agree with sally we were absolutely woeful at times in the late 90s and early 2000s...

this was intermingled with us being a plucky mid table side that could pull out a performance, but if we're being honest we were rubbish

can't remember who it was we played the morning after the infamous t nikau BBQ but that was the worst individual display by any team i have seen in SL

so i agree with the salford speccies there are some short memories flying around here

Joel Monaghan signing being a good case in point.

Everyone thought he was going to... CAS of all clubs?

Cullen was obsessive about details of targets not being leaked either because he didn't want to alert other clubs or because he didn't want the club to have egg on its face if it didn't materialise. It's not always possible because often stuff gets put in the public domain by agents who want to bid up their player's value

I don't agree with this bit. Cullen signed a lot of players that were past their best and did not have the same impact for us that they did other clubs: Cardiss, Swann, Kohe-Love, Reardon, Vinnie Anderson.

The likes of Rauhihi and Bracek would go in the category of OK but not quite what we were expecting. The one that was a really failed signing was Michael Sullivan.

And other players that started well but then faded: Grose, Lima, Parker. Arguably Martin Gleeson could go in that category too: although I was always a big fan, after his first couple of seasons his best performances were for GB/England and the occasional good one for us and he was treading water a lot of the time.

I also think it was a mistake to have released John Wilshere so soon as he went on to be a decent player with Salford and Leigh and would have been better than Richie Barnett.

Cullen's good signings come in two categories: the ones that were good even when Cullen was here: Morley, Gleeson, Hicks, Forshaw, Fa'afili, Leikvoll, and the ones that didn't do much when he was here but came good after Cullen had gone: Bridge, Monaghan, King, Louis Anderson, Johnson, Grix (in the case of the last two, they were injured a lot while he was here).

Not sure I'd include Logan Swann or Toa Kohe-Love in that list. Both were fine players. TKL came back on a smaller contract than he had been on at Hull as his injury problems were well documented. He still did a decent job at that time.

You're right about Wilshere, who never got a fair crack of the whip from fans or coaches and went on to be very good for Salford and Leigh as you say.

The list was saying they were past their best and didn't have the same impact they did for us as they did for other clubs.

Logan Swann at his best (eg around the time we tried to get him as a replacement for Kevin Campion) would have been pushing a world XIII. For us he was ok, no more. Toa's best was around 99-01 for us first time round when he was the best strike centre in SL. He wasn't second time round, although he had cut the high tackles out of his game.