My point is a general one, we can't dismiss players because they come from Wakefield, we aren't better than them any longer

Whilst that is demonstrably true, if we were trying to find an SL club to emulate, I think we could come up with a better one....

The trouble is, a Leeds, Wigan or Saints are not going to be casting off their better players and if they do, they're not going to sign for the likes of us

There is a difference between emulating them and just disregarding parleys as they are from wakefield. There seems a train of thought that we should aim higher than anyone who has played for wakefield

I think the issue is that if you sign players from the bottom of the league then that's where you'll end up as those players may not have the right attitude after spending seasons on the receiving end of a kicking every week

Roofaldo has it right. Smith’s trying to improve the culture at Wakefield so do we really want the players he thinks aren’t up to it? I realise that beggars can’t be choosers and it’s hard to attract real talent when you’re in the championship and haven’t got loadamoney but if we don’t aim high then we only guarantee we’ll fall short.

I hope if we sign Hall he makes me eat my words but I don’t think he’s good enough.

This is true.

But, under the current set up I would rather be at the bottom of SL than where we are in the Championship.

expects to get the 'better' players from such clubs. If we genuinely aspire to be a club on the rise, our recruitment policy should be simple: only sign a player if he improves the squad. The 'better' players form the clubs you mention are going to be out of reach though, I'm afraid.

I get it now, let's sign players from the top four clubs in SL, they will be available, within our budget and desperate for a crack at another league. I always assumed NRL but now relalise it's just the Championship

It’s not so black and white. For instance last year we signed Gareth O’Brien on loan before we allowed him to go back on it. Perhaps a player like him might be available for a year? Someone like say Declan Patton or Ryan Hampshire etc would excite me more. They have the potential to improve, have showed flashes of good play at a much higher level. If on a season long loan they could be a real plus and arguably better than a player cut by the relegation favourites who’s failed at other clubs.

I expect we’re scouring everywhere for players that will improve the squad and aren’t party to the inner workings of Lowes and Ferres’s minds. However looking at our rather bloated squad we seem to be going for quantity rather than quality again despite being told we’d be leaner in 2016. It’s hard to see what the rationale is when you just see the end result.

There's little doubt we have the quantity fof the pack but I think that we have also gone for 'tried and tested' rather than untried like last year.Maybe the quality we desire is not available at this time and that isn't that big a deal yet. Perhaps more of the squad will get game time and our views will change over time as to who is providing real competition for places.

If it's true that we're signing Craig Hall then I don't think that's what's happening at all. It seems to me it's more of a case of us taking what's available and trying to shoehorn them into the squad/team somehow.

Look at our off season signings so far:

Welham - Wasn't offered a new deal at Rovers, so agent will have touted around
Walker & Haggerty - Leigh needed cap space so either no offer or poor offer, agent touts around
Kavanagh - Loaned out last season which suggests he wasn't wanted, again agent touts

Even Dane Nielsen would have been the same, he was unable to play in the NRL so he ends up here, but again it's them coming to us rather than the other way around.

The Thomas, Clark and Campbell signings may have been a little different but it's difficult to tell when they are mid-season.

Basically our days of identifying transfer targets and then going out to sign them are long gone. We take what's on the table now, and try and make it work. This is why the academy is such an important facet to the club (and any other for that matter).

Hull KR were apparently looking at Kavanagh. I'm pretty sure Welham wouldn't have been struggling for a club either so I think they were both targeted signings.

I'm hoping that the Bulls are at least thinking about Tim Smith.

In the Championship - the guy (along with Gaskell) would be a revelation. I'm guessing he can't drive any more - so we might be nicely positioned to where he is based.

I think he's retired hasn't he?

loving his wiki page

"Timothy Aiden Smith (born 13 January 1985 in Runaway Bay, Queensland) is an Australian professional car crasher and rugby league footballer."

current centre?

I think you also need to look at the requirements, and to be fair, you shouldn't need to that good to interest us if you were a scrumhalf, for example.

I would hope we aren't considering Tim Smith, he let his club down extremely badly at what was the most important time of the season for Wakefield. I know we are all feeling a little desperate for a 7 but let's be sensible!

What happened to the Kyle Wood rumours? Has Dane Chisolm returned to the NRL after his loan at Hull KR?

I think there's a lot of jealous eyes watching the spending going on at Leigh.
But the truth is Leigh have been the big fish in the Championship for the last couple of years without any real competition and as such have been able to bully sides into submission.
But as we showed in the match at Odsal and again in the middle 8's, if you play your game and not the one Leigh wants you to play, they're not a big a threat as they want to be. And it wasn't just Bradford that showed this in the middle 8 comp, which is why they finished on only 2 points and therefore it was clear that investment in players of SL standard was needed for Leigh to progress.

However, as I've said elsewhere, while Leigh have a solid team on paper, RL is played on grass (or plastic if you're in Widnes) and I just wonder how much fight those big money charlies will have and there's still the question of them bringing the disruption to the Leigh camp that plagued Salford last year.

Leigh may have improved, but I don't think Bradford are that much worse than they were following the MPG. Yes, we've lost our main full back and scrum half, however we played most of the season with 1 or both missing and didn't do too badly. We've added some grunt to the pack and strengthened the back line (especially as Nielsen seems to be doing an Orford) and there's still talk of players still to join.

Hardly doom and gloom, despite what some may think

Spot on.

You could well be right, are you the Wise Man of the Woods?

I don't think the squad we had last year was that far from succeeding.

Gaskell had too much to do in the end, and when he was injured we had no cover. I think we would have got instant promotion with a decent 6 & 7 playing together in middle 8's.

I believe the difference between us going up and staying in the championship will be the recruitment of Harry's replacement. Is Sammut the answer? personally i'm not sure. He offers moments of magic, but he can also be a liability.

What is to be made of Purtell saying in the T&A that he fancies playing stand off this year? Does that mean we are looking for a default of Purtell at 6 and Gaskell at 7?

Well, he didn't do too badly in that position and given we've yet to recruit a new half back to replace Siejka, it makes sense that the team are going into preseason with a plan B to cover he position and allow Addy an actual chance of playing at LF