Thank you, like you i simply want the club to be sucessful, but not at any price!!

those who have watched carefully and removed the anti agar specs will of course have seen that the club have worked very carefully to build a top flight club here in Hull, slowly but surely removed all debt, placed the club in an enviable position as a buisness and now recently the squad has been looked at long term rather than the quick fix signings of the past and coach sackings for which we became famous...

rome wasnt built in a day .... i just dont go for wholesale slander of the club from KH down like some

The voices in his head haven't told him yet

Don't know a lot about McKinnon, but can't help but have slight concerns with his age and reported injury record combination. I just wish we'd occasionally bring in players from the NRL in their early- or mid-twenties, rather than the tail-end or thirties. Also, whilst I can see why others are concerned that he is being released early by a club again, that isn't exactly unusual for NRL clubs. Looking at it from a slightly different angle though, I do find it curious that they're willing to release him when they only signed him a year ago. A short stay like that isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Hopefully he'll come over and stay fit though.

We brought in Moa to be fair, he's only about 24 now isn't he? Hame and Phelps are hardly ready for their pensions too.



And we signed Mick Picker from Canberra but couldn't get a visa.

If you want the better players their a little bit older, the younger ones normally only come because they can't get a start.

Lauaki, fair play, I'll agree with. Berrigan is the other who is closest in the last few years. As good as Moa has turned out to be, he wasn't really an NRL player as such, which also goes for Picker. Phelps we got because he had no other offers really.



What I suppose I'm really saying is I wish we'd get a few more Soliola/Webb/Richards/King/Louis Anderson/Greenshields types that are already up to standard but we can possibly keep for a few years, rather than keep recruiting 2-3 years to retirement players. That way we can tinker with the team instead of continually having to search for replacements with less options for retention. Also, when we're bringing in players for the shorter-term, it only serves to increase the profile of any injury problems.

Who else has signed players from the NRL in their early or mid twenties, and I mean established first choice players rather than reserve grade?

But it's about balance though. Our overseas recruitment is very heavily leant towards older players. We've seen injury problems with several of them and a couple of instances of a rapid decline as they are ready for retirement. And whilst it's true that younger players often come over because they can't get a start in the NRL, it's also true that in many cases they don't look half bad over here.



I'd personally rather have a very good player for several of his prime years than a once-great player for the last 2 of his career. Or at the very least a mixture of the two.

There's the 6 in my other post, then also off the top of my head is: Donald, Delaney, Eastwood, Lauitiiti, Hoffman, Meli, Flannery, Monaghan, Lolesi, Faiumu, Witt.



I believe all came over before the age of 28 and with over 50 NRL appearances to their names, several closer to or even over 100. The top 4 do it on a semi-regular basis, I just think that if we want to be amongst them we need to try and do it more often too.

I think if we had a choice then of course we'd go for the younger options, especially Agar, but when we had our last major recruitment drive we had no leadership or experience in the squad, hence the need for Fitz and Ogre.



Since Agar took the job in 2008, overseas players we've signed (and arrived!) and their age when they signed in brackets :



Moa (21)

Lauaki (25)

Fitzgibbon (32)

O'Meley (2icon_cool.gif

Phelps (26)

Obst (30)



So all in all, 2 out of 6 in their 30s isn't too bad.

I suppose if we had a younger squad overall it wouldn't be bad at all (or maybe it's just that our older players seem to be in either similar or key positions), but you can also look at it as we have 7 overseas players and 4 of them are 29 or over, and 2 of those under look like leaving at the end of the season, combined with multiple 30-somethings from the British contingent. I just think to a certain extent we keep giving ourselves more work to do with recruitment with some relatively short-term signings.

Warrington have an older squad than us.