Apparently Bradford are dicking everyone around as to whether they will EVEN release the guy.Its getting ridiculous! i think PO must be having a nervous breakdown with the frustrating recruitment program for next season. The problem was that in the necessary focus on obtaining a half, we have missed out earlier on in the season on guys like wade graham, micheal gordon, jeremy smith, trent hodkinson, etc.....
First part of the year it was the "lets see what pans out with CRONK strategy before signing others", then we did the same with QC, then KImmorley, then Orford. Meanwhile, other clubs signed the best avaialable players by september. Maitua was are only key signing [if you can call him that]. Heck, wooden spooners Cowboys and Sharks recruitment campaign far exceeded ours. Cowboys landed the Sims brothers, Tate, Winterstein, Dallas Johnson, Gavin Cooper, while the Sharks netted Jeremy Smith Wade Graham Colin Best.John Williams....even Panthers whose fans complain about there own recruitment landed Yilleen Gordon, Arana Taumata, the english second rower, etc...
I am actually surprised that given how many players we were linked to, that we couldnt at least get say a Phil Graham, who was heavily linked to us. Very strange IMO that Chris Walker and Jordan Atkind and Carl Webb were the best we could get.....Again, we had the "wait and see" policy as most of our spare dosh would have gone to Cronk and then to QC.....so i dont think its because players didnt want to play here. I dont even blame PO for our poor recruitment. We NEEDED to try to poach Cronk or QC. Unfortunately, the side-effect was that we missed out on everyone else.
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the fact of the matter is there won't be another signing for next year.
At the end of the day we have signed a couple of players well past their best (Webb, Walker) and one who hasn't played for 2 years and can't play or train with the team until halfway through the season (Maitua). We still have no quality halfback.
Other teams have done some very useful recruiting, such as Wade Graham by the Sharks. He would been a terrific buy, but unfortunately we were preoccupied with pulling off the miracle signing. We now have plenty of money in the bank but have no one to buy. I just hope this failed recruitment strategy doesn't come back and burn us.
Parramatta may not have recruited the players that they have been linked to but the team you already have is a very good one with or without new additions.
We made the 2009 GF with Morts and Robbo, I am sure we can be successful next year under a new structure.
Now, would Inu and Mateo have stayed for less had they known SK was to become our coach? Possibly. Did they resent DA's methods as coach? Quite probably.
Are our current recruitment problems (as is the topic of this blog) DA's fault? Absolutely not!