Smith was just making things up hoping no one would realise he was worse than useless.

I hope he gets a job somewhere else in sl and it will be one less team we have to worry about

We haven't had a great off season since 2017 (where we added Albert, Connor and Griffin to an already strong lineup) 2020 the best of a bad bunch with Mau'u, Satae and Sao (but the less said about Jones and the return if Fonua the better)

If the club now has more money some investment on scouting needed, it surely doesn't cost a fortune to pay someone down under to go watch games and at least try and weed out the absolute duffers before we sign them.

I was wondering myself the other day what sort of scouting setup the club has these days. Not much of one on this evidence. It's a very valid point.

We could see if john cartwright is interested?

Always something going on behind the scene as we have seen with Balmforth especially the fitness nonsense.
Walker is a class full back as we found when he played at Hull KR but needs to be playing in a quality team.
Hoy was poor at full back playing in a poor team and the same goes with Walker
I am not a Litten fan but to bring in another overseas full back would be a waste of a quota place when we have Walker,Moy and Litten available plus Hardaker when necessary.
Our priority has to be at centre,front row,second row and nine.
Once we produce a team that competes, defend and has an attacking structure i have no doubt Walker will shine

To be fair there’s no way TS asked the club to go out and get him the likes Okunbor, Pele and Nu Brown. It’s been apparent for a good few years (likely after the failure of big name Reynolds) that the club has been using third parties to ‘recommend’ them potential Aussie ‘gems’ from the NRL fringes and lower grades.

He did come across so laid back about recruitment and player contracts almost negligent the way he talked about if deals happen they happen etc. Hopefully Cartwright has a bit more drive about him and more importantly has his finger on the pulse over there so we don’t need those third parties.

Was Nu Brown and Okunbor fringe? think they were both in and around the first team. They just turned out to be bad signings. I'm on-the-fence regarding Hoy, but think he was in the 17 a good few times over there. I'm not an NRL connoisseur, so no doubt a mile off.

Not totally unknown but I’d still say fringe first grade players.

Had a quick google Brown joined at 29 and played around 60 NRL games. He did have a year at Fev and a bad injury early on but still in and out of first grade at all times.

Okunbor joined at 27 and played around 50 NRL games. Not a terrible record but a lot on the wing and what has to be said a poor Bulldogs side.

Hoy and Clifford had a decent record for their ages, especially Clifford at the Cowboys, but at the time they signed neither would have been in Newcastles full strength 17, and they had been performing poorly as a side. Pele had only 7 NRL games under his belt.

Compare that with Reynolds and Evans who had both over 100 first grade games each I think after those 2 someone at the club decided the way to go was ‘less established’ NRL players. Nothing wrong with that but without a dedicated DOR we were at the mercy of third parties recommending players without doing our due diligence.

Hopefully Cartwright himself will be a better judge of these players and Myler in a more dedicated role will help us pick these players better. There’s been plenty of fringe NRL players that have either ripped up SL or at least been just dependable pros. Hopefully we are better placed to find them now.

Yes would love to know what has happened to walker. Up to London game he was our best player then bad game by all and he seems to have shouldered the blame. Must be something more to it

I would like to see what walker can do behind the slightly better pack we have now. I've always thought he was quite limited but seemed to do well at rovers last year although evalds is probably an upgrade on him

Pele confirmed as left.
An extra quote spot to play with now is great.

We don't know what happened or why but I would guess there was a limited budget available so it would not matter who was recruiting. Probably thought they were taking a risk on Ock and Pele but one might work out?

I understand James Webster was involved in the deals for Pele and Okunbor, he was doing some consultancy/mentoring stuff here whilst Smith was in charge. Maybe he's no longer involved either so they're having a proper clear out.

That will depend on who they can convince to sign for us. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Ese'ese is the new benchmark!

Absolutely and still wouldn’t discount Pele making a top player somewhere and Ockunbor ending up a solid player for someone, it’s easier in hindsight to criticise but the club really does seem to have been a perfect storm for everyone to fail especially young lads moving across the world.

Jed Cartwright, Rimbu and Stewart are (or would have been) are similar somewhat risky uses of the quota places but you just get the impression there’s a bit more knowledge and resources available now to make a more educated guess on these type of players and a better environment once they get here.