Re: GOB : Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:23 pm
fez1 wrote:
Parsley only played 1 match for us I think - an came from a lower division club. I don't think he had a reputation as such.
It's bizarre how Parsley's name comes up on these 'worst signings ever' threads.
He joined us from Lancashire Lynx who were the worst team in the lower division and used to lose by 70 points every week.
He played one game for us, when we smashed Hunslet in the Challenge Cup, and didn't get another game.
He was hardly Mr big name signing, considering we signed Langer, Nikau and Gee that off season, but his reputation seems to have endured as a 'flop' (I wonder how many people actually were at that Hunslet cup game and can remember what was so bad about him....)
This is the problem with attitudes towards lower league players. You always hear people say we should be looking in the lower leagues for signings but when we have signed players from the semi-pro league they just get described as crap straight away and written off, while they are adjusting to going full-time professional. It happened with Kevin Crouthers and Matt Sturm too, or when we brought Warren Stevens back from Whitehaven when he was still only about 22.
OK maybe Parsley didn't set the world alight on his debut but who knows how he would have been if we had given him a bit of a chance? As it was Lee Penny was preferred to him all season and then we released him and played Lee Briers and Allan Hunte there instead!
Last I heard about Parsley was a few months ago he'd got appointed conditioning coach for England RU so he seems to have done OK in his post-rugby career.