Burrell is leaving. Announcement tomorrow I believe.

....and we [ias good as[/i ditched Ryan Atkins, to accommodate him.

Ridiculous

Really felt sorry for Rhino. He was a terrific player and an excellent servant to our club and deserved a proper send off.

I think it was time for Atkins to go, he would have been second fiddle with us and I'm sure he would want a spot in the starting 13 every week - he wouldn't have got that here. I think the mid season move to Wakey suited him as it guaranteed him a deal for 2020 too.

It's a shame the Burrell experiment didn't work out, he always seemed enthusiastic and came across really well - just too late for him to move across I think. If he is moving on it would seem best for all concerned, he will start taking a place in our salary cap from 2021 and I think based on his position within the squad, even at 50% value, he would be taking up too much cap space for what he offers on the field.

I think Burrell needed the Reserves to play and for us to get a few injuries to get a foot in the door. Very difficult to impress with only a few minutes on the pitch.
As for Atkins ... he was getting an increasing number of injuries so probably wise to offload. I don't think he's played much at Wakey.

The Atkins/Burrell "experiment" is symptomatic of our poor recruitment of the last decade

I don’t think that is a fair criticism. He was an experiment that had no impact on the salary cap. Showed the club are constantly looking at ways to improve. It didn’t work out, move on.
In relation to Atkins it was time to move him on, much as he was a great player for the club. That was one of those “damned if they do, damned if they don’t “ decisions.
If you want to cite a signing that better suits your theory that prop from the NRL, can’t remember his name that we signed for this season would be much better (I can remember his name but trying to make a point!)

To quote two old phrases

Atkins ....Why fix what's not broken. He was still a good player, scoring tries

Burrell. You can't teach on old dog brand new tricks

There was nothing wrong with Atkins. Replacing him with an aging Union player was folly. This was a Price's vanity experiment, a la Smith's with Ryan Bailey....."I can rebuild him"

Do we think that our Roy was symptomatic of poor recruitment?

Now before anyone starts to spit their coffee out in disbelief I'm not so sure that he was as far as the club is concerned. He played for Souths was capped and captained NZ I think we as fans were fairly happy with this signing at the time and yes I get that the club should be a bit more diligent with their recruitment policy.

The first warning signs was his MIA antics for Samoa as far as I can remember. Following that the lack effort knew no bounds, his application and honesty from a performance per £ POV (you wouldn't have paid him in buttons) sets him apart and lays the blame at his door more so than the clubs....and taking the two in his last game to sign off and grinning like a Cheshire cat was the icing on the cake mickey take.

I don't think the Burrell signing was anything to do with Price, Simon Moran had been speaking to him about a move before Price arrived.

So, Oasis' concert promoter's preferences trump a RL coach's.
If that's the case, our recruitment REALLY IS ####ed

I don’t know where the idea came from that he was to replace Atkins. We bought a lottery ticket. What has Atkins done since leaving? He was never going to be offered the sort of deal he would’ve wanted, ie one more season at most.

Atkins was invited to leave, when we'd already signed Burrell. Price (I assume, more than likely) had Gelling in the pipeline. Both Burrell and Gelling have not worked out well, have they.

Again, our recruitment (on the whole) stinks

Were -4 with Skybet, which is interesting.

I honestly think we should / could have kept Atkins for another year or maybe two.
Burrell is / was a similar age and had no real RL experience.
I appreciate it was maybe an experiment and that his salary doesn't count on the cap, but it does appear to be wasted money nevertheless - either because he's not up to it or because he's not been given the chance. (If he'd have been 25 then that could have been a different story, but then again we probably wouldn't have got him at 25).

With one or two exceptions our recruitment over the last decade hasn't been up to the standards of many other clubs - or maybe it's that the coaching staff have not been able to bring out the best/develop them. Compare our recruitment and development with that of Powell or Watson to name but two.
Clearly there are some exceptions - Hill, Ratch (although a sizable fee was involved for him I think), Hicks (already established in Oz), Coops and Philbin (developed from the academy).