Anyone know when SOO arrives? I'm sure I heard he could be straight on a plane.
He won't need the same permits and visas in France.

There is a reason that Washbrook and McShane are being pursued by other clubs and that is that they are two of our best players in an under performing team.

Luckily the club signed Johnstone for a longer contract but I think players need to be signed for a minimum of 18 months so this mid season pursuit of players may at least lead to clubs having to pay Trinity transfer fees.

No update on Sio? It's a long flight from Aus if the press report was true! Hopefully Brian Smith has a couple more cheap 'good find' (hopefully) signings to get as we're playing a half back at full back and a second row at centre.

No update on Howarth's arm?

Total opposite for me if Lyne is anything it's a centre, but not a good one. Hasn't got the speed of mind to be a winger.

Has Sio been announced by the club.... He is a player I know nothing about... Haven't noticed him in the game here in Aus at all!!

Probably because he has never played any first team rugby.

I keep looking on the club website but have seen nothing yet.
Only announcement I have seen is on here!

not over the line yet, this is posted today www.totalrl.com/wakefield-set-to ... chael-sio/

not over the line yet, this is posted today www.totalrl.com/wakefield-set-to ... chael-sio/

Sums up the state of this club and the game of RL in general in this country - an utter disgrace.

I tried to make the point with Godinet but this one is even more blatant!

Right up until the 80's you could find a hard tackling hooker almost anywhere. Certainly in an area with a rich heritage like Wakefield and district.

Now I've no doubt Sio will be better than anything available now but you have to despair that an untried "bush player" is our best option - I know he played in the WC but that doesn't automatically make him a SL player - jeez us, Cas, Fev, Batley etc should be producing these kind of players every year.

This club and our game will never compete with the Aussies until the clubs learn how to train players and players start to treat the game seriously and start to aspire to be great again.

People like Neil Fox must despair when he see's how dependent we are on journeymen and not even local ones

Have to agree with Vast man. We should not be bringing average players half way round the world. Where are the Maskills the Skerretts and the Bells. If you believe the propaganda on Sky the game is better than ever and the rewards are there for top players so why aren't we producing players at least as good as Ryan and Godinet. At the moment there are only three Wakefield products playing in Super League that would get in most teams... ELLIS BROUGH AND WESTWOOD. and they are all at the back end of their careers. Not exactly a production line of talent.

Apparently Talipeau went on the play for Samoa in the world cup after he left us, so he can't have been that bad. Although I can hardly remember him playing

It's not really like for like though. In aus /nz rugby league or union is the number one sport

This is what the juniors dream of playing and representing their country at In the UK, the top athletes head toward football, rugby union , athletics,cricket Etc. rugby league is a long way down the list of potential career paths for talented sportsmen of the modern era .

Ha, what a character he was! I remember we were playing at Salford, had a slim lead and they had us under the cosh for what seems ages. I turned to my pal and said we need a fight here to stop Salford's momentum, up steps Talipeau throwing bombs (prob not bombs, more likely pushing and shoving) and we ended up winning.

Sorry but to me that’s just not right - the sports equivalent to business speak.

If we were talking about finding the next James Roby or Cameron Smith I’d agree. However we are talking about a run of the mill hard tackling No9 to tighten up the defence. I’m talink squad players, journeymen not star players. Thirty years ago these players were ten a penny around here and RL if anything was even further down the pecking order.

There is simply no excuse and those running the game and those coaching at all levels really need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Phil Gould summed up our problem when commenting on Ryan Atkinsons disastrous defensive performance against Australia. His fellow commentators where stating that Atkinsons couldn’t or wouldn’t tackle.

Gould responded by stating that the kid could tackle and was brave enough it was simply that he didn’t know how to play RL properly!

There lays our problem, young players spend far to much time bulking up in the gym and doing physical training, when IMHO any player under 18 shouldn’t be anywhere near a gym unless it’s in their own time. Training at that age should be based around skills, tag rugby and specialist positional training with a little bit of contact training at the end to keep them sharp.

If a player feels the need to bulk up I don’t blame them but it has to be off their own back - it’s like any form of apprenticeship/Qualification a lot of it has to be self motivation - you have to earn the right to be paid for pumping iron and you do that by learning your craft.