Recruitment

[First Try Tickle]

Well after listening to IL and KR talk about recruitment on Tuesday, I now realize just how hard it must be to not only keep under the salary cap, but also keep all the players happy. They spoke about new recruits and that most of the coaching staff had a say, but it was down to them for the final decision and the contracts offered.

There are so many posts on here that say we need a new centre, stand off, Hooker and maybe another prop, but to bring these in we have to let others go, and if its to be a big name then a few would have to go. With such a varied opinion on here, how do you decide who goes and who stays.

IL mentioned a good point about KPP. He is on a low contract at the moment but will soon have an agent who will then be pushing for a big increase especially after the impact he has made. So do we pay this, or risk losing him. If we pay it, then who do we let go ?

I'm sure this has been the case with most the younger players and they all probably needed new contracts at the same time. If we decide to let a couple go, then the stick would be flying when they play well against us in a couple of years time.

It must be hard to be Radders, and the fans forum pointed this out and left most fans who had loads of questions to ask, keeping their hands down.

[nathan_rugby]

We find ourselves in no different position to other clubs though.

Upgrading existing contracts
Players leaving
Replacing players
Promoting from youth

[Barney841]

Well after listening to IL and KR talk about recruitment on Tuesday, I now realize just how hard it must be to not only keep under the salary cap, but also keep all the players happy. They spoke about new recruits and that most of the coaching staff had a say, but it was down to them for the final decision and the contracts offered.

There are so many posts on here that say we need a new centre, stand off, Hooker and maybe another prop, but to bring these in we have to let others go, and if its to be a big name then a few would have to go. With such a varied opinion on here, how do you decide who goes and who stays.

IL mentioned a good point about KPP. He is on a low contract at the moment but will soon have an agent who will then be pushing for a big increase especially after the impact he has made. So do we pay this, or risk losing him. If we pay it, then who do we let go ?

I'm sure this has been the case with most the younger players and they all probably needed new contracts at the same time. If we decide to let a couple go, then the stick would be flying when they play well against us in a couple of years time.

It must be hard to be Radders, and the fans forum pointed this out and left most fans who had loads of questions to ask, keeping their hands down.

Other clubs manage.
My questions would be then are we overpaying certain players? Should some players be let go and hopefully give someone from the academy a chance?

[Wintergreen]

Well after listening to IL and KR talk about recruitment on Tuesday, I now realize just how hard it must be to not only keep under the salary cap, but also keep all the players happy. They spoke about new recruits and that most of the coaching staff had a say, but it was down to them for the final decision and the contracts offered.

There are so many posts on here that say we need a new centre, stand off, Hooker and maybe another prop, but to bring these in we have to let others go, and if its to be a big name then a few would have to go. With such a varied opinion on here, how do you decide who goes and who stays.

IL mentioned a good point about KPP. He is on a low contract at the moment but will soon have an agent who will then be pushing for a big increase especially after the impact he has made. So do we pay this, or risk losing him. If we pay it, then who do we let go ?

I'm sure this has been the case with most the younger players and they all probably needed new contracts at the same time. If we decide to let a couple go, then the stick would be flying when they play well against us in a couple of years time.

It must be hard to be Radders, and the fans forum pointed this out and left most fans who had loads of questions to ask, keeping their hands down.

It's called "Running a professional sports club".

It's been around for ages.........................

[Charriots Offiah]

We find ourselves in no different position to other clubs though.

Upgrading existing contracts
Players leaving
Replacing players
Promoting from youth

Exactly. Saints have just renewed the contracts of half their squad and are still recruiting heavily. It is about getting the balance right and constantly looking to improve your squad.

As for KPP’s contract we have money available under the cap for 2022. The following year will see a number of players leave and that such swell the club’s coffers. I don’t for one minute believe that we are anywhere near the salary cap limit for 2022. It is likely that Hastings, Gildart, Clubb, Tommy, Bullock, Clark and Manfredi will not be around next season and it looks like we have signed Ellis, Mago, Miski and Thornley as well as some players getting a contract upgrade. There is no way the incomings are anywhere near the outgoings from a salary perspective, don’t let them con you!

[doc]

We find ourselves in no different position to other clubs though.

Upgrading existing contracts
Players leaving
Replacing players
Promoting from youth

Exactly. Saints have just renewed the contracts of half their squad and are still recruiting heavily. It is about getting the balance right and constantly looking to improve your squad.

As for KPP’s contract we have money available under the cap for 2022. The following year will see a number of players leave and that such swell the club’s coffers. I don’t for one minute believe that we are anywhere near the salary cap limit for 2022. It is likely that Hastings, Gildart, Clubb, Tommy, Bullock, Clark and Manfredi will not be around next season and it looks like we have signed Ellis, Mago, Miski and Thornley as well as some players getting a contract upgrade. There is no way the incomings are anywhere near the outgoings from a salary perspective, don’t let them con you!

According to the fans forum we have budgeted for another half back. After that there is only 75k left after any existing contracts have been upgraded for 2022.

[pedro]

heard its Mason Leno

[DaveO]

Well after listening to IL and KR talk about recruitment on Tuesday, I now realize just how hard it must be to not only keep under the salary cap, but also keep all the players happy. They spoke about new recruits and that most of the coaching staff had a say, but it was down to them for the final decision and the contracts offered.

There are so many posts on here that say we need a new centre, stand off, Hooker and maybe another prop, but to bring these in we have to let others go, and if its to be a big name then a few would have to go. With such a varied opinion on here, how do you decide who goes and who stays.

IL mentioned a good point about KPP. He is on a low contract at the moment but will soon have an agent who will then be pushing for a big increase especially after the impact he has made. So do we pay this, or risk losing him. If we pay it, then who do we let go ?

I'm sure this has been the case with most the younger players and they all probably needed new contracts at the same time. If we decide to let a couple go, then the stick would be flying when they play well against us in a couple of years time.

It must be hard to be Radders, and the fans forum pointed this out and left most fans who had loads of questions to ask, keeping their hands down.

It's called "Running a professional sports club".

It's been around for ages.........................

Exactly! I picked up on this having just read the transcript. Here is the quote:

This is probably a little bit of education – we offer a traditional contract when a player comes to the end of his Academy contract; it’s a two-year contract with a one-year option. Most players get that kind of deal. After that third year, we then have a choice to make. Do we let them go or do we pay them what they what they should be paid on an open market. These players have all got managers now and the managers are trying to get the best for them. We’ve opted to pay them what they’re worth. So, if you look at the likes of Ethan Havard, Liam Byrne, Morgan Smithies, Oliver Partington. We’ve chosen to keep them on and develop them more so in two to three to four years’ time, they’ll be the corner stones of our pack.

Now, I’d like to ask you the question, is that the right thing to do? To retain these lads? Or should or should we be letting them go knowing that we we can’t afford to pay them? What would you do there? Do we do we retain them or let them go? We’ve got conversations that we will need to have with Kai Pearce-Paul soon, you know, Kai’s obviously set the Super League on fire this year, but his manager will come knocking very, very soon. And you will still get the same Kai Pearce-Paul, but his salary might be four times more. So, if I’m sat where you are from a Wiganer’s point of view, you don’t see the fact that we might have to pay him three or four times more. You just see the one player and that’s the challenges that we’ve got to overcome.

This is just mind boggling. It's not just a player like KPP who looks a cut above but according to this we have at least four players who they decided to "pay them what they what they should be paid on an open market".

And the net result has been? The unbalanced squad you see and senior players who aren't up to much.

[nathan_rugby]

The club cannot boast about the quality of the academy / production line of youngsters and then complain when their academy contracts finish and they need to manage things and fit in their new first team contracts.

Cannot have it both ways.

Granted the more players we bring through, the more decisions that have to be made and based on the above transcript you could interpret we have offered favourable contracts to too many forwards all at a similar time who are at a similar phase of development.
Granted it may work abs they may become corner stone of the pack, but on current viewings they look lost, low on confidence and burned out. So it’s not going to be worth it in the end.

[EagleEyePie]

I think a question that needs to be asked in regards to Radlinski's comments on 'paying the young players what they are worth' is whether their worth is being judged correctly and whether the club has indirectly inflated their asking price.

Take the props he gives as examples; Byrne, Havard and Partington - he mentioned the club has chosen to stick with their development so they become the cornerstones of our pack in the future. Right now they are the cornerstones of our current pack. The fact that poor recruitment has led to these players becoming first team regulars has surely increased what their agents expect them to be paid. Their agents can point to the number of games they've been playing recently and say this player is a first team regular and should be paid as such.

It's also worth asking the question as to whether it's value for money to invest so much time and money in developing our home grown props. Havard looks like an exceptional talent so I would agree he's one worth investing in. With the likes of Byrne and Partington though you have to ask the question - how good are they likely to become in the next 3 or 4 years and would we be able to replace that with signings from elsewhere? I think the answer to that question is yes, we probably would. Most props only hit their peak in their mid-to-late twenties or early 30's. Why would our young props be any different just because we've overplayed them?

Just look at pretty much every club in Super League and see the make-up of their front row and you'll see just how many of their props have been signings rather than homegrown players. And a lot of the top props have only really hit their peak later in their careers. So how long would we be waiting on our young props to become good enough to be pack leaders? If Byrne becomes the best prop in Super League when he turns 28 is it actually worth waiting 6 years for that to happen? It feels like putting so much faith in the young middles is a gamble with a very low chance of paying off.

And sticking with forwards but moving on to back rowers, I can understand why we might be willing to have more faith in the youngsters in this position because back rowers seem to reach their peak earlier than props. Our young back rowers have generally been among our best and most consistent performers this season and we just seem to always have good back rowers to bring in. So with that in mind, and given Radlinski's comments about the difficulties or recruitment and retention, I find it even more puzzling that the club are seemingly so keen on keeping Willie Isa at the club.

We have just one position in the entire team where we actually have more cover than we need and more first team players than we could possibly play all at the same time and that's back row. We have a back row forward off-contract who hasn't featured there at all this season and yet despite the apparent lack of funds available for other signings and despite it being the position we have the most depth in the club seem to think keeping Isa is better than using that wage to bring in more quality in the positions we don't have the same depth in.