No but them where is it written that is the choice we'd have to make? Warrington signed Widdop and have Clarke and have a good pack. They have Austin as well.The booze hound wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:46 amWould you have a top class hooker at the expense of Hastings or G.Burgess?Wigan_forever1985 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:24 amIn my opinion he has improved but hes still a way off what you would consider a top player in his position.ancientnloyal wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:44 am DaveO
Would you say Powell has improved this season despite 5 games in?
Clark
Roby (even at 34)
Mcshane
All easily ahead of him
id probably argue you could add to that list
Wood
Houghton
Leeming
We on other hand gave Clubb a two year deal when under the old ML type of regime he's another who would have gone by now. As would Lockers.
It seems to me the club has plenty of money tied up in players who should have left/retired by now to be able to afford a top 9 and Hastings and G.Burgess.
Our recruitment and retention policy has had me confused for quite a while now. There has been a distinct lack of succession planning for Lockers who should have retired already. The fact TL is going around again is another eyebrow raiser.
On the recruitment side it often seems opportunistic rather than planned. All of Greenwood, French, G Burgess and Hardaker ended up here because something went wrong elsewhere or they were surplus to requirements.
This doesn't mean they are bad players. Far from it but Greenwood is a left sided back row when we already had Faz and French's being now seen as a 1 has meant Hardaker in the centres when we bought two in Hankinson and Bibby. When Gildard is back that means we end up with four first team centres assuming French stays at 1.
Sometimes this works like when Greenwood and Bateman formed a great back row when Faz was out but that seemed more like luck than judgement. The rest of it seems haphazard and has resulted in us being seemingly overloaded in more than one position. That is in my opinion why we can't afford to go for a top 9. Not the wages of Hastings and G.Burgess.