On the final Fans Forum Podcast for 2024, we will be joined by our Recruitment and Salary Cap Manager; Ste Mills. We're opening up questions to the public to ask him anything regarding...anything! Recruitment, ingoings, outgoings, salary cap spends, developments with the ground, management of players off-field etc, literally anything at all.

So post your best and most appropriate questions for Ste Mills, and we'll pick his brain on Monday night

Could Steve explain the whole process from start to arrival at Trinity how the Aussie and New Zealand lads are recruited please ?

Thanks In advance .

On behalf of alegend, why the squad is so 5hite?!

Who does he think will be stand out performer next year?

Will the Trinity Women’s team be a professional outfit?

Firstly thank you for letting us take part of your show, I’m curious to know if we have put a bid in for the showroom outside of the stadium & what intentions we have in place if we are successful
Kind regards Adam

Thanks guys, these are great questions so far!

Did you have any input at all into the signing of Matty Russell?

Tbh I don’t think that is Mills job, I doubt he knows and if he does he probably can’t say. He’s strictly players as far as I’m aware.

Matt has bought that building but we don't yet know his plans for it.

Given the obvious camaraderie amongst the playing and coaching group, along with the massive upgrade in facilities, are you having to turn agents away?

How come we didn't put in an offer for Lewis Murphy?

How do you know we didn’t?

Why on earth would you expect an answer.

…I’ll word it more politely than that lol

Misread the thread, thought it said Questions for Ste Mills not Questions for Vastman.

Have we made any signings without the recruitment tool, i.e. without factoring in stats as our primary focus when looking at a player?

Vastman at it again If you don't ask you never know or am I wrong

Saints moved in pretty quick so I would guess either Murphy or his agent didn't particularly fancy Wakefield as a first option for some reason.

All else being equal choice between club currently residing in championship , that may not get promoted with a squad largely unproven at the highest level v grade a club , that’s been won either challenge cup or grand final about 5 times im last ten years ok this year they’ve struggled with injuries - I know where I’d have gone

Given that steve was looking at players for the 2025 season this time last year - does he already have a player or players that he’d like to bring to the club in 2026

I think it's probably better that we let Mills answer the questions.
I'm sure Jamie is capable of deciding which questions are OK to ask too.

How has recruitment been effected now that league status is decided by IMG scores? Has it become easier or harder to attract and sign players when we don’t know for certain if we will be in Super League next year.

On a more generic point and not just thinking about Trinity. What is your opinion on IMG? Is it good for the game? What criteria would you add/remove/change to improve it?

You'd think that was patently obvious and thus doesn't require a question.

Still, it's a free country and if people wish to ask pointless questions then fine.

FWIW I'll tell you what I think happened and I'm 99.9% sure I'm right.

Saints were interested in Murphy from the moment he burst on the scene, and it was no secret that they wanted him. No surprise, he has Saints player written all over him.

However, Murph decided that Easts was where he wanted to go.

Unperturbed, Saints probably gave him the option that should it not work out in Oz they would take him in a heartbeat, and probably offered him a draft contract. Something I seriously doubt Carter was able to do, or does that need explaining as well.

Move one year forward and it's not really worked out for Lewis, all the same he's not disgraced himself and he will have learned a lot, so his value has not diminished.

So, why would his agent even bother shopping him around. He has a deal at Saints waiting and ready. Despite a bit of a lull over the last year or so, Saints remain along with Wigan the two premier clubs in SL, almost guaranteeing some medals. It's the perfect storm.

Even if he had been put on the open market, why would he be interested in us? We may be on a bit of a roll right now but we ain't Saints, not even close. Likewise I suspect that Saints, who are a smart club, will have made it very clear that the offer was take it or leave it and that they wouldn't enter a bidding war. So I doubt Murphy was shopped around anyway, it was as they say, a done deal.

If you need someone else to tell you all that, then you need to concentrate harder or be less naive.

Sure I've just burst a dozen egos, but it just seems so obvious to me.