Someone asked about Roy Asotasi , This guy is an honest true professional , I`ve watched him numerous times when living in Sydney and gives 100% .
He has spent 12 seasons at NRL level which for a Prop is some doing. He was seriously injured though later in his career which sidelined him for a season , not sure what the injury was though.
My thoughts are TS was looking for a leader , with top credentials who has played for many seasons at the top level , we should all be honoured that he came here as he was offered contracts by NRL clubs and is well respected by the rugby league world and this is where I think our problem is , he is in the twilight of his career and I think we expected another Chris Hill , not going to happen , he is a 40 minute player , if that . I was surprised we signed him as what we need after losing our Dads Army isn`t another player in his final year, maybe two at most.
What the likes of Moz had was not just his experience but Hodgsons , Briers , Mono`s , Higham ,Benny so in his case he was surrounded by a wealth of it and when not on the pitch we still had an abundance of it on the field , what we have ATM is not a lot of leadership experience , Benny`s works his sack off but I don't see much more on offer.
GOB and Ratchford should player together , I always thought that Myler was living in Briers shadow and now it shows exactly what he`s got to offer and I`m afraid its not what we need or want.
Sometimes the truth can sting a bit and all i think is on offer this year is probably mid table as our strength in depth isn`t anywhere near what we had over the last 5 seasons.
All clubs go through transition , look at Saints , when i saw they had signed Luke Walsh i thought bugger , missed that one , he was class in a poor Penrith side. However he isn't the change in Saints fortunes it`s their youth policy and it`s working.
Home youth players are the future and as long as our youth develops the way it`s going at present we will be a top 3 side again
Keep the faith but let`s be honest also.

You having that yed?

Home youth players are the future and as long as our youth develops the way it`s going at present we will be a top 3 side again
Keep the faith but let`s be honest also.'"

Here's my take, how he was at Sydney makes zero difference to me.

He's a quota spot, he plays very few minutes, he offers average impact, I'm not seeing him running amazing lines.

He is (currently) as good as any prop we could have picked up from a top championship side or lower superleague side, Lauatiti or Hauraki would have been a better buy.

I'm told how he is a calming, professional leader in training...ok why not bring that to games then, he's quiet, lookd disinterested and detached.

No if you ask me who leaves me cold...Roy Asotasi please stand up (that's if you can be bothered that is).

Williams was garbage, Roy isn't that bad, he's average, but promoting average from the ranks I can take(Glenn Riley), filling a quota spot and paying good money for average though is a different kettle of fish.

Asotasi Asiteezi

Thought the fella did well on Thursday. Drove in hard, made good metres. He's still to find his feet here. Most Antipodeans are the same.

Yes, he's on big bucks, and we should be seeing better, BUT, it's 6 games into a 27+ game season. I dare say, we'll see a better Asotasi in a few weeks time.

I just hope he's not assumed the honourary title of Warrington Scapegoat

This scapegoat stuff is BS, I'm not blaming him for us losing, our lack of creativity is the reason we are losing and that is a collective problem. I'm just saying he's average in fact of all the forwards we lost last season I'd say he was worse than them all.

two words...Matt King

How long did it take for him to settle into the Northern Hemisphere?....give him time.

King was at his peak under performing, Asotasi is in his twilight years playing in the front row with back row drive.
If he comes good I'll eat my words but so far, a waste of cap/quota space.

This, agreed I thought Thursday was his best game so far for us. The whole team will improve as they get used to their combinations.

All this stuff about settling in and a comparison with King although worthy of some merit is riddled with holes. Asotasi as I understand it was brought in as a leader type figure and also as we needed a top quality prop. So far I have seen neither qualities from him.

King had to get used to a more complex role in the backs wheras Roy whilst he is learning the 'moves' all he has to do is carry the ball up with some vigor and perform his duties in defence.

From the early evidence he does not appear to be an 'enforcer', a ball handling forward or a leader.

I will qualify my doubts by acknowledging that he has played at the top level and hence is no mug but my jury is out

Asotasi was the only forward to stand back and not get involved in both of Westwood's dust-ups in the 1st half. Everyone else ran in and stood up for their team mate & Captain. He just stood and took no interest.

Needs some fire in his belly, and to show a bit more desire.

I hope he comes good because I don't like having a pop at any player (and that includes Myler, who some may think I have a pathological hatred of) and we really do need him to perform, so fingers-crossed.

My feelings are that historically the best-value from overseas players often comes from those with something to prove - Vagana, Nutley, Kohe-Love, Mackey etc. all wanted to establish themselves, for various reasons, and did so. Perhaps big Roy, having played so long in the engine room of the toughest comp on the planet feels he no longer needs to, has to or wants to keep prove anything to anyone, including himself.

One final point though - HE should be honoured to pay for US not the other way round. I'd sell my saintly grey-haired mother to an arab to play 80 mins in the P&B, let alone get paid for the privilege.

It feels like the sort of signing we would have made in the Cullen and Van de Velde years rather than the Smith years

I agree with this but also the lets be honest comes in to our assessment of our own youth players.

Yes I know there are a lot of cheerleaders on here telling us the future is bright every off season: they have been doing this since the days when Maden, Mark Gleeson, Durbin and Pickersgill were all touted as future GB players.

In the past few years which genuine class players have come through our youth system? Compare that to Saints/Leeds/Wigan, are we really up there with the best for youth development?

Or if you believe that we bring through great young players just Tony Smith has it in for young players and so all our best are lost elsewhere, which genuine class players have we brought through that have made it elsewhere?

I don't mean players that have played a handful of first team games but were great in the Academy so have people on here ready to tell you they are a 'beast' or whatever, I mean players that actually did the business in SL, like guys like Riley and Paul Wood did when we brought them through.

In his day Roy Asotasi was an enforcer and the best forward in the NRL but unfortunately that was several years ago. He is now past his best. Last season at Souths he was used from the bench and from what I saw was of little impact. Easily surpassed by the Burgess boys. So don't expect too much from him