I have reservations over the signing I must admit.

But, he's a typical Nathan Brown type signing. He has potential, he's strong, athletic, fast and has good footwork. Ryan Atkins was similar before he signed for Warrington. He had potential but some obvious flaws (especially in defence like Turner) and it's taken a few years for him to develop and hit some consistent form. I think Brown will see him as a project and with good ball he could turn out to be a good player for us. Two years is about right I'd say, if he doesn't turn out like we thought then we can always look elsewhere in a fairly short time. If he hits and exceeds expectations, then great. One things is for sure, he'll be on alot less than Shenton, who was signed as a Great Britain / England international.

I can't see why the Hull fans are coming on here saying he's average, why are we signing him etc etc when they have just signed Arundel who hasn't showed much more than Turner has, IMO.

It's a moot point.

How much was Shenton on?

Arundel is 2 and a half years younger than Turner. Whilst Turner is currently the better player marginally, what I've seen of Arundel is more impressive than the Turner that arrived with us, which is comparing them at roughly the same age. With a bit of luck, Arundel will also be a player who learns from his mistakes rather than repeat them ad infinitum.

Serious question.
If you had the choice of signing Arundel or Turner which one would you pick?

I think Turner is a good signing for us.

The good thing for me is that he doesnt come with a big reputation so fans wont be expecting big things. This was IMO Shentons big downfall at Saints, as it was somewhat unwarranted.

Why do i think he will be a good signing, well for a start he gives us more pace in the three quarters, and unlike Shenton he also has the ability to break out of tackles.
If your going to win big games you need to have strike threat from all over the pitch, that means having the ability to score from 70-80 metres out. At present Saints are woefully short in that department. This signing will go some way to redress that balance.

Defensively Hull fans have pointed out his failings and interestingly they are failings that i think Shenton is guilty of as well. Namely getting sucked in and leaving the wings exposed.
Looking at the stats he completes 91.4% of tackles compared to Shentons 91.9% which shows they are pretty similar in that regard.
For comparison youngster Josh Jones is currently completing 95.4% and in 2007 Matt Gidley completed 93.5% while in 2006 Jamie Lyon completed 94.3%

With ball in hand Shenton has made 984 metres from 148 carries, Turner has made 1546 from 194 carries.
The extra strength that Turner provides should take quite a bit of the workload off the pack.

Looking at tackle busts Turner so far this year has 32, with 13 clean breaks, Shenton has just 16 tackle busts with only 6 clean breaks.

Turner is quite a bit weaker than Shenton is in the errors department, he has made 16 compared to Shentons 9
He also offers fewer try assists 3 compared to Shentons 9.

You can't really justify comparing those stats though because Saints have been shocking in getting the ball to the right since Cunningham/Pryce/Eastmond all went west. I'm sure Makinson/Gardner's stats won't compare as favourably with whoever plays on Turner's outside either and for the same reason.

You have inside knowledge of this for sure?

It seems more likely that Hull (who did want to keep him) made him a decent offer but we blew them out of the water because he is on Brown's "hit list".
See Hull FC's comments below;


This to me doesn't suggest he is anything but a fair old chunk of the SC as we obviously had improve on "this substantially increased offer"

Manu I think will be great but you only need to see what all the Hull FC fans think about this lad from their commments on this thread.

Where the hell do you get that outrageous comment from?

Hull had made him a substantially increased offer in a 3 year contract and we had to beat that to get him yet you seriously believe its half what we paid shents?
I hope you are actually just taking the £iss.

Maybe Saints dont pass it right much because they have little confidence in the people on the right to do anything with the ball. This is something we will find out for sure next year with Shenton gone and Turner in the right centre spot.
Certainly when Gidley was in the side the ball tended to go down the right, though granted the halves were Pryce and Long.


What is clear though regardless of the amount of ball received is that Turner makes 8 metres per carry compared to Shentons 6.6. Turner also makes double the tackle busts and double the clean breaks, despite only marginally more carries.

Also bear in mind that Hull are not as good a side as Saints, they possess nothing like the overall quality of players that we do.

I can't think why you think he was on around £30K p.a. after presumably getting an increase on what Salford were paying him. He is not an 18 year old.

I also don't think your example of £50K p.a. is what is meant by "We've made him a very good offer and we'd like to think he'd remain a Hull FC player."

It is not credible to believe that an offer of £50K (less than 3% of the allowable SC) can be construed as a very good (3 year) offer.
Even at the lower end of the max SC the average salary is around £50K and that includes a lot of kids on £19,999.
It is equally arguable that he was on say £60K p.a. and they offered him £100K and we ended up paying £120K p.a. - the same as Shents.

I do not accept as fact that we have saved a lot of dosh on Turner compared to Shenton especially as we have to subsidise his wages in year 1 at Cas.

Our club have done a lot of stupid things, but I don't think even we are daft enough to do that. At least I hope not.

Well it wasn't that sort of choice, so the answer is irrelevant really. However, since you asked:

I'm not sure as Arundel doesn't have Turner's size and he is also currently recovering from a bad shoulder injury apparently. Arundel does have age on his side, but I think at the minute they are probably at the same level.

It is important to remember that both Arundel and Turner have been signed for their potential rather than their current ability, so who knows which one (or both or either of them at all) will turn into the better player; Arundel could quite easily not show any improvement in the next few years, and the same applies with Turner.