https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league

Exactly lets hope that process has started mate.

That's been a long-standing criticism, particularly obvious WRT signing NRL players. Having said that, the earliest signing I can remember in a while was Lolohea (signed July last year). That may not be the best case study to use....

Think the landscapes changed with signing players from the NRL, once over you looked at the list of out of contract players and tried to get the best you could from the list. These days the out of contract list is largly irrelivent, good players are given early releases from contracts all the time because a lot of NRL clubs are in a mess with there cap. Hurrell, Merrin, Ava are all early releases from contracts. Think in the current climate it can be more beneficial to wait a bit longer.

This is true. But only after you cover the absolute needs you have. When you are desperate for certain positions and type of player, then only planning can accomodate that.

On Ava..im happy with the signing. No nonsense, go forward prop whos known for his good defence, being able to do big minutes and making few errors, all things the Cronulla coach mentioned when they signed him last year. He's not a star by any means but a prop who... hits it up hard, plays good minutes, defends well and makes few errors, it should be music to our ears!!

That depends on the quality player, in a perfect world, yeah, the better players are available early and you get your man. I think most people agreed that was a big need, we waited and got Hurrell, who despite his errors, is miles better than anyone we could of got off the out of contract list of available players earlier in the process. As long as theyr here for start of pre season then thats fine. Theres a bit of risk involved but with the way the NRL is at the min, theres a good chance of getting a good player in a position of need that a club will release that might not be available earlier in the process imo.

Ava obviously hasnt been here for start of pre season but that was down to us needing to shed players before making a move for someone.

Whilst its good to be able to pounce if a quality player becomes available, planning is vital for some positions. If you want a halfback, surely you'd want to have a look at what sort of halfback you want?

That's why I don't understand how in any universe Lolohea came up as a solution for us at 6. Or why he was given 3 years. He wasn't a quality player suddenly becoming available, or a star playmaker coming off contract. The only thing I can think is that we were still in bargain bin mode, not understanding that things were moving on and other clubs were starting to spend again?

Loloheas a perfect example, we seen him as a halfback, pounced early, ballsed it right up, later in the process Hastings and Drinkwater are on the market, both much more the type of half we need.

Im not saying our transfer policy should be...Wait until the last minute all the time, im saying that these days, being slow out the blocks, as we are usually are, isnt as much as a problem as it used to be and often leads to getting a better player than we could earlier in the recruiting process.

Again, in an ideal world, the Widdop to Wolves deal would be the way , top quality NRL player, available early, get him signed. Unfortunately the better players often dont become available until much later on in the process.

Warrington with Widdop and Austin. Wow. They'll do some damage providing Widdop can stay fit

Yep major balls up there. Big mistake by Sinfield. We were desperate for someone like Hastings or Drinkwater. Even brough would have done for a year to help with transition

Wasn't the deal for Lolohea already done before Sinfield came in?

I think so

Yeah it was

Ah my apologies. Balls up by GH thenicon_wink.gif

We announced Kevin Sinfield had returned to the club on 6th of July and then the Lolohea signing on the 10th of July. So Sinfield was back at Leeds, but in his 1st week. Strange timing really, I think he might have been a panic buy after we missed out on Blake Austin.

It was agreed weeks before the 10th July. Just announced then.

Hastings was released by Manly on the 26th June. Even if the Tui deal was agreed by GH before then we still should have gone for Hastings as we desperately needed an organiser at the time and we could have signed him on short term deal as Salford did.

Poor show from GH and possibly Sinfield too as he must have been in talks with GH for some time before he started and could have suggested going for Hastings. Great player though Sinfield was I am not convinced about his management capabilities or judgement. He is the one pushing for Sutcliffe and Ferres as captain plus other 2nd rate signings.

Oh I agree with that. Just saying Lolohea wasn’t a Sinfield mistake. Actually think we would have gone for Hastings had Sinfield had way.

Wouldn't disagree but Sinfield's appointment would seem to be part of a long term strategy, presumably under the guidance of GH. It really shouldn't surprise anyone if his judgement and leadership skills aren't 100% right now, given that it's such a different role to anything he's done in the past. A bit like cutting a young player some slack, sometimes folk have to make mistakes and learn from them.

GH may well have agreed a deal with Lolohea weeks before his signing was announced, but he would have been talking to Sinfield weeks before his appointment was announced also. I don't believe that the signing would have gone ahead without Sinfields agreement, indeed his comments at the time suggested that he was delighted with Lolohea's signing.

I don’t either, and wasn’t suggesting that. However, it would be a pretty poor first job for someone in that role to cancel an agreement already made. Not sure you would have any goodwill going forward once that message got out.

Tui could still prove to be an excellent signing. However his best position is at fullback where he shows real class. His linking into the attacking line and superb passing have already created a bundle of tries in just two outings at fullback. OK he is overweight but this need not be a long term concern with the right management. He also is not the best tackler but neither was Barba and he was the runaway Man of Steel. So I for one would like to see him have an extended run at fullback.

FB is definitely his best position, can't see him scoring breakaway tries from his own 20 like Barba did though, unless he's given oxygen on half way.

The problem is we have Walker, Golding and Lolohea who are all full backs, but are weak in other areas.