He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.

Quote: josefw "He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.'" He is mentioned on the Canberra website as a former legend https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2018/09 ... ity-match/

Quote: josefw "He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.'" He is mentioned on the Canberra website as a former legend https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2018/09 ... ity-match/

Not sure you can go on the way Aussies recognise "superstars".

Mario Fenech was also regarded as a big "super rugby player" in Aus and when I read it, I assumed there must be two Mario Fenechs as the description didn't match the useless, bone idle, waste of space who used the name at Odsal. If I remember he only came over to work off a ban he'd received in Australia and you could really tell....

I have a vague recollection of one game where he played really well. I forget the opposition but think it might have been one of the better teams. It absolutely threw it down and the Odsal pitch was total mess which slowed every player on the pitch down to a snail's pace. Which of course suited Marc Herbert as everyone else was suddenly as slow as he was, which is why I think he played so well. Bringing people down to his level and all that.

I think the writing was on the wall for Marc Herbert pre-season. They went on warm weather training and bumped in to some Aussie F1 driver he knew from his youth. They invited him to an opposed training session or something, and Marc was reported to have been roundly outplayed.

It says on wikipedia that Marc Herbert ended up as a paceman for snail races.

Taking some of the suggestions, we have quite a team who never quite made the grade...

1 Oscar Thomas
2 Karl Pryce
3 Dane Nielsen
4 Toa Kohe Love
5 Tame Tupou
6 Marc Herbert
7 Matt Orford
8 Danny Sculthorpe
9 Julian Rinaldi
10 Epalahame Lauaki
11 Glenn Hall
12 Michael Worrincy
13 David Solomona

14 Shawn Edwards
15 Garreth Carvell
16 Jean-Phillipe Baille
17 Dave Halley

I've thrown a few in there myself. The likes of Dane Nielsen, Julian Rinaldi, Lauaki, Gaz Carvell and JP Baille all stand out as players who could have offered much much more (some actually turning out would have been an improvement)!!!

Some good shouts there. Oscar Thomas a classic example, very occasionally v good but mostly poor.

Herbert gets a few mentions but despite him being the slowest halfback ever he had more try assists than any other player in the squad that season. A bit of an indictment on the rest!

Some poor recruitment choices there in the likes of Lauaki. Thought Sculthorpe was unlucky with injury. They never even flattered to deceive.

I don't think Worrincy flattered to deceive? Maybe there should be a thread along the lines of 'How the hell did they end up in a pro RL team?'

He never, in any way, shape or form looked for a minute like he knew how to play the game. To this day I can't fathom how we installed a turnstile in the middle of the park and thought it was a good idea?

Yeah I think the thread morphed into a "worst ever" rather than flattered to deceive which suggests they had a few good games but largely didn't perform.

And some of them were ok at other teams before & after us. They just flattered to deceive at Bulls tbf.

And are we mentioning some of those players by name now? At least one of them is "he who shall not be named" lol

I remember Worrincy having 1 absolutely blinding game (Saints away IIRC).

But I agree with you, there were quite a few players from that period who I wondered why/how we ever ended up signing them.

On the other hand, we also made some signings which many of us on here wrote off, but actually turned out to be decent pieces of business (Sibbit, Raynor, Gale, Sidlow).

Surprised Matty Blythe hasn't been mentioned to be honest

He was one of a subset of players - we signed them as centres, and they were fairly good centres at their previous club, then they joined Bulls, their speed vanished & they became fairly poor 2nd row men.