He was under the south stand last night acing an interview and he said he’s 99% certain he’ll get the green light on Monday to go back to full impact training. I think he said he’s aiming for earlier than the end of April but I think the end of is more realistic.

Wellington Albert could make his debut V HKR on Thursday night. Possibly signing a short term deal.

I’m happy with that given his style and the injuries in the pack.

Interesting comments from Furner in the press conf. Obviously considering McLelland for the halves, but sounds like will go with Tui. I thought he was alluding to the fact that it’s a defensive problem on the right if he plays him.

Again, if Lolohea is a headache to accommodate due to defence then I can’t see him remaining at the club unfortunately. Looks like his best position is probably FB, but he’s not going to get past Walker when he’s fit and in form.

Lolohea will remain at the club the same way as Golding and a few others have and will - the club can't walk away from contracts, no matter how bad they are. Whilst in theory signing for someone else will reduce spend, in reality its clear nobody else particularly wants our cast-offs. That means even if we do get shut, we'll probably have to pay most of their wage until their Leeds contracts would have expired.

Not only did we sign Lolohea seemingly for a position he's never really played, but our great negotiators ended up signing a reserve-grade NRL player for 3 years. Same with Peteru previously. These sorts of guys should be offered 1-year deals with options to extend, not 3 year contracts from the off.

Trouble with that is it would be difficult to bring anyone over on that strategy but I get where you're coming from.

The overseas recruitment policy has been very hit n miss to say the least for years.

I think if we’re confident we have a genuine player, fair enough. But what we’ve been doing for some time is negotiating from a weak position and signing almost anyone with NRL experience, ending up with squad players at best (marquee signings aside).
Probably too early to say 100% with Tui but it looks like yet another criticial mistake by the club at this stage.
Albert at least plays a position we specifically need cover for.
You need real insight, and a bit of luck, to build a competitive squad with a bargain basement approach and Leeds have failed.

Correct.
Sinfield's first recruitment / retention decision if i recall correctly. The first of several mistakes he has made in such a short period.

Lolohea was signed and announced before Sinfield rejoined the club.

Edit: or possibly not, my memory not what it used to be

iirc we bought Delany in as an NRL centre and he was awful in that position but look how he went when moved to 2nd row. Turned out to be one of the longest serving imports ever!

It's difficult. Like I said, we probably need to give Tui some more time because he clearly does have talent. I would imagine his confidence and buy-in might not be sky high right now though.

Ultimately, my belief is that the coach has had their hands tied commercially, and as a result we've been making poor signings on the whole for years. I like McLelland and Walters as youth signings, we need not throw the baby out with the bath water. However with the senior squad, after knowing the Goldens were dying off for years, we have planned and responded to this by making cheap (or just bad) choices in recruitment time and again. We've got exactly what we deserve as a result. A large chunk of the side recruited under GH and BM are now plying their trade in the Championship - even the lower SL sides weren't interested in them. That's pretty disgraceful for a flagship club like Leeds, and has nothing at all to do with losing the Goldens, and everything to do with consistently poor decision making at the top.

Sinfield has at least managed to lever GH's cold hard fingers from the purse finally. I like Hurrell and Merrin, although not sure either are worth whatever we're paying them TBH.

Where Sinfield has got some egg is in how effusive he was about Lolohea's signing, when the coach can't now pick him it seems because he is so poor in defence. We can't just be recruiting players on the "best of" compilations on YouTube, and as we rebuild we must recruit players with the technique and mentality to defend well as a base line.

I really do hope Tui can prove doubters (including me) wrong.

Haven't seen enough of Albert at all: if he can defend and have decent ball security will be a good signing - however I imagine if he could do those things well he'd still be in the NRL with his size, pace and ball handling skill.

Delaney was a first team regular when we signed him. The problem is not giving cheaper players a go, its signing too many of them and giving them too long contracts.

Adding to our problems is too many players who've won things being asked to step up to lead when they're not up to it, presumably because everyone thought they were better than they actually are.