far is great, we just haven't done much

 

[Dogs4eva13]

Need some news soon!

 

[D- voice]

Do you have faith that we'll get it right by 2022 ?.

Personally the things that have really pissed me off are:

- Seems we may not have even made a play for a decent experienced half in Adam Reynolds.

- Seems we may not have actually made a play at all for Dufty from what I've heard. The Raiders are likely to get him (he toured the club) and they already have a very decent fullback so they will likely have 2 good fullbacks while we have none given that Allan failed this year.

HOW MANY YEARS HAVE WE NEEDED A DECENT HOOKER SO

- How did we miss out on Tom Starling by the way. Again the Raiders have 2 good hookers while we have none.

- If Josh Hodgson leaves the Raiders though he's tipped to go to the Broncos so then they can have 2 decent hookers while we have none.
We couldn't even get young Paikura off the Broncos when they're already stacked with young forwards.

- I do believe from many multiple reports the Storm were willing to let B.Smith out early if they got a decent player swap. How did we f.. that up ?. We don't have 1 decent player they would take seriously ? They took Reimis and he wasn't great

- We've long needed a decent prop badly for 2022 but we've let the barrel run dry, why ?

Yes I'm looking forward to JAC, Burton and Naden (who can't even get a run in first grade during Origin). Not nearly enough to turn us around though. What are we doing ? I hope we're not sitting on our hands waiting for bargain buys like more Flanagans, Allans and Waddells. If we sign Kenny as a hooker yes it's better than JMK or Katoa but only slightly and it's pretty poor of our recruitment team frankly.

The painful reality is we are still suffering from a terrible predicament.
For years we've lost players we should have kept and kept overpaid players that we should have offloaded,
started by Hasler Dib and ReaRea and continued by Lynne Hill Dunn and Pay.
My understating of the salary cap is a minimum of 95% must be spent each year on 30 players,
Tell me, what have we achieved by offloading so many players in 2018 then topped up contracts for unworthy player ?
The solution should have been...upfront players payments to give us more cap space from this year and beyond,
I guess that is asking for too much !
Lynne & co not only failed to fix the problem they further weakened our team and made us less attractive for marquee players joining us.
Now we are in a situation that we could only be content with marquee players to fix the problem, not hopefuls and certainly no rejects.
We all know the players that are needed, the problem is are they available ?
I fully supported John Khoury when he said: We will not Band Aid the problem to win an election !
Does this ring a bell ???

 

[alchemist]

we need forwards

 

[kmr07]

There isn't anyone available until 2023

Exactly. So you can’t really say we’ve been poor in recruiting because we haven’t signed a marquee fullback / halfback / hooker when really there was none available

 

[wendog33]

The painful reality is we are still suffering from a terrible predicament.
For years we've lost players we should have kept and kept overpaid players that we should have offloaded,
started by Hasler Dib and ReaRea and continued by Lynne Hill Dunn and Pay.
My understating of the salary cap is a minimum of 95% must be spent each year on 30 players,
Tell me, what have we achieved by offloading so many players in 2018 then topped up contracts for unworthy player ?
The solution should have been...upfront players payments to give us more cap space from this year and beyond,
I guess that is asking for too much !
Lynne & co not only failed to fix the problem they further weakened our team and made us less attractive for marquee players joining us.
Now we are in a situation that we could only be content with marquee players to fix the problem, not hopefuls and certainly no rejects.
We all know the players that are needed, the problem is are they available ?
I fully supported John Khoury when he said: We will not Band Aid the problem to win an election !
Does this ring a bell ???

Looks like we went from one extreme to the other.

Gotta hope and pray this lot are on the money and competent.

There have never been enough plausible excuses to explain the inept way the club has been administered, for probably close to the past decade really, as far as recruitment and retention is concerned..

 

[Rassayri]

going by recruitment so far...we are looking at 2023

I reckon even longer 2-3 years like Gus said to be even close to competitive

 

[Dognacious]

Not surprised we haven't chased another half with burton coming, and Flanagan isn't sacked yet (and then there's averillo). Not surprised we arent chasing a fullback because we will have a number of players who play fb, and its not a priority at all. We need a few forwards and a hooker. And we have time to pick them up before next year.

And getting jac for next year is great too. Also don't think it was a mistake getting Flanagan at the time, he was going fine at roosters I thought, and started this year ok, before going cold. Dont know why but could be a personal problem or injury involved maybe.

So I have no gripes about recruitment at this stage.

 

[bradtalo]

Exactly. So you can’t really say we’ve been poor in recruiting because we haven’t signed a marquee fullback / halfback / hooker when really there was none available

Reynolds was available and so was B.Smith apparently. Luai only just re-signed a few months ago and so did Tedesco. That's what shits me, the Panthers made the GF are paying most of their spine big money and they can still afford good money for centres (Crichton 800KI) and props (Fisher-Harris) yet we're coming last and we don't seem to have the money to offer considerably more to sign great players when they do become available - or even possibly future stars like Paikura. How does that work ?. Is has to be something to do with us paying overs to multiple well below average players surely.

 

[bradyk]

Reynolds was available and so was B.Smith apparently. Luai only just re-signed a few months ago and so did Tedesco. That's what shits me, the Panthers made the GF are paying most of their spine big money and they can still afford good money for centres (Crichton 800KI) and props (Fisher-Harris) yet we're coming last and we don't seem to have the money to offer considerably more to sign great players when they do become available - or even possibly future stars like Paikura. How does that work ?. Is has to be something to do with us paying overs to multiple well below average players surely.

$1 in our salary cap doesn't = $1 in a top teams salary cap. We can't recruit like a top team.