I pretty much agree with that.

Douggie made a lot of bad buys but I'm ever so grateful I got to watch Ellery Hanley regularly for a few years.

Dougie gave us Ellery.

Dougie also gave us Sinfield.

Plus, unlike most of his predecessors, Dougie cared about the club, whatever his rights and wrongs.

Dougie = legend.

I'll always remember Lawton for coaching the Widnes team that annihilated us at home 26 - 0 in the cup.
The most impressive play I'd seen from any team against us they were simply magnificent.
When he became our coach I hoped that was the sort of rugby we'd be seeing from Leeds, sadly we never hit those heights.
But as has been said he brought Hanley into the side & for that I'll always be grateful.
Pity he ran us into the ground financially but without that we may never have had the Hetherington/Caddick era so it all ended well eventually.

If you're going to always remember something at least remember it.

I'm not so sure.

It was Dougie who paid real attention to and indeed started up the youth structure at the club, something previous managers had neglected and ignored. It was Dougie who first started bringing those youngsters into the 1st team, unlike his predecessors. These are ideals that fit right in with the current management.

Dougie liked to make a transfer splash at Leeds (in ways which he hadn't been able to do at Widnes) but, again, that's not exactly alien to the current management - Peacock, Ellis, Senior, Harris.

Interesting you should say that, because thinking back through Widnes sides of the Laughton era there were a heck of a lot of big names brought in from outside the youth system - Tait, Offiah, Devereux, Hadley, Davies, Moriarty, Koloto, Grima, Sorensen et al.

A lot of Laughton's acquisitions may not have been transfers from other rugby league clubs, but he certainly wasn't shy of splashing the cash at Widnes and he got out when that particular well ran dry.

As you say, transfers between RL clubs were rare, the vast majority you listed, and an area where he excelled, was spotting talent in RU.

This wouldn't cause him any conflict with the current board as it's an avenue that is closed for good now because of commercial realities. If, on the other hand, he could unearth a megastar from relative Union obscurity like Offiah |I am sure the board would love him to bits.

If you're going to be this subtle I'm just going to have to ignore you in future.

Re; Doug Laughton...His best signing for leeds by far was Innes, He knew what he was getting with Hanley etc, I lived in Manly when Innes moved on, the players there really rated him.

and biggest miss tuigamala

Didn't Laughton win MOS in it's early days?