Considering he'd spent his UK career in the Championship I actually thought Royston went pretty well for us

I never had a problem with Iestyn Harris as a player. For sure, after his spell in union he wasn't what he was at Leeds but I don't remember any particular lack of effort or 'esprit de corps'. He was a reasonable player but was well overpaid by Caisley due to his ill fated desire to P-off Gary Hetherington. That is not something you can blame the payer for - if he'd asked me to play for that money I'd have said, "yes please", rather than what I should have said, which was "actually, have you really seen me play"?

With Solomona, you got what you got. He was a one-off in many ways and would do some incredible stuff at times but as was pointed out above, circumstances changed after he was signed and in that season we really needed a workhorse but got a show pony. Unfortunate but not his fault, imo.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Can I throw Dave Halley in? Pace to burn, could tackle (remember Paleasina trying to run over him only to be flattened) but never seemed to kick on?

I was never that convinced Halley was as good as everyone wanted him to be. However he was a better option than bringing back McAvoy which was what happened at the time.

He has still got them twinkle toes. Season before last as we got promoted he was fantastic for us at stand off, unfortunately knee troubles again curtailed him last season.

At Bradford I dont think Mick Potter knew exactly how old he was when coming back from injury as it seemed after he found out Dave was at Keighley not long after

Danny Sculthorpe. Absolute Gem of a buy.

Know what the worst thing about Solomona being disappointing was? The price it took to get him to the club. They paid money plus Brett Ferres for him. Brett Ferres who hasn't gone on to have a bad career. Sure he's looking a little podgy nowadays, but he's been superb for a number of clubs.

Jeremy Corbyn obviously forgot this transfer when he said May's Brexit deal is the worst deal in history.

Marc Herbert was mesmerisingly slow. I remember watching him against Salford away, and you really had to marvel how a professional athlete in his 20s could run slower than Douglas Bader.

Didn’t Herbert quit the sport after his season with us?

He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.

Quote ="josefw"He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.'" He is mentioned on the Canberra website as a former legend https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2018/09 ... ity-match/

Quote ="josefw"He took a year out travelling I think. Returned to Australia and played in the lower leagues, he was in a final a couple of years back I remember reading, was curious to see what he was up to.'" He is mentioned on the Canberra website as a former legend https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2018/09 ... ity-match/

Not sure you can go on the way Aussies recognise "superstars".

Mario Fenech was also regarded as a big "super rugby player" in Aus and when I read it, I assumed there must be two Mario Fenechs as the description didn't match the useless, bone idle, waste of space who used the name at Odsal. If I remember he only came over to work off a ban he'd received in Australia and you could really tell....

I have a vague recollection of one game where he played really well. I forget the opposition but think it might have been one of the better teams. It absolutely threw it down and the Odsal pitch was total mess which slowed every player on the pitch down to a snail's pace. Which of course suited Marc Herbert as everyone else was suddenly as slow as he was, which is why I think he played so well. Bringing people down to his level and all that.

I think the writing was on the wall for Marc Herbert pre-season. They went on warm weather training and bumped in to some Aussie F1 driver he knew from his youth. They invited him to an opposed training session or something, and Marc was reported to have been roundly outplayed.

It says on wikipedia that Marc Herbert ended up as a paceman for snail races.

Taking some of the suggestions, we have quite a team who never quite made the grade...

1 Oscar Thomas
2 Karl Pryce
3 Dane Nielsen
4 Toa Kohe Love
5 Tame Tupou
6 Marc Herbert
7 Matt Orford
8 Danny Sculthorpe
9 Julian Rinaldi
10 Epalahame Lauaki
11 Glenn Hall
12 Michael Worrincy
13 David Solomona

14 Shawn Edwards
15 Garreth Carvell
16 Jean-Phillipe Baille
17 Dave Halley

I've thrown a few in there myself. The likes of Dane Nielsen, Julian Rinaldi, Lauaki, Gaz Carvell and JP Baille all stand out as players who could have offered much much more (some actually turning out would have been an improvement)!!!

Some good shouts there. Oscar Thomas a classic example, very occasionally v good but mostly poor.

Herbert gets a few mentions but despite him being the slowest halfback ever he had more try assists than any other player in the squad that season. A bit of an indictment on the rest!

Some poor recruitment choices there in the likes of Lauaki. Thought Sculthorpe was unlucky with injury. They never even flattered to deceive.

I don't think Worrincy flattered to deceive? Maybe there should be a thread along the lines of 'How the hell did they end up in a pro RL team?'

He never, in any way, shape or form looked for a minute like he knew how to play the game. To this day I can't fathom how we installed a turnstile in the middle of the park and thought it was a good idea?

Yeah I think the thread morphed into a "worst ever" rather than flattered to deceive which suggests they had a few good games but largely didn't perform.

And some of them were ok at other teams before & after us. They just flattered to deceive at Bulls tbf.

And are we mentioning some of those players by name now? At least one of them is "he who shall not be named" lol

I remember Worrincy having 1 absolutely blinding game (Saints away IIRC).

But I agree with you, there were quite a few players from that period who I wondered why/how we ever ended up signing them.

On the other hand, we also made some signings which many of us on here wrote off, but actually turned out to be decent pieces of business (Sibbit, Raynor, Gale, Sidlow).

Surprised Matty Blythe hasn't been mentioned to be honest

He was one of a subset of players - we signed them as centres, and they were fairly good centres at their previous club, then they joined Bulls, their speed vanished & they became fairly poor 2nd row men.