i think we have sorely missed all the hard graft he did to get us away from our own line when we were pinned down and under pressure.

We are missing his experience and he did hold up the middle but his time was up.

Brough ... Has the "missing link" looks & has an excellent kicking game.

We are missing Russell's metres from deep and the direction that came from Monaghan more than anything.

But Trent was a high quality solidly consistent player whose work, especially tackling and not allowing offloads, have been missed too,

I believe we miss Morley (earlier years), Carvell and to a lesser extent Wood and Cooper more than we would care to admit.

Across the board our team in terms of playing ability is so far behind that of 2011 when we peaked. Will take a few years to get to those heights again.

Agreed W71

In no way have we got like for like or bettered them with our current crop of replacement props.

i would be amazed if we ever see a front row as good as Morley, Monaghan and Carvell again

Well we've got Hill, just need to get Clark settled and then nab Sam Burgess from Bath and we'll be right !

It is sinful how the quality of team has been allowed to run down to such a poor level.

We need to sack our overseas scout if we have one.

I just don't think the quality to replace like for like is there in general any more. All teams are losing quality and replacing them with average players. When the last of the golden generation leave, teams are having a rough couple of years. We did when losing the likes of Long, Pryce, Cunningham, Sculthorpe et al, we all knew it would happen to you guys soon as well and then you lost the likes of Hodgson, Morley, Carvell, Briers and M Monaghan. Wigan have been losing quality year on year for a few seasons now and Leeds are on the brink of going through the same. I doubt your squad will get as good as it was in 2011 again but it likely won't matter as the other teams are pretty much all in the same situation and on the same level. Sad but true.

I think the investment was made by Moran and we were supposed to go on and win GFs and WCCs with that squad we had from 2010-2013. But we didn't. To make that kind of investment/recruitment again might not have been in Moran's plans.

We have a lot of our own produced players probably not on a great deal of money and there may well be room on the cap but there isn't the will to use the cap at the moment.

I think Smith is really seeing who is up to it and Moran may well go again with another investment/recruitment drive again soon to join the very best of our own. Clark is a great start, it's early days for him yet but he will get better. Our next signing has to be at his level or higher again.

Do we know with any certainty what level of recruitment funds were supplied by Moran and what came from the WWRLFC business?

Are we at the stage where the quality of the playing roster at the club still depends on the generosity of one man ?

This is a characteristic that we can directly attribute to Smith in his tenure. Recruitment has been hit and miss.

That's a good question, I always think of the owner and the club and the money spent by him and the club as one and the same usually because it's not like we're lending the money from him. I actually don't know the percentages of where the money comes from.