Re: On to Leigh : Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:09 pm  

bonaire wrote:

And if we lose to Leigh ( and they shouldnt be underestimated) there will still be people on here that think the likes of Taylor and Griffin should be given contract extensions.
Please Hull FC no more sentiment.
Having 20 players off contract at the end of the season is such bad management but then we have seen it before with long contracts handed out to players.
We have to hope Pearson and Clark have at least learnt some lessons and get this rebuilding right.

Agree need a mass clear out no matter what

The only players I would keep are hoy, Clifford, Sutcliffe, satae, dwyer, fash, Trueman, swift, mitch

The rest I would let go ( obviously some are tied to contracts ) but any of the others out of contract should be bye bye

Re: On to Leigh : Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:29 pm  

Do people really think we can just sign 17 players of better quality than we have, that's near impossible, look at the OOC players list, very little quality available and some of the ones that are OOC won't sign for us.

We need to realistic in the recruitment, target 4 players who will really improve our 17 and add in a couple more for the squad. This might mean we need to keep a couple for another year than normally we would replace.

Re: On to Leigh : Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:35 pm  

I think Simon Jordan has done a great job in backing Powell at Wire in breaking up an aging team and bring in fresh blood . I'm hoping Pearson can let TS do the same . Not going to be easy as there is other clubs (Cas been one ) with a big roster to rotate .

[Chris71]

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:35 am  

I can understand where Bonaire is coming from in terms of getting rid with a mass clear out which I agree is needed. However I also see Dave K’s point in that with such a high number of players that A, we need rid of and B, are out of contract unfortunately the player pool available is relatively small and hardly full of quality. I think the likes of TS and AP have to be really smart and target a small number of quality players that are an upgrade and will also improve us for the 2024 season. Then most likely promote from within, possibly a couple of players from the championship and extend a few deals to supplement things. We can’t just go out and get 12 or more players as it just isn’t that easy.
Can’t argue with Bonaire in his summary of the state of our recruitment/retention policy and how we could have allowed to have up to 20 players OOC is rank mismanagement.
I think 2 forwards at least 1 top quality 2nd rower, possibly another hooker and a winger with genuine pace are a minimum requirement. Ideally I’d like a lot more but we have to be realistic. I’d hope that wheels were put in motion if not already underway in terms retention/recruitment as soon as BH was removed and TS approached with deals for new players for 2024 already agreed or at advanced stages.
Hopefully AP has learned from the mistakes made since Motu left, time will tell as they say.

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:09 am  

B0NES wrote:

I think Simon Jordan has done a great job in backing Powell at Wire in breaking up an aging team and bring in fresh blood . I'm hoping Pearson can let TS do the same . Not going to be easy as there is other clubs (Cas been one ) with a big roster to rotate .

Agreed, they seem to have got recruitment right, but they only brought in about 5/6 players to improve their 17, they didn't do a major overhaul like some are suggesting we do and would be virtually impossible without making the squad worst.

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:10 am  

Key is getting quality from our imports, Lovodua and Evans as it stands are not good enough to be quota players.

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:21 am  

Welsh RU is currently in a mess , Possibly a great opportunity to sound out some players over there . Ellis Genge wants to give League a go apparently . Never seen him or heard of him until I read the article .

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:26 am  

The 20 players ooc is also a slight misnomer as a number of those are academy players who, probably reasonably, were on fairly short term contracts and are unlikely to feature anytime soon or at all.
Its still a large number of the first team squad ooc at the same time but its not quite as bad as some are making out.

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:28 am  

Dave K. wrote:

Key is getting quality from our imports, Lovodua and Evans as it stands are not good enough to be quota players.

Absolutley. Our overseas recruitment has been pretty patchy over the last few years, some real disappointments in there.

Re: On to Leigh : Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:17 pm  

B0NES wrote:

Welsh RU is currently in a mess , Possibly a great opportunity to sound out some players over there . Ellis Genge wants to give League a go apparently . Never seen him or heard of him until I read the article .

I have been saying for ages we should be looking at RU players a lot more.The RU game has changed lot with more running with the ball and defence much more in line with R/L.
Huge changes coming in RU
Many Premiership sides have been living hand to mouth, a situation that worsened as Covid-19 annihilated matchday income. Some UK£59 million (US$67.7 million) of the UK government’s UK£300 million (US$3444 million) ‘Sport Winter Survival Package’ in November 2020 was allocated to English top-flight rugby union clubs.
We have already seen whats happened to Worcester and Wasps and high wage bills cannot now be sustained so inevitably there will be some high quality players come available.
We certainly need someone with RU connections acting and advising the club of players availability