Latu has to be the worst signing since Roy Asotasi (although at least Roy did play more than 3 games for us). I don't know who was responsible for bringing him in, I doubt that it was at the request of Steve Price, but lessons have to be learned. Price inherited Akouala (he signed a month before Price did) and he doesn't seem to fit into Price's plans.

The problem in shifting them is that, even if we paid their wages, they would count towards the other teams salary cap so you are looking for a club who is desperate for props and has space on their cap but doesn't have money in the bank.

How desperate would these other clubs have to be ? To only solution those two is pay as you play contracts in which case they could be world beaters.

SHW- Latu hasn't been played by Price - or rather only twice I think, and in one of those I thought he did ok.
The issue for me is Latu came to us unfit (allegedly) and brought in by KF - possibly with a luke warm reception from SP.
It seems to me that once SP gets it in his mind he doesn't want to play someone then that's it.
Latu didn't get a chance until we were down to the bones. (Maybe he didn't deserve it).
It's similar for Sita with respect to SP getting something in his mind.
I find it slightly amusing on here the flack that Sita has got since he was dropped by Price earlier in the year.

Additionally we've brought in too many young players and simply they and the club have not ade it work.
Johnson is 2nd row and they try to play him at prop.
Morgan Smith came over with great raps but hardly did anything. The club has really got to think about this.
It's' recruitment policy has been less than good over the last few years at all levels - be it spending on marquee players or youngsters.

Next year?
Can't see us doing anything or playing good rugby. We do have the players......
But I've been wrong before.

Gus Gould recommended Latu came to SL as to rehabilitate from injury to regain fitness and consistency as he was not a standard for the NRL in his opinion, Gould contacted Wire to recommend him to us....

(Go feck yourself Gould)

Don`t think any Super League club will take Latu off us.

He will probably go to a Championship club, with Wire having to pay for the majority of his salary.

SJM should be asking serious questions of why money is being squandered on substandard players such as Latu..

The best chance of Latu going to another superleague club will be to club 12 I think. If they're desperate.

Sita I think could be good under a different coach. What he brings has never really been questioned it's just the amount of time he is able to sustain it! Although he is a marked man with the judiciary panel and does some silly things to be brought to their attention. I do think a different coach could get more out of sita though say 30 to 40 minutes in a match. He'd be worth keeping then IMO, props that actually make impact are hanrdnto find.

If Sita could do what he does for 30/40 mins a game, rather than 10 then he'd play a lot more. He's be able to offer something properly useful to the team. He always has an impact when he comes on, we just need it for longer. Only issue with that is (as somebody has said previously in this thread) his card is definitely marked with the RFL judiciary panel.

I would like to see a confirmation that we have BUTLER from London. In this case NO NEWS is not good.

the annoying thing with the sita situation, is that nearly everyone has forgotten that . prior to him being off with his kid being born, he was a different animal this year, he was doing a lot more minutes, he and philbin were a good duo off the bench.

Most of the bods saying to get rid are talking about him like he's in his first season again. the main problem here is post birth, he's made it on price's list, and as we know its not easy to get off that, unless he really has no other option

It does seem that way, the KF early glasnost and perestroika format is now an iron curtain with effluent.

Mike Cooper
Joe Philbin
Chris Hill
Robbie Mulhern
Rob Butler

Is that enough? We also have Doro and Kibula in reserve.

Not included Akauola and Latu, as we're trying to get rid.

Its easily enough. Mulhern is decent at barging over from close range as well so it will help our pathetic creativity near the opposition line!

It's certainly a big improvement on last year's line up.

For me it's a big step up to what we had this year, will it be enough?.....only time will tell, and if we can't get rid of Latu hopefully it could be a massive wake up call and it massively makes him knuckle down and kick on......doubt it but Matt King was poop the first year and Michael Monaghan was bang average and they came good so you never know?
Akauola i would keep as a reserve, this is his last year contracted with us anyway i believe and he was playing more minutes and was a good improvement this year before he went off with his new born like Fantasic Mr cat Said.

I'd temper the "ooh look at our lovely new pack" sentiment a little to be honest, given Butler is still work in progress in my view whilst Mulhearn has never really stood out for me.

Until then, I'm cautiously hopeful.

I'm a bit "tenth bitten twice shy" with our prop recruitment. Partly driven by the fact I can't comment on Butler and I haven't seen enough of Mulhearn this year. They're recruiting in the right place at least, whether Butler is a Hill or an England, we'll see in a few months, I'm hopeful for him though, as I was hopeful for Tasi, Cox, Sita, Roy, Dodds et al.

I get what you're saying and the new lineup may not be perfect but an England is an upgrade on a Latu, surely. I would also say an upgrade on a sita given the ability to play (or be trusted to play) for longer than 10 minutes.

We will have to see, I'm glad we are trying to bulk up the pack depth anyway and I'm also glad it's UK based players who I think will be hungry to prove they have the credentials to belong at a team expected to challenge in all competitions.

It will have to be good enough, unless we offload Sita and or Latu we will have:

Hill
Cooper
Philbin
Mulhern (if it comes off)
Butler

Sita
Kibula
Latu

With the likes of Clark, Doro and possibly Hughes (depending on if we sign a new back rower) who could class themselves as 'middles' (hate that term).

We have too much of our salary cap already in the prop department because of poor recruitment.

All depends on how Mulhern and Butler turnout, Hill, Cooper & Philbin are more than good enough, but we need two more pros to step up to become that 4th prop option in the 17.

When we let Chris Hicks go to accommodate Monaghan Jnr, I seem to recall that we paid him off in the offseason so the payment didn’t count towards the Salary Cap, is that still the rule (and if so would the club consider it for Latu?).

As far as I know yes, as long as a player doesn’t play in the season, you could pay them off with no cap impact. Would still cost us to pay off the contract obviously and I’m not sure what happens if we pay ‘some’ of his salary to facilitate a move to another club, does the amount we part pay count, or does none count as he isn’t our player?

Just increases salary cost at a time I’m sure we are trying to cost save.

I’m sorry. I just assumed based on what some other posters have said that we had a bottomless money pit (it’s just to the right of the money tree if you’re trying to locate it).

So 2 props acquired, on the face of it both good signings. I can’t see any obvious criticism of these signings, They are not from Australia so no issues re families (although Yorkshire based players have been known to struggle), they can hardly be accused of being here for a holiday/pension top up. Mulhern seems a steady Eddie with potential to step up and Butler a bit of a young gun. Hardly “Hollywood “ signings but is that important.
We as supporters have spotted the weakness in the prop department, so have the club and they have worked to fill it. Are they due some praise? Is this a flurry of signings? My natural optimism is starting to reassert itself, throw the cold water my way.

No praise yet. They've signed massive amounts of props over the past 4-5 years. It's not a tick box exercise, it's about the quality. As said, Butler could be a Hill or could be an England. Crosby was v decent at Wigan and obviously had devastating personal issues that turned him into half the player for us. The list of failed props at our club is lengthy.

Optimistic and excited to see them, absolutely, but based on track record, I wont be praising the recruitment until it's shown to be successful, else it's just clapping for the sake of it.

Cold enough?

take crosby's family issues aside, his body was done, he's said in his retirement statement he's had injuries that hampered him from the time he signed for warrington, even before the family issue he was missing for a number of weeks. due to niggling injuries.

Also, as an aside, have you got your quotes turned off in your settings, it never loads in properly for some weird reason, looks odd.

It’s more by way of an experiment. We can all look at a signing and with HINDSIGHT say he was rubbish, it was obvious he was going to be rubbish etc etc.
What I m asking is if you see something wrong in these 2 signings say it now, rather than after the event. The club don’t have a crystal ball anymore than we do but if a fan can identify a weakness in a signing in advance and the club didn’t then criticism is warranted (as it undoubtedly was in Latu’s case).
This isn’t aimed at you by the way, just a general comment.