Spot on. As good as Kaye and Moore have been and are for us neither is the best passer of the ball. Maybe it will improve slightly next year with Carlisle coming in but will it improve enough.

With the names mentioned so far it would seem SG is looking at players who have had some SL experience and know what the game is all about and what is expected of them which should be a good thing to get us back on track, as ever always hopeful.

So who are we linked with then....

Gilmore - HB
Broughton - Wing
Brearley - SR
Garside - SR
Carlisle - H

wasnt there also talk of Wildie? suppose that wouldnt make too much sense if carlisle was coming in.

still needing a centre, couple of forwards and Stand off for me.....

(and a Fullback actually but i assume that Grix might fill that spot)

I'm never convinced that is the right way to go. There's a reason they are not wanted by SL teams, would prefer to get the best players on their way up, ie. the best of Batley, Dewsbury, Swinton, L1 etc.

I agree, young and hungry is the way to go not the merry go round of players nearing the end of their careers. All teams need the older heads but on the whole I'd have lads who are looking to make a future in the game. Up The Fax!

Yes I know what you mean and getting the balance right is one of many challenges the coach has to face in recruitment.

The players we are talking about and many others were at one time on their way up when the SL clubs first took a look and them and gave them a chance but for whatever reason they weren't retained.

Who's to say the current "on the up players" would be any different if they came to Fax and if they were how long would it be before SL came calling, eg: Rawsthorne and Butler.

Apart from SL, Fax are just a Championship club in and among some very good rivals and it will be a tough ask even to attract the better players at our level, those who we manage to, I'll settle for that at the moment to be honest the state we are in.

That's my worry. A few years ago we were much more attractive to players from Bulls, Dewsbury, Batley, Swinton, York, Sheffield, and even Fev and Leigh. I dont see any players at those clubs being too desperate to join Fax at the moment.

Exactly, an average club is attractive at best to average players and then it’s likely down to who pays what and considering we’re reportable skint...............

Fax's latest accounts for y/e November 2018 have recently been filed at Companies House which showed they made a loss of £463 and are insolvent to the tune of £179k.

If Keal Carlile's coming to you, he's a good Championship 9 (well he was, I haven't seen him this year). Quite a few Fev fans were very disappointed when he left Fev, as was Keal, but some of that is because he is a local lad. Has no problem fizzing the ball out from dummy half and decent at setting up attacking plays.

But what state are we in? I don't know. I'm still waiting to hear details of the q&a meeting.

Precisely Hudds.
Overall. On the premise good news travels fast and ours still hasn’t left the office =.

However on current playing standards we don’t need a club announcement to tell us that.

On thread and the topic of player recruitment for next season we are probably in a worse starting position / state than we have been for years.

SG has copped for a hybrid side in decline left over from both KH and RM and has a total rebuild not only of personal but playing styles and players attitudes and I for one don’t envy him.

He is aware of it and will be trying to sort it out, whether he has the funds and ability to do it is another question but we have to give the man a chance.

I understand that being 9000 miles away I will never get the 'inside track information', how do people know who is being looked at, offered terms, ect when there has not been any communication about the Q and A session made public, ( not on any platform I can access).
I know that with with players being part time they are more contactable, but do they know? are they in the loop of potential signings? does S G have an open forum and ask the remaining guys who they would like? very democratic if he does, very unprofessional if players are making public statements, or is it all paper talk, has someone got a microphone attached to S M evesdropping his every word? if so can you attach one to the Directors meeting room so we all know what is going on? Halifax Panthers ? thought we had done away with silly names.
I am all for moving forward, but a rebrand? are Fax the 'dulls' in disguise?

This whole 'side in decline' is a misnomer. It's a convenient excuse. Yes, some of the playing group are headed over to the other side of the '30' hill but still cannot masquerade for the fundamental reason why we have won 1 in 11 / 5 out of the last 17; When I see Grix comment on a total lack of confidence, it doesn't fill me with optimism when one of of his duties is to motivate. I don't want to signal SG out for unwarranted criticism as he has little no experience and little to no apprenticeship. (Leading on the field and coaching are fundamentally different). I will say again, he needs an experienced head / mentor to allow him to build his own style of delivery. It's blind faith with Grix next year whether or not we improve. There is more than enough quality and experience in the current team but the harsh reality is that he has been unable to stem our terminal decline since the Bradford game which either demonstrates that the players have a.) been unable to adjust to his style b.) SG has been unsuccessful in identifying what core issues the team had. Pretty confident that when prospective coaches have interviews, there is some discussion about what is going to be done differently......

Of course we need a rebrand. Times in the entertaining world have changed. We need match day to be exciting and different - some entertainment gong on the grounds behind the South Stand, for example. Incentives to get people going.

Currently we have boring cheer leaders (bless them for their efforts) and half time "entertainment" involves some geezers racing each other on the pitch (god give me strength!). And with sub standard rugby following, well worth 19 quid

(NOT!)

How can the “side in decline” be a misnomer and then be said to have been in “terminal decline” since the Bradford game?
The “decline” or seeds of it were sown long before the recent Bradford match and even before the winter game at Odsal, well before Grix got the job and there are many factors involved.
As for SG he wouldn’t have been my choice because as you say he has no first hand experience but that decision has already been taken.
This thread is about recruitment and not the rights and wrongs of Grix appointment.
Back on track and connecting a few dots if it would have been wiser to bring in an experience coach then I can see why he has looked at bringing in some experienced players to make up part of his side.

The point being that the side was not in decline. There was nothing to suggest it was the last 4 seasons. Saying it was / is. Makes it convenient for some people.

Maybe not so much in decline but certainly in need of a freshen up. Its rare for good teams to make no significant changes to the team over a span of 4 years but for whatever reason that is what we tried to do. The players may be best mates off the field or whatever but they had gone stale on it really through no fault of their own either.

Maybe decline is the wrong word to use here. In my opinion Marshall got pretty lucky - he inherited the a very good team from Rhino and got them playing together and did well in his first season, and last season it was only the 'implosions' at Leigh and Fev that opened the door for 'Fax to get in the play offs. Everyone but the coach it seemed could see where the weaknesses in the team have been for the past couple of seasons, and when RM had full control of his recruitment he struggled - seasons 2 and 4 of his tenure showed this. Coupled with the spine of the team growing older together there was always going to be an off season where a refresh was needed.

Except that's not true. Leigh missed out on top 4 because of their abysmal start to the season and Fev paid the price for having a lack of half backs through injury and (stupid) suspension for the key game against London. Of the last 8 regular season games Leigh won 7, Fev 6 and 'Fax 6.

Why is it not true? Leigh imploded at the start of the season, and Fev at various points through the year for whatever reason!! Either way - Fax, and Marshall - got lucky!!

All teams have good and bad spells throughout any season. You finish where you deserve to finish. This is why top should go up and bottom should go down. Any play-offs after that should be a bonus.

Not often I agree with you 100% but I do here Pete,the playoffs as with most things are an Aussie concept to prolong the end of the season.
Toronto finished top, deservedly so and should be promoted,we at Leigh are in the playoffs but for me we are not good enough to challenge Toronto,maybe next season if Derek stays and backs us again.
Hopefully Fax can sort out your problems, which at the moment seems to be a lot of in house disagreements,your Board mean well but I doubt have any real cash to invest,and your League position doesn’t help, as well as low crowds, at Leigh we very rarely get under 3,000 for home games, maybe near 4,000 this Sunday.I still think you will win on Sunday, Rochdale are the weakest team in Comp.

Well it is now and if you look at what I said I was comparing where we are now to that of the recent past but even then.

Yes back to back top 4 finishes were an amazing achievement and that's where the illusion of all is well starts.

You have to kick on and build on the progress made such as by removing any known weaknesses.

Just as one example, especially last year, it was known that we had a problem in attack that was linked to the halves but we had good defense.

From the first preseason games it was clear that the halves / attack problem not only remained but had got worse, both Murrell and BJ were carrying injuries and were not fit.

When key players such as your halves aren't exactly setting the team on fire in attack when they are fit then they aren't going to do so when their not fit or sat in the stand injured.

During this period RM had several opportunities to replace either one or both of them but did nothing other than to give the fringe halve back lads an early chance but again it was obvious they were not up to it and were eventually moved on leaving us back to square one.

This problem then spilled over into the regular season and not only that, inexplicably our once outstanding defense had disappeared without a trace and we were leaking points for fun from all over the park.

Our halves were poor, our pack was being smashed and run over and our backs were doing a rendition of the key stone cops headless chicken routine.

At this time RM said, yes there is a problem but we are slow starters and we won't be anything like up to pace until March / April!!!!!

There is a reason why he had to move on and we are where we are, poor recruitment, key players getting older and carrying injuries and a side just coming to the end of it's lifespan as a team unit.

These are the hard facts as we stand as of now and if that doesn't constitute a side in decline that needs a major rebuild involving playing standards and players attitudes I don't know what does, but that's just mho.

Correct from start to finish.