I'd agree that the knack for spotting a gem seems to have left the club wih Caisley, as the sister thread I started pretty much demonstrates. Some of SM's signings did repay his faith - Menzies, Heath, BK, Semi, Morro, Scruton, but not enough.

Some of the signings we thought were far too low quality at the time of signing turned out to be very solid players IMO such as James Evans, Marcus St. Hilaire.

As per, spot on.

Recruitment in recent times, shambolic.

Lots of common denominators.

It's clear where the lack of steering, judgement and direction has emanated from.

Sorry, I thought it was widely known. Cant remember his name just that he was a prop with another Yorks team (not Leeds).

It's nothing to do with Francis Stephenson

No.

Who is it? I'm oll oyt of ideas.

Yeah philgee I mention richie and stephen!!

It is alright praising caisley but it does alarm me how his slight faults are brushed over. His willingness to go over the cap as chairman who could have said no- was he not super league chair when salary cap came in?? scruples a plenty.
His willingness to tout our young talent and sell to the highest bidder whilst still having a major share in this club.
Again he agreed with nobby to sign harris (a solicitor unable to read small print) even though he knew it may cause ruptions due to his huge salary and lose home grown stars.

3-4 years time these stop gap signings will be coming to an end- youth will have experience and our squad will have built some stability we need to be patient.

Indeed.

He was a rough and ready prop who the club thought they could make into a SL player. Based on his subsequent career he was no great loss. Not the real McCoy so to speak.

Playing union in Dubai ?

Letting Hanley go?

Er...it was rather more complex than that. We went over the cap because the RFL ruled that image rights paid to Harris's company by a so-called unconnected third party - a device used widely, it seems (see, e.g. "Sculthorpe; Gillette"icon_wink.gif were subsequently deemed to nevertheless count under the cap. For reasons that only those party to the affair will be fully au fait with. Even though arrangements like Scully's were seemingly fine.

Coincidentally, we were in the middle of the mother of all legal disputes with Leeds over Harris at the time, and of course the conspiracy theorists asserted that the RFL was at that time the enforcement arm of the Leeds club. What ARE these conspiracy theorists like, eh...?

Did we have any choice?

Nope he was desperate to go to Wigan. In hindsight we perhaps should have held out for more cash but we did get Phil Ford too. The less said about Steve Donlan the better.

Shame we spent that cash on Terry Holmes.

Letting Deacon go? Could he have been groomed as a potential future head coach at Odsal?

We let Deacon go because we thought we had a better replacement in Orford. That just didn't turn out right.

Give over. He was poor during the McNamara era. No amount of cameo appearances for a dominant Wigan side can change that - even with the benefit of hindsight.

Orford at least looked the part on the field in that era (sometimes).

Who says he won't return as coach? Isn't Potter supposed to be having an English successor? The benefit of time spent at Wigan under Maguire could be quite valuable if he did return.

Greg Bird??
How has this been missed? Announcing his signing without paperwork probably destroyed a lot of hope and confidence we had at the time!

Probably placated the masses on here who were so much against the signing of the guy despite his case not even being heard at the time.

Quite a number of them failed to say the same when we re-signed Reardon however, which is odd.

On that point, Reardon re-signing is another complete heard scratcher.

would that require a cattle prod?

Ha ha. Well spotted.

Didn't this fall through because he failed to get a British work permit? Strangely the French weren't so fussy.

Indeed.

And that followed Hetherington making such a huge song and dance about the disgraceful signing in the media that it made the national press, and I would not be at all surprised if such vitriol did not in some way influence the stance taken towards him and other RL players.

The same Hetherington, btw, who was strangely silent when the frogs showed they did not share the same opinions. All he could say, IIRC, was something to the effect of "I've already given my views"?

That was why IMO it was justice when Eastwood was subsequently delayed by the same process.

Lest we forget...

Orford really messed you guys around. What should have been the player around which your team was built disappeared at short notice - certainly not giving you enough time to sort a replacement. Had he stayed and been fit, you'd be a lot better side. The issues with him weren't the Bulls fault either.

Anyway, if its any consolation it looks like he's had a similar impact on the Raiders this season and his NRL career is likely to be over.

Its scant consolation, and I'd not wish that little shìt on the Raiders or anyone else.

But from everything I have seen and heard he, and that sack of rat droppings of a manager of his, can rot in the darkest pits of hell as far as I am concerned.