In my (admittedly biased) opinion, the Cowboys have had the best recruitment. But the thing is, a lot of the players we bought were NOT on huge money.
Cooper and Hall were journeyman backrowers, every clubs has plenty of these sorts of players.
Winterstein was a solid, but unspectacular winger.
Ashton was a fringe first grader who never managed to live up to expectations at any of his previous clubs
Tariq and KFFL were extraordinary talents, but young and inexperienced.
The only players we signed who were 'star' signings were Johnson and Tate. Tate's had that many injuries over his career though, and Johnson had been out of the NRL for a few seasons - both signed with us because they wanted to be in QLD for family reasons.
I think the biggest credit has to go to Neil Henry and the other coaching staff who managed to turn a bunch of journeymen and kids into solid firstgraders. I thought at the start of the season that our forward pack looked very shakey and inexperienced - but it's been our best asset all year.
From other clubs, I definitely agree that Mateo has been a great pickup by the Warriors. The Warriors have always had plenty of good forwards, but they were all the same type. Mateo gives them something different and adds a new element to their attack. I think Nathan Friend will be a great buy for them next year as well.
Best value for money would be Utai. Best value for money in Supercoach has to go to Houston.
