Rumoured targets 2

[K-Man]

Reminds me more of the front-row edition of Paul Gallen because of his build. You don't need to be tall to make good metres up the middle... if anything, a little ball of muscle has a lower centre of gravity and can be extremely difficult to tackle. He's certainly built like a brick shithouse from what I've seen.

You're right, though... you never know how a junior will go when they step up to the big league. There are players that are more likely than others, and I'd put Taylor in that category from what I've seen - but you never know.

That's a good call actually. But Gallen has subtleties and skills to his game too. Not sure I've ever seen Taylor pass the ball, but he does make strong carries and plenty of them, and his low centre of gravity almost seems to help him not hinder him. I rate him as a player, but I doubt he will burst onto the scene and make waves. More likely to be a solid bench prop with good consistent stats.

 

[K-Man]

Or we've bought the next Beau Henry.

The next 3 Beau Henrys. I take your point, but hardly worth comparing completely different positions. Perhaps more like the next Toka Likiliki.

 

[slotmachine]

Unlikely we will be seeing Packer in the NRL again, you can't get a visa if you've been sentenced to a term of 12 months or more.

 

[Nuffy]

We've had some of the best recruitment officers in the business at our club over the past 10 years - not to mention Wayne Bennett himself as coach lately. The club - from an administration and decision making point of view - have done EVERYTHING they could to improve our recruitment record as far as I can see... yet nothing changes. We are met with the same disappointment year after year, regardless of who is pulling the strings at any level.

The only drawcard we EVER had was Joey. Players did want to play with him... but even then, we didn't exactly have a legion of Test stars banging our door down to play at Newie.

I'm pretty convinced - having lived in Sydney again for a while now - that almost any native Sydneysider would probably rather drop dead than play football in Newcastle. Newcastle truly is thought of as a backwater hick town down here, and the pompous c**ks want zero to do with it.

Just the word "Newcastle" would be enough to turn them off... regardless of dollars. Such is the perception. I don't doubt that we made BMM an offer, to be honest... I'm suspect that we did. The question is - how much more are you willing to pay for a fringe first grader than the club down the road? 50k? 100k? 200k? How much more than market rate would they need to leave Sydney for Newcastle?

If we don't do something and pay overs then its all over as we just aren't producing the juniors we once did.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Rnb11 seemed way too keen on things and has gone very quiet so I suspect all the signings have fallen over.

I'm not sure we are going to snag anyone of note because we just don't seem capable of it.

At this rate our best hope is some of the 20's kick on.

The issue we have is that it's likely that we need essentially 2 FGers right now for Packer and Alex and another 3-4 very soon to replace Mason, David F, Smith.

Not up and comers but established FGer's. Right now we have recruited no one.

If we don't take dramatic steps to bolster the roster, next year looks bleaker than this year.

Excellent summary I deadset reckon this year will be a pleasant memory compared to next.

Be very suprised to see Smith, Mase or Dave go around next year and if they do could be hard to watch.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

I reckon we will come up with another forward signing this year. It might be someone semi-retired playing OS or out of the wilderness somewhere but Bennett will get someone in.

 

[The Showstopper]

I know for a fact Midley is of the belief we have narrow minded recruitment. Spoke to his and Kurt's Grandfather who they are very very close to. He told me Rob Burrow and Kallum Watkins from Leeds are both keen but Wayne said no. Also Midley has tried to recruit a couple of St Helens players with the same attitude shown towards that. There are some enormous forwards in the ESL waiting for a decent coach to help them go to their full potenial.

 

[Noname36]

Honestly Burrow being an older halfback and Watkins being a centre are certainly not what we need but I'd love it if Midley and Bedsy could use their connections to find us some forwards with potential from the SL who want to come over for a while to emulate the Burgess brothers and Graham.

 

[Spot On]

Don't know much about them so can someone give an insight as to why we Bennett would say no?? Duds?? Can't be poor behaviour. We've got that covered already. Can't be lack of ability. We're running out of troops so someone is better than no one.

 

[Noname36]

Don't know much about them so can someone give an insight as to why we Bennett would say no?? Duds?? Can't be poor behaviour. We've got that covered already. Can't be lack of ability. We're running out of troops so someone is better than no one.

Ones a 31-year-old halfback and the other is a centre. I don't think either are duds but they're not what we need either.

 

[perverse]

I wouldn't say our recruitment is narrow minded. Dobson came from England and Minto came from QLD cup just this year.

 

[Spot On]

Ones a 31-year-old halfback and the other is a centre. I don't think either are duds but they're not what we need either.

Why the f**k would Gidley be pushing for these blokes then??? No wonder Bennett said no.

 

[Frederick]

Why the f**k would Gidley be pushing for these blokes then??? No wonder Bennett said no.

Jobs for mates

 

[Nuffy]

I know for a fact Midley is of the belief we have narrow minded recruitment. Spoke to his and Kurt's Grandfather who they are very very close to. He told me Rob Burrow and Kallum Watkins from Leeds are both keen but Wayne said no. Also Midley has tried to recruit a couple of St Helens players with the same attitude shown towards that. There are some enormous forwards in the ESL waiting for a decent coach to help them go to their full potenial.

If thats the value of his contribution then he is unfit to be CEO.

Nominating backs at a time when we are swimming in them shows hes not up to it.

Seriously, can we get a genuine CEO please.

 

[The Showstopper]

I got the impression that it was more that he was making suggestions. Agreed it isn't the best approach. It is irrelevant now as it all got shot down. The Mole says Tariq Sims is our main target. Make of that what you will. It is news to me.

 

[The Showstopper]

http://rugbyleagueweek.com.au/top-secret-club-player-trade/

This link for The Mole's individual club player targets breakdown.

 

[Noname36]

If thats the value of his contribution then he is unfit to be CEO.

Nominating backs at a time when we are swimming in them shows hes not up to it.

Seriously, can we get a genuine CEO please.

Kinda does seem like a conflict of interest doesn't it? Midley isn't an idiot, he'd know Burrow and Watkins were the last things we need but it seems he wanted us to sign them anyway to keep his SL connections happy.

I guess that's the worry having an ex player as CEO, especially one young enough to still have mates playing.

Like okay, we pay to get his mates over here, mates that play in positions we don't need, and all that does is restrict the money we can spend on forwards. I'm sure we don't know the full story but that seems like terrible management to me.

Re Tariq - the mole is probably correct in saying we're making a play when Bennett said in the last Knights Insider that he'd love to have him. I think he wants to go to Sydney but I always thought we'd at least make a play.

 

[The Showstopper]

Yeah but if we get Tariq we will have one seriously talented back rower. A hard running highly skilled back rower. Injuries are the only thing about him that might be an issue but I would throw plenty at him.having his little brother on the books is a big bonus.

 

[aqua_duck]

Yeah but if we get Tariq we will have one seriously talented back rower. A hard running highly skilled back rower. Injuries are the only thing about him that might be an issue but I would throw plenty at him.having his little brother on the books is a big bonus.

Not sure if you've watched much of Tariq lately but he's been average at best for about 18 months now (since his injury). I'm not sure if they'll ever be the same again and I'd hate to think we're pinning all our hopes on him. We need atleast 3 props first and foremost, then we can worry about Tariq Sims after that

 

[kiwipete]

It's pretty ugly, and it's a factor the critics of our dad's army recruitment can point to with a number of these guys reaching their used-by date around the same time. Packer and McKinnon are obviously just incredible bad luck.

Realistically from this year's squad we will probably be losing (or would want to lose even if we're stuck with them one more year):

Packer
McKinnon
Mason
Smith
Fa'alogo
Houston
Tetevano

That's 7 first grade forwards, and so far zero replacements unless you count U20s prop James Taylor from the Warriors.

Where are the players coming from? We need a minimum of 3 decent buys: a lock to replace Smith, a second rower to improve our quality, and a prop or three to replace everyone.

We could make a play for Korbin Sims' front row partner from our Toyota Cup and NSW Cup sides a couple of years ago, Sam Anderson. He's a local junior, was player of the year in Toyota Cup with the Knights and was last years NSW Cup Player of the Year at Penrith. Plays big minutes, makes very few mistakes and has played a couple of FG games but is behind a pretty solid front row rotation at the panthers. He is unsigned for 2015 and still has plenty of mates in the Hunter and is well thought of by Rick Stone. Wouldn't take much arm twisting to return home I reckon...and he's never been in trouble with the law!