Recruitment. Is it a concern?

[Newie is God's Country]

I am left scratching my head as to how Cronulla can sign Tupou and Barrett and still have Gallen and Bird on their books. What the hell kind of job are we doing when we let marquee player after marquee player slip through the net. We payed 400 000 for a fullback. Probably pay De Gois overs. Have some ordinary recruits in Ciraldo and Wicks and we just get on with life as if it is ok. What do you guys think? When Bedsy goes we have about three marquee players ie. Simmo, Kids, and Cross. If Aku leaves it will be a travesty. My faith in Smithy is wavering a little to be honest and I don't think i am alone in that sentiment. I will back him till the end but some of his decisions of late have been terrible.

 

[Frederick]

I am left scratching my head as to how Cronulla can sign Tupou and Barrett and still have Gallen and Bird on their books.

Cronulla are losing Kimmorely and De Gois, and Thompson has retired. Tupou is on 1.2million over 4 years if I remember correctly, and they signed Barrett for 600k over 2 years...those three I mentioned above would cover what they spent on Tupou and Barrett.

What the hell kind of job are we doing when we let marquee player after marquee player slip through the net.

How many of these marquee players have we actually been in the market for, and how many have just been speculation and wild fantasies from us? I'm willing to be a 10-90 split there.

We payed 400 000 for a fullback.

If you're referring to Gidley, he is much, much more than just a fullback, and if you can't see that then you're a bigger idiot than I thought.

Probably pay De Gois overs

Can't comment here, but I'm sure we paid him what he's worth.

Have some ordinary recruits in Ciraldo and Wicks and we just get on with life as if it is ok.

Ciraldo I'll give you, but he'd be on peanuts. Wicks has the potential, but needs to pull his thumb out of his arse.

My faith in Smithy is wavering a little to be honest and I don't think i am alone in that sentiment.

May not be alone but you're probably in the minority.

I will back him till the end but some of his decisions of late have been terrible.

If you're referring to his team selections, no-one in PL other than Taufua has really warranted being picked in FG

 

[Jobdog]

Wow. A few losses in a row and a few players squeezed out by the salary cap and ppl are starting to doubt Smithy :crazy:

 

[seedy]

I with Newie and starting to wonder how our teams are still spending the cash and the knights have stated that there won't be anymore cash for new signings.Lets hope this will change now since we have unloader sarge and maybe walsh.Would be a shame if we lose royal or uate as i would love to keep them both!Does anyone know how long joel brown is tired up for?

 

[otori]

As far as recruitment goes, I wish last season that we'd bought Ashton Sims instead of Houston and Wicks. I live in Brisbane so maybe because I see the Broncos more I think he's better but he's a solid, hardworking player.

 

[roopy]

Smith seems very keen to never pay a player more than he is worth.

It can be a bit hit and miss i think.

If you do a Manly and pay good money for established stars you will get a decent team every time - but buying up young guys with good prospects can either give us a great side, or a dud side i think.

 

[KniGhTs BaTTLeR]

Be realistic. Who is on the market that is really going to be a long term solution for us? I can see why Smithy is not buying up this year.

I seemed to be the only one on here doubting Smith's appointment when he came to the club and I got blasted for it. But even I can see why he hasn't bought any of the players that we have mentioned. Why would marquee players want to come to a club who is the middle of rebuilding? They want to play for the top teams and win premierships, we are far from that. Give him some more time, I still dont like the way he sacked all of our players but thats probably because I had my red and blue goggles on and couldnt see how **** some of our players really were. We need to start winning some games with the team we have now though if we are going to attract anyone decent, that's the biggest challenge for Smith.

 

[Yosh]

I dont think he is that bad really... Like I think we'll see us retain alot more good talent then when Hagan was around which will be awesome, and if we sign one or two really good dudes thats just a bonus. Hagan never signed anyone good as well...

I still have total faith in BSmith so whatever tickles his fancy

 

[BG]

Have some faith in the youth. They won't all kick on but some of them will. Take our outside backs. Lulia, Sau and Aku mightn't all go to the next level, but I'd be surprised if at least one of them doesn't develop into a gun within the next year or two. Vuna only needs to find consistency. Royal, McManus and Patto have already gone from no-names to quality NRL performers in less than two seasons. Dureau is looking likely. Mullo still has improvement in him and should develop into a genuine rep player. Same story in the forwards. Houston, Wicks, Taufua, Natusch. They're young, they're only going to get better and I think we can be confident that at least a couple of them will turn into real quality under Smithy's guidance.

Bound to be a wild card or two as well. Who was picking Royal early last season to be what he is now? Gordon, Karawana or someone only Roops has ever heard of might jump of the ground and surprise us all within the next couple of seasons.

 

[Misanthrope]

I would have liked to see us make a play for Barrett, personally. We gripe about the lack of real quality in our halves - and when a top quality half is available, we're silent.

 

[aqua_duck]

We we sign barrett what message does that send to Dureau?

 

[Misanthrope]

Learn to play

 

[General Knight]

I would have liked to see us make a play for Barrett, personally. We gripe about the lack of real quality in our halves - and when a top quality half is available, we're silent.

I was hoping we went after Michael Monaghan when he was off contract with Manly. Would have been perfect in the halves with Mullen and who knows his brother could have have followed him here. But not to be I guess.

 

[otori]

You want to play 600k for a player in the back end of his career? So then we can have two five-eights in our halves. If Barrett is forced to play at halfback at Cronulla instead of playing outside Brett Seymour, I'll laugh.

 

[perverse]

honestly, with the young halves we have coming through (most clubs would KILL to have 3 exciting young halves on their roster).. getting a trent barrett or michael monas would do us more harm than good. in 2 or 3 years we'd be in the same shitty situation due to whoever we bought getting over the hill or retiring... and we would have lost our young halves, which may or may not have kicked on at another club.

finally we're actually starting to wrap up our main talents from our lower grades. this hasn't been the case for a long time.. and we've always had the pain of watching the anthony topous and the greg birds kill it at other clubs.. always scratching our heads wondering how they slipped through the net. unfortunately you do have to sort the diamonds from the rough... however you can't find and unearth those diamonds in the first place if you're not even looking. at least we're knee deep in the mining business now - so to speak.

 

[Yosh]

honestly, with the young halves we have coming through (most clubs would KILL to have 3 exciting young halves on their roster).. getting a trent barrett or michael monas would do us more harm than good. in 2 or 3 years we'd be in the same shitty situation due to whoever we bought getting over the hill or retiring... and we would have lost our young halves, which may or may not have kicked on at another club.

finally we're actually starting to wrap up our main talents from our lower grades. this hasn't been the case for a long time.. and we've always had the pain of watching the anthony topous and the greg birds kill it at other clubs.. always scratching our heads wondering how they slipped through the net. unfortunately you do have to sort the diamonds from the rough... however you can't find and unearth those diamonds in the first place if you're not even looking. at least we're knee deep in the mining business now - so to speak.

Totally agree... I would of loved to have sign Monas as well acutally but... HOWEVER, Joel Monas would of been even better, need a quality centre with good experience in the squad I think... Perhaps the biggest whole in the team, which I have stressed over and over again...

 

[aqua_duck]

Learn to play

why would he want to? So he can back up barrett and Mullen?

It'll put him in the luke walsh position of wanting to leave

 

[Hanscholo]

Some clubs like Cronulla and Manly buy now and pay later with their recruitment, in other words they release huge numbers of fringe players to support their high spending. We on the other hand tend to not spend the cap and wait on the right players to purchase. i dont think recruitment is a concern, I seriously doubt we have paid overs for any of the new guys considering they came here for a chance to play fist grade.

 

[aqua_duck]

We certainly don't want another Reyno situation

 

[Misanthrope]

why would he want to? So he can back up barrett and Mullen?

What real motivation does he have now? He's the only realistic halfback option we have, with Walsh being a dud.