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.

Delaney worked because he was actually pretty skilful, but also just such a tough competitor. He had reasonable pace, in the early years, for a second row and the transition worked.

To be fair he's just about the only example I can think of where we've successfully changed position of an overseas signing, and centre / second row isn't the biggest gulf in the world.

If we can rebuild a pack around Merrin, and if he stays long enough, I think he'll go really well for us - because he's another tough nut with a high level of skill. Hurrell frustrates the life out of me sometimes but he's worth it for pure entertainment value.

I could be wrong but don't think Albert will be more than an interim signing to help this season, although he's young enough to show some improvement I guess. So for next year we're still lacking: prop, second row, half back, winger. And I mean, really good ones not squad maybes. We need players good enough to produce a bit of magic in all those positions and turn a game.

If we are going to be beating St Helens or Warrington in the foreseeable future, we have to start building a squad better than theirs, it's pretty simple. If any new signing doesn't add that kind of value, what is the point? To be fair, I am sure Sinfield is scouring the landscape for good signings for 2020 and working extremely hard on this, in some cases against the tide because of the financial problems recruiting from Oz, and because we don't look a particularly enticing prospect for good players looking to win silverware right now.

I'd say what we do lack are players who can produce that super effort in attack or defence to lift the side, that's what it boils down to. To be honest, we've missed that in the pack ever since Peacock left - there were many games in the good old days where he would singlehandedly lift the side with the extra carry or the big defensive hit, where other players were gassed.

With the long contracts, let's be honest it's not uncommon for a contract to be ended early. If someone came in for Merrin from the NRL seriously and paid us a lump of compo, and the player wanted gone, that 4 year deal is torn up. Same for a player who is out of favour; if they want a career they can't just sit back, take the wage and not play. It's in their best interests to move to a club that wants them; it just might cost Leeds a penalty in a financial settlement.

There is a lesson here with Golding I have to say: we do want to develop our own talent of course, but if a player fundamentally lacks outstanding toughness, outstanding pace, outstanding skill and/or outstanding size, I don't think they're going to make it at a top-4 SL side. It is extremely hard to judge the future development of players but the raw ingredients must be there.

McKenna made the same move as Delaney.

There's a big difference between Merrin and Golding. Merrin would get offers from the NRL today. Apart from lower championship teams who'd look at Golding? Even more importantly who would want him enough to buy out his contract?

I liked McKenna too, good player.

I suppose if Golding really wanted to play in reserves or DR for the next couple of years he could, and Leeds would have to honour the contract. He isn't without ability and he does have a great attitude, I just can't see how he comes back into the Leeds side with Walker here and still more coming through now (arguably of a higher quality than we've seen for years).

I do think there would be a Championship side interested in him in due course, it's just a case of salary there versus what he's on now, and whether that gives him a route to career development and putting himself in the shop window again.

Leeds don't have too much to lose by keeping Golding around - one other difference between him and Merrin is probably around 10x salary. Lolohea is more of an issue if we're not playing him.

Golding will probably end up at Cas.

Just the fact that SL clubs don’t seem to be ringing the phone hot tells us something...

Golding is a Leeds lad and wanted to stay and fight for a place. He will be a decent Super League full back wherever he ends up.