I have some grave concerns regarding recruitment. We sign Issaac De Gois to a 2 and a half year deal which means Kaysa Pritchard is now left in limbo and may leave. He wont get an opportunity within the next 18 months at least. We then release Jacob Loko who is 22 yrs old to maybe replace him with Brett Delaney who is 30 next year. Delaney has been struggling in the UK SuperLeague and doesnt even play Centre for Leeds. To me, this smells like 2010 again when Daniel Anderson went and signed blokes like Reni, Whateria and co looking for experience. To add to that, the pending signing Danny Wicks also at the age of 30.
The best thing about young players isn't that they are young; it's that they are (usually) cheap and you can get good value out of them in their early contracts. Loko re-signed at his peak and then promptly re-injured his knee, so we have gotten zero value out of him since. We also got little value prior to that because he was injured through most of 2011-2013 (when he was on the cheap) as well.
Kaysa Pritchard is still contracted next year (as is De Gois) and they are both backups to Nathan Peats so it doesn't really matter who is number two. If Pritchard proves next year that he's good enough for first grade then he was going to leave anyway. If he's only good enough to be a backup then we will possibly re-sign him (depending on what other clubs are offering) and he can fight it out to be the number two hooker in De Gois' final year (2016).
Remember De Gois signed with the understanding that Peats would be on the books throughout the entirety of his time here so he accepts he is a backup. Therefore he wouldn't be on too much and it's likely that the 2016 component (aged 32) will be on less than top 25 money - basically a sweetener of a guaranteed $80k (or whatever minimum salary is projected to be by then) no matter how shit he is in that year. De Gois is probably getting most of his money next year (because we were desperate for a hooker this year but didn't have the cap space).
Anyway my main point was that Pritchard is off contract next year and he was stuck behind Peats anyway (a fairly young hooker himself).
As for signing De Gois and Delaney (if we do) - experience is very important, as much off the field as on it. The only downside is it often comes with diminished physical ability (old age) and increased injury-proneness. Plus it is often expensive. Delaney is an edge forward with the ability to cover at centre in an emergency (i.e. he can defend there). That's a useful player to have in the top 25. De Gois was essential this year because he is currently the only fit specialist hooker in our entire fulltime squad.
