EagleEyePie wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 6:55 pm
Can't say I'm surprised that people are complaining about this. It's par for the course these days that everything has to be met with talk of how terrible things are at the home of the reigning Champions.
Has anyone looked at the off contract list recently? There's barely any talent to be found in there, particularly in the front row, but Mitch Clark does seem like a decent player and Cas fans seem to rate him very highly, which is promising because they have some bloody good forwards in their side.
No, he isn't a Liam Watts, Chris Hill, Luke Thompson etc, although there was a time when the likes of Watts and Hill weren't at the level they are now. Good players don't just suddenly exist so sometimes you've got to be smart and work out which ones are just starting to reach their peak and could become top signings.
Most top class forwards are under contract. The club doesn't seem to be in the position to pay out transfer fees. That leaves us in the same position as a lot of other clubs in fighting to find the best that's out there. Clark could well fit that category.
I agree with Exiled Wiganer, it's hard to get a sense of how good the recruitment will be until it's all done. What we're lacking at the moment is a top quality prop and depth in the front and back row. If the club just signs one big name forward they haven't solved the lack of depth. The club should be looking at several different players and Clark's name is hopefully just one of several targets.
Besides, for those wanting us to sign players from the NRL - just look how Frank-Paul Nu'uausala turned out. Or Roy Asotasi. Or Keith Galloway. Ashton Sims. Anthony Laffranchi. Luke Douglas. Those were not top class Super League props by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd say the best Super League props tend to be the home grown ones, with a few exceptions.
You do realise the above is a damning indictment of the clubs ability to recruit top players? It's just a long list of excuses.
We are supposed to have this great production line of players which ought to mean players we sign from outside are a cut above. Not average joes. When we are reduced to trading players within superleague or recruiting championship players we are headed for mid table mediocrity. This is what mid table sides do.
This isn't to say there aren't some good players in SL but we are not prising the best of them away from their clubs are we? Wire are doing to us recruitment wise what we used to do to them in years gone by, securing players like Widdop.
We also have developed a habit of only spotting players after they have been recruited by other teams. We started this with Green, looks like we will do the same with Hastings and now this player. When are we going to find our own? Do we actually have any scouts worth the name or contacts down under?
As to players not alway making it, well that has applied to plenty of recruits we have made from within SL. We have had a bit of habit of recruiting players who have played well against us in a game and then they have been poor e.g. Tauati. I can't believe you even mentioned FPN. He played exactly how Wane wanted him to play and that wasn't to his strengths. Why we recruited him given Wane's style of forward play I will never know.