Exactly.

In fairness to the club this is probably what they were thinking when they signed Bridge and Bracek, but they haven't turned out to be what was hoped. It is a hard job because there is a limited amount of young English talent, and once the talent is on the books of one of Leeds/Saints/Bradford it is hard for a club like us to persuade them to let the player go. I can't see us getting a positive response if we enquired about signing Roby or Graham, or Sam Burgess.

That leaves signing targets outside the big clubs (eg Westerman, Shenton) or more likely to get the right players when they are still schoolboy age. I am sure the club is thinking on these lines hence the appointment of John Bastian. And to be fair they've put a lot into local junior development so the effort is going in.

The idea was probably to complement this long term strategy with 'loading from above' as Cullen put it, bringing in established internationals to immediately lift the standard of the club (and help us attract the best young players). Sadly this didn't work, some of the players weren't the right ones, and the limitations of the coach mitigated against us too.

Twice.

Its all about getting the right world class player. Look at Saints with Lyon and Gidley. Wigan got Barrett, Leeds with Webb etc.

No matter what anyone says Benji Marshall would be a sensation over here. He would be the best Kiwi import in the Super League bar none.

Lockyer would still be the best player in the Super League, even at his age.

Hunt is better than any full back in Super League also including Webb, Wellens and Greenshields.

No, no, no. I'd rather have Webb than Marshall or Hunt. Webb is what we want Bridge to be at full back.

If we are going for the real thing, we should go for Slater and/or Thurston.

I'd be happy with pretty much UK recruitment really, maybe get a prop from the NRL, there's plenty in the Bulb/Rauhihi school, somebody who's tough & uncompromising and hard to shift backwards. You could probably throw 30 names on here. Assuming the others stay, ie, Hicks retained etc, I'd be cool with that. Or even one of those french lads, Remi Casty or someone like that, harness his aggression like.

Jamie Lyon being the exception to the rule, if there's even a whiff that this guy will be playing in the UK in 2010 we should pull out all the stops to ensure that it's with us.

I'd be pleased if our recruitment was something like, and this depends on injuries, extensions and such, and others clubs performing and being willing to sell etc, if Huddersfield go well, Wild obviously wouldn't want to leave.

Michael Shenton [Gleeson]
Rob Purdham [V.Anderson/PJ]
Steven Wild [See Above]
Richard Owen [Utility]
Louis McCarthy Scarsbrook / Andy Lynch / AN Other Prop [Rauhihi]

ferriol.

Yeah, he's a big bugger. Providing the others stay fit, you could limit his gametime and really tell him to rip into the opposition. I just think he gets overused at times by them, I'd just like to see him in 10/15 min shifts just scatterihng people.

I like that Casty, I just think he's too aggresive sometimes, needs to learn hot to channel it, can't half put a hit on, same for that Fakir.

Dan Carter; Sam Burgess; Kirk Yeoman.

First two fairly obvious. Yeoman can be the best centre in the competition if he got fit and back to the form of 2007. May just need a change of environment. Can easily fil the boots of Gleeson though, and we can't rely constantly on overseas players. We have to buy british at some point.

apart from yeamen is a left centre.

if you can play left centre, you can play right

Not quite. The way they carry the ball, the hand-off and the direction of the step is very pertinent to the side on which they play.

i think if you put yeaman into the right centre position, he'd cope admirably

I rate Hunt better than Webb. He is younger as well.

Slater would be the ultimate signing, but he has the Queensland and Kangaroo jersey for the next decade and so does Thurston, so its unlikely they would ever give up that to sign for Wire.

All we need is a solid base of local players who'll work their socks off and a couple of very good play makers. We should be able to get the solid players from our Academys, the play makers can come from anywhere but I don't see why Australia needs to be our default setting.

Two years ago we had 75 teams playing in the North West Counties 16-18 league x 20 players per squad = 1500 players just in the North West not counting other areas and the younger age groups.. You can't tell me there aren't players in there who can't do the job. We do have a pool of talent.