Are you putting the 3 categories in that order? I agree with your split, especially the club legends who really are only lauded by us, but I'd put the nearly men above them. To me they are like club legends who could have been even better with a better team around them.

What I am saying is the money might have been spent on a couple of players which gives the whole team more options and strength in depth , maybe half decent forward and possibly the half back we have always moaned about. Someone in the Snead mould not necessarily him but as an example who often pop's up with the goods when needed as we know.

Then "maybe" two things....
The players weren't available and we didn't have the money....

You must think Fifita was on a big walk if you think we could buy 'a Snead' and a half decent forward.
I imagine Snead to be on similar to Fifita. If not more.

Tend to agree with most of the post and thats exactly how I view "legends" , but for me Fifita is bumped into that club legend category, I just can't not put him in that group, although not to the extent of JD, he's still in there.

If we would have continued our mid season revival once he came in and ultimately stayed up, I wonder if he would have made more people's list.

I belive Fifita was our highest ever paid player according to our previous chairman, which when you take into considerations the lucrative deals offered to the likes of Tupou and what we must have paid Johnstone at one point, I imagine even for us it was a relatively "big whack". What that is compared to the like of Sneyd, I guess we will never know!

I think you over estimate what our most expensive player is paid.......but as you say, it's his business.

And I think you underestimate it, when you have clubs like Warrington offering a marquee player salary and he's turning them down to stay with us, yes it's out of loyalty but at the same time I assume there's no more than 50/60/70k difference in salary, otherwise it becomes a very silly decision.

But that was kind of the point I was making, it's difficult to put into context what is considered a big whack for us against what players like Sneyd might be getting.

BS. We had decent options as well as Fifita in 2017 and 2018 where we did quite well in the league.

When Big Dave signed is second contract it was for 3 year at about 125, thousand ,a season so do not think you could buy two or 3 good forwards for that kind of money . Answer this ,if he was as bad as you make out ,how come big clubs were trying to signed him .He came out of retirement and still looked head and shoulders above the forward we had on the park ,and fitted than any player on the park .IF you want to talk about not worth the money ,let's talk about Gaskell ,Hood and a lot more who were given over the top contracts that as cost the club it's S L place .Funny how after Big Dave ,Miller Arona,and T J left we are in the Championship

The only difference, is that Fifia didn't win medals and Fox did. There Is nothing subjective about Neil Fox, everyone in the game considers him a legend, there is about big Dave, especially for non-Trinity fans, ditto JD. You have to draw lines somewhere and that is mine.

Had we stayed up then yes I agree Dave would have got as close as it's possible to get, but still no medals. It's arbitrary I know, but most things are. However, he's still a total legend to me, and due to my age means more to me in a personal sense than Neil Fox ever will, a player who I never saw play.

I think what we all really want, is a club that does allow the likes of Dave and TJ a real opportunity to become true legends, something that they never really had. Looks like we might be making the first steps in that direction at last.

Agree, in 2017 we had Huby, England and even Keegan Hirst who put in some decent shifts for us that year off the bench. With 3 games to go, we had a chance at the GF but it was not to be. As I said earlier, between 2016 when he came, and when the team started to fall apart around Covid when we were in 4th placeQ at the time, we got to the CC semi and had 3 5th place finishes, whether through the regular season or play offs.
As a reminder of that great season there's a nice article and a couple of videos.
[urlhttps://www.rugby-league.com/article/33005/the_rfl[/url

Some nice highlights there.

How many top clubs came forward with the money. If they had wanted him that much they would have stumped up.yes he came back and gave the club a lift but I think there were other influences as well gale ,players coming back. Yes we won 4 matches shortly after his return but we beat Wigan our best result of the season without him .plus we lost last 10 games approximately while he was still here. Think you are being unfair on the team re fitness, they are all professional and from what I saw fitness was never an issue,.
Let's not forget dave was used as impact sub in every game last year and also 2 thirds of his games for us as a whole was from the bench so they do look better than those starting which I think dave should have started more.

Er...
Wire, Wigan and Salford for a start....
Cas last season too.....
You obviously haven't heard of that saying, quit while you're ahead?
(As in you should have done it a few pages ago.....

)

I did quit while I was ahead bg but others have brought it up and asked me questions which I kindly answered with ny opinion . Bg think we are all wise enough to know if wire , Wigan thought dave was the top man then money would have talked, always does .

Listen or watch (show me the money ) Craig Harrison was his agent whilst over here and openly stated that Fifita had options on the table from clubs but chose to stop at wakey .I’m not privy to the amounts that were offered but I’d be surprised if they weren’t in excess of what Wakefield were paying him at the time

If he can't find that on Youtube, this link says what he did there.
[urlhttps://www.seriousaboutrl.com/wakefield-trinity-star-david-fifitas-massive-offers-from-super-league-clubs-58579/[/url

OK I will take his agents word but it also highlights that he was our top earner and as such my whole point all along is that money could have been Spread to improve the team elsewhere. Have we been too loyal to him , majority on here will say no which I see and accept but I have different opinion which I have tried to explain so as you say Barnsley I will give up on the subject while I'm ahead lol

It highlights he was "one" of our top earners and even in WT terms that's only circa £150k which brings us back to an earlier question, what quality players could we have got for DF money?

As said he did not get 150,000 K,

All water under the bridge now ,on the did he didn’t he part , its now resigned to the history books . What we should be thinking about is , will there be a marquee player or two coming our way in the near future .Lots of games to be played beforehand I know but we have the personal in place looking at availability for the next stage of our road back into super league.strange saying marquee and wakefield in the same sentence to be honest , but that’s where we need to be to join the elite and compete with them

Not many, well not any when I think about it. For some reason Fifita and Trinity went together like strawberries and cream, that's good enough for me, and it was clearly good enough for him, we were very lucky to find him when we did.

AGREE, Vastman , and agree with Kettycat hard to believe we could be talking about marquee players at the club next season after the season we have just had . Is it pay back time hope so