That's a very good point you make and very true.

But further to that, once he realises his dull turds no longer respond he sells them to us .

Like who?

Moore, might be an idiot but won us a few games

Finn, surely that ones been put to bed and only someone holding a personal grudge would consider him not to have been a good buy.

Arundal, no world beater but a decent squad man.

So PB who are these turds of which you speak - Tansey?

With the exception of Moore, who I still believe is a far better player than McShane, I don't think any of the other cast offs (Finn, Owen, Arundel, Tansey) would have made it into the Cas side at their particular time. In that respect Powell couldn't get the required gloss on any. In certain circumstances Matt works just as well as gloss though.

To be fare Tansey and Owen wouldn't get in to our side now either.
They were bought at a time when we needed players and they fitted the bill.

Arundal was imho bought as a prospect that both Cas and Hull had considered. I think he is a successful purchase without being a world beater. We needed stability on his side and he gives us that.
A centre is often only a defensive player if the team naturally go to the opposite side.

Finn and Moore where better than what we had and I reckon Cas would have been better last year if Finn had been there for them when they had their injuries.
Certainly Finn is the centre of our team and anything good we did last year most likely came from him.

That may or may not be true but it doesn't make them turds.

It's just a nice analogy that seems to sit right with the type of work Powell did in the early days at Cas.

I remember him playing a fair bit when he was at Manly. Tbf if you haven't/don't watch the NRL, most of the guys that come over from there you won't have heard of, unless it's your Todd Carney type of scenario. For example Saints have signed Luke Douglas from the Titans, the blokes hardly missed a game in his career in first grade, but if you didn't watch the NRL you probably won't know who he is.

Just depends on what context you compare the bunch (you forgot Owen) If you are happy with continuous bottom 4 and relegation fights every season or do you look to push a bit higher up the table.

Isn't that what we're trying to do, push up a bit higher after finishing in the Top 8. But finances have to considered and play a huge part unless we start getting 6k+ through the gates every game Ateotd we got rid of Tansey in the season and Owen has now been let go and not played a game all year for us (although the lad has been seriously unlucky with injuries). The others have all done their jobs this season taking us to where we got, from where we were.

It's nothing to do with being happy with bottom four, come on PB you as well as anyone know the reasons for that and its way more complex than who we get from Cas. I know Belly has a fixation with all things Cas but I'd be surprised if you actually think that Powell is anything other than a run of the mill coach who's been lucky in recent years.

I suspect we take players of Cas because the deals on offer were pretty cheap at a time when we needed it. Some people seem to think McShane is one of the polished ones but frankly he looks as poor for Cas as he did for us IMHO. There has always been a long history of players floating around the Wakey/Cas/Fev triangle and it's always been a case of win some lose some for all clubs. I don't see anything especially wrong with the players that have joined us from Cas yet at the same time none look like potential superstars.

We remain a bottom four club because we simply don't have the cash and because we haven't got the fans to be otherwise, so we can bemoan Cas cast offs as much as we want but frankly they are generally as good as we can get. Why complain about something we can't fix, might as well just support the lads even if they are not the best.

I think your being a bit unkind to Powell there. Don't get me wrong I don't think he's a world class or even great coach but he's certainly a good one. Cas are not a great team man for man, but they have a game plan, they stick to it and they defend well. In a league of declining quality this approach serves them well. So Powell does deserve some credit there.

Maybe signing cast off is one of the reasons why we struggle with crowds and financially, let's face it our academy lads could do a better job than some of the signings we've made. As a club we seem to believe that signing a player is the better option over trusting our juniors.

Not sure why they are cast offs, surely that makes Gale a cast off or any player who didn't come through the Academy or a fee was paid Some players fit in some teams and in that sense your correct but I don't think Powell is any more adept at it than anyone else, he's just had a good run.

Cas are probably 3-4 years ahead of us in their development, I think a lot of this can be attributed to having a solid coaching staff. It doesn't matter who it is really, just that the continuity from season to season allows for a progressive build within the club. Should we manage to retain Chester in the long run, I can see the club improving which will start to bring back lapsed fans, and attract new ones. This will then bring in more revenue which means that we will be able to become more competitive

Nowhere near 3-4 years IMO.

Due to the lack of a "proper" A team, the gulf between U19's and SL is huge and very few players come straight out of 19's and hold down a regular place in the first team.
It's slightly easier for the backs but, the physical demands in all of the forward's positions is too much for the vast majority of U19's and apart from filling in, from the bench in the odd game, they are just not ready.
Of course we should keep dropping the odd youngster in for a couple of games as it does wonders for their develpoment but, the point still stands.