A very broad topic (by design). We give the club a lot of stick over recruitment. Signings from Australia that have failed, young players that have been signed and not kicked on etc etc.
I wonder how bad we are compared to other clubs? Are we the only ones who sign duffers? Do any of our signings prove to be equal or even better than expected? Do we take more gambles than other teams?
We all remember the total disasters eg Aso****
Then there are the panic buys eg Sullivan and Latu which no one expected much of.
There are the ones who go off the rails, “Mr Sandow can you stop that sniffing and pay attention please”.
There are the successes that took a while to settle in M King, M Monaghan..
The successes from the off J Monaghan
Better than expected Hicks and Hiku
The youngsters that didn’t make it Smith and (seemingly Johnson)
The ones that did T King and to an extent his brother.
We have the off the wall experiments eg Burrell.
My conclusion is that EVERY signing is a gamble. We tend not to remember the successes eg M Cooper but only the failures.
When looking at success rates I think we have to look at our direct competitors. Saints for example are often lauded but look at their signings under Cunningham, mainly dross.
With lower ranked teams they are spending less on recruits so tend to expect less and occasionally will unearth a gem.
Would any of us have been happy with signing Inu when Salford did, I suspect not.
Sorry this turned into a waffle but I think the topic is pertinent so fill your boots!

re inu, i didn't he was bobbins at catalans and he was worse at widnes, very disinterested, and the sort of reclamation project people now lament tony smith for, he went to salford as he didn't have any other options after being partly responsible for widnes getting relegated.

re. Inu
He had some great games this season. On the wettest day ever ... Wire v. Salford in Cup ... he looked magnificent. He is getting on and is bound to fade fast ... but you just never know.

Inu has been magnificent this season, a major par of Salfords eye-catching results.

Regarding our recruitment, I just think we rely too much on Karl having a jolly to Australia to unearth gems and coming back with either nothing or a handful of magic beans being carried by Latu/ J Clark etc. My biggest gripe is that for a few seasons we have needed a prop or 2 and have been linked with players such as prior and others and we end up with a last minute panic buy who it seems was never going to get a look in by our coach, it seems a bit disjointed as though price wasn't involved in the process at all. No disrespect to Wakey but when they are signing fifita, who IMO would improve our first team a fair bit it just sometimes makes me wonder if our club is even talking to the right people in the first place when it comes to the NRL marketplace. Maybe I'm being harsh because generally on paper the squad is actually very good.

Ashton is a fantastic signing, whoever managed to make that happen needs some credit, when you look at our squad I think it's safe to say we get it right quite often as well.

Where has this term “Recruitment “ sprung from?

Company types undertake recruitment.

Sports clubs make “Signings” , always have done , and will continue to do so

The quality of our signings is hopelessly hit and miss which tells me we don't do due diligence, we don't have a strategy or structure for recruitment and we have more money than sense.

Props is the area we've really struggled in (to no-one's surprise) in either recruitment or promotion. Without proper focus on this area, we'll see another few years of 10 game wonders or nearly men.

For me, you have to look at what the scouts are doing in this area

Cox (rip)
English
Bailey
Asotasi
King
Sims
Akoala
Latu
Dodds
Riley
Moran
Crosby
Maybe add Johnson to the list

We can add Lama Tasi to that list , agree we don't seem to have a strategy for identifying what we need
more likely to get someone in and try to make them fit , case in point would be Jason Clark started to watch
him in the NRL when i knew we had signed him , played behind a big pack 3 Burgess ,John Sutton ,Ben Te'o
Dave Tyrrell etc , always started on the bench , played 10/15 mins at end of first half tacked everything in sight
then did 10/15 mins start of second half and that was usually it barring injuries , that was his role , we have him
starting at loose or sometimes as a fourth prop , not really what we needed , no lack of effort from him but we
aren't using him in the way he was used when he won the title with Souths , same with a few others , would
love to know who makes the final decisions on players and why.

Hearing on the grapevine that our head groundsman will be finishing soon, Melvyn Jones.
So gonna need to sign a replacement which should account for any spare cap sloshing about.
Wonder if KF will be arranging interviews down under

Considering we seem to get blighted every season with imports who just come for the money ,i would throw the young lads in who will at least show some commitment. Let's have a s#!+ or bust season & seriously blood a few of our promising kids before they move elsewhere or get fed up altogether with the lack of opportunities within the game in general & lose interest in RL.

Hallelujah, brother.

After watching last night, when it comes to late season play off rugby, we're currently as close to winning the GF, as we were with Cullen in 03..

#### imports and using up our quota (as we seem obliged to do), blood the youngsters, or we'll lose them, without barely using them

You make an interesting point and the Salford game was a great opportunity for me to see the next generation in action. Based on that game, who you would you like to see blooded?

For me

Ellis Robson
Ellis Longstaff
Nathan (name escapes me, v tall lad played on the wing)
Josh Thewliss
Riley Dean
Eribe Doro

All seemed to me that they were ready for some game time. I may have missed a couple of other lads.
I guess for every Ben Currie there's a Sam Wilde, for every Joe Philbin there's a Ben Evans, but saints and Wigan seem to have faith in their production line, so why can't we?

Woah woah woah, Ben Evans was doing great before he got horribly injured by saints

They should all be penciled in for game time.

During the fixture congestion it was good to see a lot of games on sky and also with the build up sides using their younger players more. So how do we create that need to rotate 16 sides in the league but fit into the same timeframe as the current regular season ?? Would it not create more sky money as they could show a lot more games ??

Yep......and then faded, gone. Didn't retire, ended up in the championship. Matty Lees had a bad injury last year and won the GF. Simon Grix had more time off than on the pitch at one point but still made first team when fit.

Did Ben Evans drop in ability or did we just cast him off?

From what i saw he just never really got the chance again, but before that he was playing really well. Shame really he just disappeared like Ben Harrison. Who was seemingly just quietly shoced out the club. It was very bizzarre.

He got that awful hamstring rip, when he got his leg pulled out in a tackle v saints, in 2015, I think it took forever and ever to heal, and eventually we let him go, he went to London and then maybe toulouse, ive lost track.

He was a real bright spark at the start of 2015, and as I've mentioned on here when its bee complained about, smith and the club were hoping he would be fit for 2016, he wasn't and thats why cox and Bailey were brought in as cheap reserves to fill a gap for him and also dodds.

The problem with this is if we had a season where we played mostly young players and finished 10th, the fans would still say the same thing - Price is taking us nowhere, get rid of Price, Briers, KF, we need a clear out. Look how Price got panned for playing Ashton at fullback in the cup semi against Salford - which was a good example of showing faith in youth.

It's easy to say that you want to see young players given a chance, but after a few losses they get panned. Keanan Brand was written off after one game. Remember when Steve Anderson was here and guys like Steve Maden, Dave Alstead, Jon Hill were given a shot in the first team. They got slagged off along with everyone else when we were losing.

The point about Wigan having faith in their production line isn’t quite clear cut. I suspect they produce far more SL players than any other team, but they let an awful lot go. In recent times we have signed 2 that became internationals in K Brown and J Hughes as examples. Any we have let go have hardly come back to bite us.

I fear that a golden opportunity, for this particular ship to sail, has been totally missed during the 2020 season.

They don't half let an awful lot go, but they still produce and integrate a heck of a lot into their first team. I don't think Jack Hughes or Kev Brown have come back to bite Wigan on their arris, they've both moved on to teams that haven't won a grand final. I suspect the pies aren't angry because Mr Hughes isn't in their team.

I think it's a culture thing, we're chasing that first GF and will do it by hook or by crook. Saints, Wigan etc have the luxury of having that in the bag, so can address their production line a bit more, give more youngsters more chances in big games, almost a case of "we didn't win it this year, we probably will next year" vs our "we've GOT to win it soon".

Not knocking any of their efforts for us, but they were not what I'd consider international quality while in the P&B. Having said that, we need to strive to produce our own, and it won't happen unless there is adequate first team game time.

Disagree...Wigan allowed fan widespread chat to develop about a season of transition following Shaun Wane’s ousting and Lammie taking over. In turn, Lammie got an extension. They blooded loads of youngsters. I’d have accepted a forfeit season, had we done the same.
Our target was always to set up a GF win. We allowed only 2 games in the regulation season for it.

Come on Rubber. You know why they blooded loads of youngsters ... they had lots of injuries.
I'd give our fans one game before starting to moan. I have never heard the phrase on here ... "I know he's not so good but we will play him vs. Wigan cos he's the future & will get better". Sally is dead right.

We HAVE to cut the overseas quota to three or four. For all our success in bringing our academy players through both Wigan and Saints will have about five overseas players next season in our squads next season. Seven which is the current limit is ridiculous.