Cant see it anywhere on here but he is our next recruit. 19 year old Englishman playing in Aus. Brother of Darrell.

www.canberratimes.com.au/news/lo ... 88246.aspx

www.canberratimes.com.au/news/lo ... 88246.aspx

He is going to have to get out of the habit of calling you Hull.

Who is signing these players?

Cab Man,thats why he hasn`t been on here lately.

He actually signed with Crusaders for next season before they dropped out of the SL.

Rovers are...

Why does everyone seem to think only a head coach signs players? It isn't always the case and often a coach is asked to give a list of what they are looking for and possibly some suggestions then the club goes out and makes the signings. A coach does just that...coaches the side.

I would also say that Phil Lowe has quite a good idea of who is worth a contract and who isn't. The depth of next seasons squad will be better than this years while the indevidual quality might not be so high end.

With us replacing people like Vella with O'Hara and Paea, Fisher with Withers, Cook with Horne, Colbon with Hodgson, Brisk with Misi along with bolstering our numbers with people like this Griffin I don't see why it's such an issue with who is signing them? 80% of them are younger, better and should suit our style of play a lot better.

You mean our director of football (for the last x number of years) ?

Most modern teams are set up this way, bit like modern business to be honest - hey, even those basement dwellers across the river are copying us now...

Welcome to the 21st Century - wonder who they will blame next year ...

He should be a good "family guy" with a name like Griffin.

Interesting read while at work....

Queanbeyan Kangaroos import George Griffin is from a rare breed of rugby league players in England, and should make life very difficult for the Belconnen United Scholars this afternoon.

In a country primarily ruled by soccer, Griffin was raised in the rugby union heartland of Oxford in England but defected to league in school after watching his brother Darrell play the sport.

Darrell is one of only a few England internationals born south of the Midlands and Griffin hopes to emulate his oldest brother and forge a career in the English Super League.

But he's also eyeing a bigger prize a start in the NRL. Like supremely talented compatriots Gareth Ellis and Sam Burgess, Griffin wants to test himself in the world's toughest rugby league competition.

This season's Canberra Raiders Cup will be his first taste of playing the game in Australia.

In October he's due to fly back home where he'll begin a contract with the Celtic Crusaders in north Wales.

The 18-year-old is desperate to build a reputation in the English Super League, but it's in Australia he ultimately wants to settle.

''I came originally in 2008 for a school exchange and I was here for nearly three months and I loved it over here, I loved the way they play and the people, everything really,'' Griffin said.

''Eventually I want to be out here forever. If I can do well in Super League next year and hopefully get noticed, I'd take that [an NRL opportunity straight up.

''Soccer's absolutely massive over there, it's the biggest sport, that's why coming over here's a big shock and seeing rugby league everywhere.

''It [the NRL is on every channel, there's eight games a week that's broadcasted, it's mad.''

A lock forward, Griffin is still adjusting to the different style of game in Australia.

In England, the lock stands wide of the ruck and commonly chimes in as a third centre, carrying the ball with more space to work in than a typical hit-up.

On Australian shores, the lock has evolved into almost a third prop, patrolling the middle unit of the field in attack and defence.

Griffin is working closely with Kangaroos coach Aaron Gorrell to adjust to his new positional environment.

''He knows his stuff definitely, he's pointed me in the right direction, we play different in England in terms of positions,'' Griffin said.

''I play lock forward a lot in England, we play over there like a back as well as a forward so we get a lot of open ball.

''Here I just got told if I play lock forward I'm basically a third front row so I've got to keep taking it up and hitting the big boys.

''It's a lot faster over here, there's a lot more breaks and stuff.''

So different is the positional structure in the two countries, Griffin could find himself pushed into the second row or even into the centres at the Kangaroos this year.

He is one of several new players at the club which is looking to win back-to-back premierships this season.

Today's clash is a replay of last year's grand final, where Queanbeyan beat the Scholars 41-16.

according to the BBC he only wants to come over and then go back to Australia in 2 years. Not sure I agree with this type of signing......

If he comes over and plays to a standard that earns him an NRL contract then i will be happy. Good to see a kid with some ambition.

Anyway, to come back to this.

Yes, a coach does coach the side, but when you're changing coaches the players should be that in coming coaches selections. Otherwise, when things don't go well you have the scenario of "Well, I'm coaching someone else's team".

We should be starting from scratch, a new vision, a new set up, a new way of doing things. The board's job is to facilitate that vision by providing the players (where possible) that the coach selects. Otherwise, why bother having one?

Any of us could turn a team out on the park given a bunch of players, the job of a coach is to select, garner (with the boards assistance) and meld a group of players into a cohesive structure.

We do have a new way of doing things!

The club is assembling a squad and then appointing a quality coach that can get the best out of his resources whilst being given the flexibility ( salary cap ) to bring in a couple of additions of his choosing. Seems to make perfecy sense to be.

Alternativley maybe you would prefer it if we hade made no preperation for next season yet and then appoint a coach that is likely to have limited knowledge of the british market and try to start signing players that are not already tied up in october?

Or alternatively get out there and appoint a coach immediately after announcing your old one is leaving instead of waiting over a month before you start interviewing. Get him in place and let him select his own signings. If you were making quality additions then it's not such a problem but some of these recent signings just smack of depseration and cheapness.

Or the fact that they are cheap and worth a punt on to see if we can turn them into something good? Abit like Luaiki(spelling) at FC and leaving the majority of the Cap we have left so the new coach can bring good experienced additions to the squad that he thinks will benefit the side?

I just think you'd have been a lot better served appointing a coach when it was clear Morgan was going and let him make his own signings instead of throwing a bunch of average players at him. I think you already have (as we have) enough mediocre players and expecting 2 or 3 quality additions to offset that is too ambitious. We'll see in the fullness of time.

Have you not stopped and thought to realise that maybe these quality coaches were tied down with their current jobs and were only available to discuss terms after such a period.

But, yes, we could have appointed a coach immediately and let them make their own signings, but this coach would probably have been on the scale of R.Agar, or indeed worse...

Out of curiosity, was Morgan announced as leaving before Pearson took over Hull?

Think so, might be wrong. Why?

It's a ludicrous way of going about things. At the very worst coaches inherit a team that the previous incumbrant has painstakingly assembled. It's often, unless you are McGuire, difficult enough to mould someone else's team into the one you want.

That situation is difficult.

But to arrive and be offered a rag bag mixture of cheap and cheerful off cuts that your all singing all dancing new chairman has taken it upon himself to deem are required is unusual at the very least. Beyond the pale at most. He'll have to hope Hudge has saved a bit of cap room and has the money to spend, or your new man will be in the unenviable position of inheriting a team a cash strapped solicitor has randomly mustered up.

Problem is, Neil's previous attempts at signings, Cooke and Msson, weren't relevant to Morgan's plans and both unravelled into destructive disasters that actually undermined what Morgan was doing on the pitch. So Hudge's track record isn't great.

Hope it doesn't put anyone off.

Id love to be as cash strapped as him; pretty sure 99.9% of the people on here would aswell.

Not doing bad if hes skint is he really.... sponsors the KC East Stand, a stand at Elland Road, runs a rather large solictors company. Offsets the clubs own funding by putting his own money into the club.

Dont let facts get in the way of your FC blinkers though will you pal.

Hudge loves signing players and tbf, for what he's done for our club most fans would allow him to do anything he wants, he's pretty much earned it.

You're right, it didn't work out when we had a coach so this way Hudge can sign all the players he fancies and then sign a coach who he thinks can do a job. Obviously he'll leave the coach a bit of cap space to get his own welcome presents.

It's a genius plan.

After over a decade as chairman, I'm not sure you can refer to Hudge as an "all singing all dancing new chairman".