A very broad topic (by design). We give the club a lot of stick over recruitment. Signings from Australia that have failed, young players that have been signed and not kicked on etc etc.
I wonder how bad we are compared to other clubs? Are we the only ones who sign duffers? Do any of our signings prove to be equal or even better than expected? Do we take more gambles than other teams?
We all remember the total disasters eg Aso****
Then there are the panic buys eg Sullivan and Latu which no one expected much of.
There are the ones who go off the rails, “Mr Sandow can you stop that sniffing and pay attention please”.
There are the successes that took a while to settle in M King, M Monaghan..
The successes from the off J Monaghan
Better than expected Hicks and Hiku
The youngsters that didn’t make it Smith and (seemingly Johnson)
The ones that did T King and to an extent his brother.
We have the off the wall experiments eg Burrell.
My conclusion is that EVERY signing is a gamble. We tend not to remember the successes eg M Cooper but only the failures.
When looking at success rates I think we have to look at our direct competitors. Saints for example are often lauded but look at their signings under Cunningham, mainly dross.
With lower ranked teams they are spending less on recruits so tend to expect less and occasionally will unearth a gem.
Would any of us have been happy with signing Inu when Salford did, I suspect not.
Sorry this turned into a waffle but I think the topic is pertinent so fill your boots!

re inu, i didn't he was bobbins at catalans and he was worse at widnes, very disinterested, and the sort of reclamation project people now lament tony smith for, he went to salford as he didn't have any other options after being partly responsible for widnes getting relegated.

re. Inu
He had some great games this season. On the wettest day ever ... Wire v. Salford in Cup ... he looked magnificent. He is getting on and is bound to fade fast ... but you just never know.

Inu has been magnificent this season, a major par of Salfords eye-catching results.

Regarding our recruitment, I just think we rely too much on Karl having a jolly to Australia to unearth gems and coming back with either nothing or a handful of magic beans being carried by Latu/ J Clark etc. My biggest gripe is that for a few seasons we have needed a prop or 2 and have been linked with players such as prior and others and we end up with a last minute panic buy who it seems was never going to get a look in by our coach, it seems a bit disjointed as though price wasn't involved in the process at all. No disrespect to Wakey but when they are signing fifita, who IMO would improve our first team a fair bit it just sometimes makes me wonder if our club is even talking to the right people in the first place when it comes to the NRL marketplace. Maybe I'm being harsh because generally on paper the squad is actually very good.

Ashton is a fantastic signing, whoever managed to make that happen needs some credit, when you look at our squad I think it's safe to say we get it right quite often as well.

Where has this term “Recruitment “ sprung from?

Company types undertake recruitment.

Sports clubs make “Signings” , always have done , and will continue to do so

The quality of our signings is hopelessly hit and miss which tells me we don't do due diligence, we don't have a strategy or structure for recruitment and we have more money than sense.

Props is the area we've really struggled in (to no-one's surprise) in either recruitment or promotion. Without proper focus on this area, we'll see another few years of 10 game wonders or nearly men.

For me, you have to look at what the scouts are doing in this area

Cox (rip)
English
Bailey
Asotasi
King
Sims
Akoala
Latu
Dodds
Riley
Moran
Crosby
Maybe add Johnson to the list

We can add Lama Tasi to that list , agree we don't seem to have a strategy for identifying what we need
more likely to get someone in and try to make them fit , case in point would be Jason Clark started to watch
him in the NRL when i knew we had signed him , played behind a big pack 3 Burgess ,John Sutton ,Ben Te'o
Dave Tyrrell etc , always started on the bench , played 10/15 mins at end of first half tacked everything in sight
then did 10/15 mins start of second half and that was usually it barring injuries , that was his role , we have him
starting at loose or sometimes as a fourth prop , not really what we needed , no lack of effort from him but we
aren't using him in the way he was used when he won the title with Souths , same with a few others , would
love to know who makes the final decisions on players and why.

Hearing on the grapevine that our head groundsman will be finishing soon, Melvyn Jones.
So gonna need to sign a replacement which should account for any spare cap sloshing about.
Wonder if KF will be arranging interviews down under

Considering we seem to get blighted every season with imports who just come for the money ,i would throw the young lads in who will at least show some commitment. Let's have a s#!+ or bust season & seriously blood a few of our promising kids before they move elsewhere or get fed up altogether with the lack of opportunities within the game in general & lose interest in RL.

Hallelujah, brother.

After watching last night, when it comes to late season play off rugby, we're currently as close to winning the GF, as we were with Cullen in 03..

#### imports and using up our quota (as we seem obliged to do), blood the youngsters, or we'll lose them, without barely using them

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You make an interesting point and the Salford game was a great opportunity for me to see the next generation in action. Based on that game, who you would you like to see blooded?

For me

Ellis Robson
Ellis Longstaff
Nathan (name escapes me, v tall lad played on the wing)
Josh Thewliss
Riley Dean
Eribe Doro

All seemed to me that they were ready for some game time. I may have missed a couple of other lads.
I guess for every Ben Currie there's a Sam Wilde, for every Joe Philbin there's a Ben Evans, but saints and Wigan seem to have faith in their production line, so why can't we?

Woah woah woah, Ben Evans was doing great before he got horribly injured by saints

They should all be penciled in for game time.

During the fixture congestion it was good to see a lot of games on sky and also with the build up sides using their younger players more. So how do we create that need to rotate 16 sides in the league but fit into the same timeframe as the current regular season ?? Would it not create more sky money as they could show a lot more games ??

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Yep......and then faded, gone. Didn't retire, ended up in the championship. Matty Lees had a bad injury last year and won the GF. Simon Grix had more time off than on the pitch at one point but still made first team when fit.

Did Ben Evans drop in ability or did we just cast him off?