The opposite of disappointing players… this is about players who arrived at the club with no fanfare of expectation .. but who surprised you and became a favourite

Three for me:

New Years 1984 saw a young scrum half debut (I think at Leigh)

Nigel Bell

A few years later a young Aussie full back trialled after playing ( I think) at Ackworth

Chris Perry

2004 and an influx of players including a journeyman from Widnes, debuted at full back and looked awful

Jason Demetriou

Paul Sykes arriving halfway through the 2012 season.

Liam Finn is the obvious one of recent times.

But we’ve had plenty of guys who were almost unheard of or bit-part players elsewhere that did well for us and went elsewhere and blossomed too, sometimes to international level. Players like Michael Jackson, Mike Forshaw even Ryan Hudson fit the bill. Then you’ve lads like Jason Golden who we signed from York, payed a pittance but he left everything on field every week. Hardly missed a tackle all season.

There are so many of them wouldn’t know where to start.

Kyle Amor.

Kershaw

Fifita

No, not enough days left on this earth to finish the list.

I might be wrong but People always had high hopes for Belly right from his Eastmoor days. I remember a mate of mine telling me that his schoolfriend had signed for Trinity and that he was really good player. This was pre my active supporting days.

Kirmond. Atkins.

Lets hope morgan smith becomes a supprise success

Why, have we signed him?

So ive been told nothing official

Fev fans seem to think so.

Think he's a useful signing as both a back up 6,7 or 9 with the hope he might take one position permanently, he's only 24.

Plus:

He's played SL for Warrington and London.

Good defensively.

Good kicking game.

Cons:

Not yet proved to be capable of controlling a game, lacks some creativity.

This is according to Fev fans, I don't know myself.

Was definitely a hot property as a youngster, so Applegarth must see something if we have signed him.

Truth is it's time for Lino to take charge so controlling the game shouldn't be his job.
Welcome aboard, good to see an English HB at the club, it's been a while.

For those moaning about past it Gale, well you can't moan about this lad, he's the polar opposite of what Gale is now.

I recall Belly being touted as a future Wakey player well before he signed.

Aye, anyone who knew Belly at the time or had seen him play prior wouldn't have been surprised from what they saw of him in a trinity shirt.

Kirmond for me, went from a hudds reserve grade player to one of superleagues best second row forwards in the space of a season or 2, just shows you never really know what you are getting.

Ray Price. His reputation and record stood out in both codes in Australia.
He was 36, I couldn’t believe he would still be any good. On the contrary, he was amazing.
Got him at Crigg for two sessions. Was he Mr. Perpetual Motion?

He was but not sure how his Cumberland throw tackle would go today.

Tim Smith. He had a spell at Wigan before us and he was atrocious. Obviously had the calibre winning Dally M young player of the year with the Eels but went off the rails. Really talented player.

I'm not sure we were watching the same Tim Smith.

.......oh, Surprise thread.......yes we were watching the same Tim Smith

I was playing in the amateur leagues around Wakey when he signed… (though I never went to Eastmoor - the only time I ever played at Eastmoor was for my school) and I’d never heard of him… or any rumours about him…it was a surprise to me when I heard he had signed and was straight into the first team…

Then a couple of weeks later his performance against St Helens removed any doubts… hence his inclusion on my list

Also a winger originally although I think he’d already moved into the SR at Hudds.

Also sweet because up until that point it had been pretty much one way traffic in Hudds favour.

In agreement about Ray Price for exact same reasons mentioned above, wish we could have had him longer. Chris Perry again as above, came here off his own back playing ama at ackworth, one of my fave all time Wakey players.

Got to give John Glancy a mention as well, never heard of him myself but he was my kind of player, just kept going and going no matter what.

I am going to throw Richie Mathers name in there. I as well as many others did not want him when we signed him but I think that he went on to be a solid full back for us for a few years.

He's on the podcast this week. He says Cas paid a big part of his wages while here so not only was he good for us, he was cheap too.
Intelligent player.

Ben Cockayne. Think he had the best season of his career when he was with us, made the England team. Duncan MacGillivray, remember his debut against Warrington and he looked dug up he was bandaged up that much, Jesus what a player. Possibly best defensive player I’ve seen at Wakey in my time of watching.

I was surprised at just how bad Ronnie Trautman & Dennis Beecraft actually were.....

Dennis Beecraft played over 40 NRL games and could actually play a bit but by the time he came to us he had clearly had far too many injuries.

Ronnie Troutman was something else, honest to god most pub teams in the Wakefield district had better halfbacks. He shouted a lot but other than that did not have single skill or any obvious physical attributes. That was simply the lowest depth of the anything Aussie is great philosophy IMO. Apparantly though, he's an excellent coach and well thought of in Queensland.

Always like Tadulala for Wakey, plus Domic and Solomona. Did they all play on the same edge in 2004?