Re: Quiet contemplation : Sun Oct 08, 2017 3:22 pm
Wires71 wrote:
I think the issue is that Wigan, Saints, Leeds are undoubtably seen as the big clubs, and this can only be because of the success they have had over an extended period. We are not in that camp yet, far from it. This does not help recruitment from the NRL when we want to get the sought after players.
I don't think profile in Australia is the problem. We were able to get players like Morley, King, Hicks and Monaghan even before we'd won any Challenge Cups. We even got Andrew Johns for a few weeks. But now with the exchange rate and the higher salary cap in the NRL none of the English clubs really get major NRL players any more, unless there are some issues like Barba or Sandow.
The separating factors these days are the academy production line and making the astute signings of players that are a bit underrated but have much higher potential in the right environment. With the academy players it's not just bringing through individual superstars but bringing through a set of players that work well together and will stick together as the nucleus of a side for years. Wigan and Leeds do that far better than us. Also its signing players like Matty Smith, Blake Green, Dan Sarginson, we all scoffed at those saying they aren't exactly 'Wigan' signings, but they delivered. Luke Gale at Cas is another example, bit of a journeyman floating around lower clubs but turned out to be a star.