Re: Recruitment policy : Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:42 am  

exiledrhino wrote:

Hi everyone, new to the forum here.

Still feeling pretty disappointed with such a poor display last night, but it got me thinking about our recruitment policy. Danny mags recently said in an interview that Sir Kev had strayed away from our previous recruitment policy, and I think he's right.

We seem to only sign oversees players or other clubs cast offs. After a quick view of the different squads in Super League, there are a huge amount of ex-Leeds products around. I'd like to see us bring back some players who've grown up supporting the club under the guise of a 'unfinished business' style marketing campaign. Here's a bit of a list of some former Leeds products I've identified. I'm sure many of them would be better than what we have...

I'm sure there's a couple of mistakes on there, and may be missing a few too.

Luke Gale
Paul McShane
Alex Foster
Chris Clarkson

Jodie Broughton
Micky McIlorum

Colton Roche

Jimmy Keinhorst
Danny McGuire
Robbie Mulhern
Nick Scruton

Jay Pitts
Morgan Smith

Kyle Amor (kind of)

Tom Johnstone
Ben Jones-Bishop
Jordan Baldwinson

Ryan Atkins

Zak Hardaker

I'm not sure how far you're going back on this but you're wrong on these...

Jay Pitts - Wakefield Academy - from Ossett Wakefield
Ryan Atkins - Bradford Academy - from Leeds
Zak Hardaker - Featherstone - from Pontefract
Tom Johnstone - Wakefield Academy - born Germany lived in Pudsey for a while (played a few times in Leeds U15's development team so hardly qualifies as a Leeds player does he)

Re: Recruitment policy : Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:50 am  

Fair points above, like I said in the original post there might be some errors in there.

I'm certainly not arguing that all the players on the list should be playing for Leeds or that we shouldn't have let them go. My main point was looking quickly at SL squads, there are a lot of players who might have more motivation to play for Leeds than a random overseas signing.

I no way would I want every name in that list to be at Leeds, however I think a significant number would improve us compared to players in similar positions.

Re: Recruitment policy : Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:55 pm  

Why are people talking about players that don't play for Leeds??? I'm more concerned with the ones that do.

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:23 am  

I assume because some people expect signings to be made to fix the mess we're in? Ideally we can get through this year without knee-jerking too much. Even if we lose Merrin I hope we don't rush out and sign people just because we can.

One thing that needs to be looked at is contract duration. With the Golden Generation we moved to sign our best players for as long as possible, including extending contracts mid-term to avoid them being poached. At some stage this seemed to morph into overlong contracts for everybody who wanted one, regardless of on-field performance.

Whilst someone like Merrin has lots of options, so required a long contract to sign, why on earth did we give Lolohea three years? He was playing reserve grade for a cellar-dweller NRL team when we signed him, and there's no way he would have had a lot of clubs falling over themselves to get him. He should have been offered a 1-year deal with an option to extend in the club's favour. If he'd come and been a star we've shown previously we're willing to upgrade contracts to keep players happy. Instead all the risk is on Leeds. Ditto Wellington Albert - he shouldn't be given anything longer than this year to start with. Then we can see how he goes and make a decision later in the year. Lets be honest nobody would cry to much if he got a better offer elsewhere.

Even if this squad starts to function, we're going to be stuffed for a couple of years by having to carry some dead wood in the squad until contracts expire. We need to show as a club that the onus should be on players who want to play for Leeds - we certainly shouldn't be pushing the boat out to sign average joes.

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:36 am  

Albert only has a deal till the end of the season

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:44 am  

I thought people said it was for 2 years. If its 1 that's fine.

My point though is that we're likely to be stuck with Lolohea - or paying the bulk of his wage - for another two and a half years regardless of whether he plays for us or signs for someone else. Same issue with Golding and Lilley, and Cuthbertson and Ablett should never have been given more than 1 year at their age.

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 7:24 am  

Bang wrote:

Albert only has a deal till the end of the season

Having a deal to the end of the month would be too long.

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:03 am  

RHINO-MARK wrote:

Having a deal to the end of the month would be too long.

I see Wellington Albert is the new scapegoat

Re: Recruitment policy : Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:15 am  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

I see Wellington Albert is the new scapegoat

Once again more tripe from you there's a diffrence between "scapegoat" & questioning the quality of another avetage digning to a squad top heavy with average players when quality is lacking.
Oh & before you roll out the SC Cliche that doesnt mean you HAVE TO spend it because another body becomes available id rather save it.

GH stands by recruitment since 2015 : Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:12 pm  

Unbelievable, Gary still thinks he was right.