Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:18 pm  

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

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:22 pm  

exiledrhino wrote:

Danny mags recently said in an interview that Sir Kev had strayed away from our previous recruitment policy, and I think he's right.

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the policy of making marquee signings.

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:58 pm  

Yes, I understand that, but to me Hurrell and Merrin although they have been two of our best players so far are luxury signings. I'd prefer to build from the ground up. There are so many in our squad who we are probably playing way over the odds for, when our success was built on home grown players, with some oversees/quality SL signings.

I would say we're paying reasonable money to Cuthbo, Lolohea, Peteru and Parcell who all offer far less than many names on my list above. Then we supplement with lower quality SL players - Dwyer (ok for an impact, but not a game manager), Donaldson, Crosby, Luke Briscoe.

I'd much rather an overall change in policy which targets specific players who want to play for the club, and bring value for money, which we are clearly not getting out of the squad at the moment.

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:15 pm  

exiledrhino wrote:

Yes, I understand that, but to me Hurrell and Merrin although they have been two of our best players so far are luxury signings. I'd prefer to build from the ground up. There are so many in our squad who we are probably playing way over the odds for, when our success was built on home grown players, with some oversees/quality SL signings.

I would say we're paying reasonable money to Cuthbo, Lolohea, Peteru and Parcell who all offer far less than many names on my list above. Then we supplement with lower quality SL players - Dwyer (ok for an impact, but not a game manager), Donaldson, Crosby, Luke Briscoe.

I'd much rather an overall change in policy which targets specific players who want to play for the club, and bring value for money, which we are clearly not getting out of the squad at the moment.

Hurrell was not a luxury signing, we needed a centre and someone to fill the gap of strong runner when Hall left, he has been one of very few positives of this season.

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:39 pm  

Luke Gale was never going to dislodge the trio of McGuire, Burrow and Sinfield when he was here. McShane, whilst I think he was dealt an unfair hand, was here at a time when we had Matt Diskin, Danny Buderus, Shaun Lunt and Rob Burrow in the nine position. Ben Jones Bishop was not as good as the players that we had in his positions during his time here (Webb, Hardaker, Hall, Donald, etc), and you could say the same for someone like Kyle Amor. Nick Scruton left the club because he received a financial offer that the club didn't feel was worth matching, and Zak Hardaker left because he's an idiot.

I think it's also a stretch to argue that some of the players on that list were "ones that got away". Ryan Atkins had a brief spell with Leeds Tykes / Carnegie but would never have unseated Chev Walker, Keith Senior, Chris McKenna or Clinton Toopi - and he had to leave a very good Bradford side to establish himself at Wakefield and did exceptionally well. Other than playing for Stanningley, what connection has Tom Johnstone ever had with Leeds?

You can't just hoard players on the off-chance that they might come good. The salary cap won't allow it and, more importantly, the ambitions of the players won't allow it either. Yes, you'll let go of some players who come good, but that's life.

Similarly, this is a salary cap sport and a sport where money isn't thrown around on transfer fees. The club has to honour contracts that it has (many of which signed prior to Sinfield taking on his role) and a lot of the players the club would like to target will invariably be under contract elsewhere. Players will no doubt become available as the season progresses, but they're not going to be the sort of players that are necessarily in demand.

The bigger issues for me have been whom we have handed new contracts to (JJB and Ablett come to mind), salary cap management and having a large proportion of the cap tied up in players who probably don't justify that salary (Peteru, Tui and Cuthbertson will be in this bracket) and the fact that the club has historically voted against increasing the salary cap, making it more difficult for the club to recruit talent from overseas and from smaller clubs.

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:31 pm  

I would like to say thank you. We don't have any world beaters in our squad but on last night's showing, with the exception of Hurrell and Dwyer i think every one of the players we have signed from you is better than what you have now.

Re: Recruitment policy : Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:48 pm  

Didn't really understand why McShane and Mulhern were let go, and to a lesser extent, Amor. The rest on the list I'm not bothered about or left for good reasons (at the time).

Re: Recruitment policy : Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:43 am  

Not once have I, or will I, ever regret us letting any one of those players leave.

Re: Recruitment policy : Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:10 am  

Colton Roche, Jay Pitts, Jordan Baldwinson LOL.

Re: Recruitment policy : Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:48 am  

Bang wrote:

Not once have I, or will I, ever regret us letting any one of those players leave.

The only ones I’d say could be useful for us would be Garbutt, Amor, McGuire & Keinhorst.

I understand McGuire leaving. End of an era etc. But he’s still a better half than either of ours currently.
Amor again I understand why he left. He wasn’t exactly looking great while here but I think he’d help our pack.
Garbutt still not sure of the reasons why, they must be off-field reasons.
Keinhorst was a useful backup centre and decent second rower who would add some pace and decent line running to our backrow.

The rest of the OP’s list are very meh except for the likes of McIlorum and Atkins who were never Leeds players anyway.