Kevin Naiqama released ?

[Bondicigar]

Is he or isn’t he ?

if he's not surely he's free to negotiate elsewhere

[HunchoRooster]

Blake Ferguson, Michael Gordon, James Tedesco, Brett Morris, Josh Morris & Jospeh Suaali. Not a bad bunch of players in my books.

The majority of those could've been recruited by 16 out of 16 NRL coaches. Doesn't take a supercoach to recruit the Morris boys or the incumbent NSW fullback.

I'm talking mainly about those 'squad depth' signings or those one's that come out of left field. That list is twice as long sadly lol.

[zac]

I’m assuming whoever posted that didn’t mean players that were already great players, or the next best in waiting surely?

toops would have to be his best outside back recruitment, never heard of, and still going.

Momo at the moment looks like Robbos biggest letdown, premiership winner who looked solid at Penrith, to reserve grader in half a season.

no coach is going go get every recruitment right but not including all of robbo's successes is bizarre.
bmoz and fergo were both unwanted when we signed them and we got them cheaply

[Rooster90]

Blake Ferguson, Michael Gordon, James Tedesco, Brett Morris, Josh Morris & Jospeh Suaali. Not a bad bunch of players in my books.

Reece Robinson, Joe Burgess, Ryan Hall, Dale Copley, Brad Abbey and Naiqama on the other hand....

[Rooster_6]

The majority of those could've been recruited by 16 out of 16 NRL coaches. Doesn't take a supercoach to recruit the Morris boys or the incumbent NSW fullback.

I'm talking mainly about those 'squad depth' signings or those one's that come out of left field. That list is twice as long sadly lol.

Clearly 16 out of 16 club coaches coudn’t get Tedesco because he ended up with us despite having numerous offer elsewhere.

SuperCoach Wayne Bennett couldn’t keep Suaali….

Brett Morris for 300k. Were the other 15 coaches who could’ve recruited him on holidays?

Name those 15 coaches who are doing similar in recruitment… because I can only see a few..

[ChookMaster]

Clearly 16 out of 16 club coaches coudn’t get Tedesco because he ended up with us despite having numerous offer elsewhere.

SuperCoach Wayne Bennett couldn’t keep Suaali….

Brett Morris for 300k. Were the other 15 coaches who could’ve recruited him on holidays?

Name those 15 coaches who are doing similar in recruitment… because I can only see a few..

You are forgetting one key factor, Uncle Nick.

[ism22]

Reece Robinson, Joe Burgess, Ryan Hall, Dale Copley, Brad Abbey and Naiqama on the other hand....

All solid, unconventional bets on players that took up minimal salary cap space.

IMO Robbo's a shrewd gambler! Even the best card player won't win every trick. They'll hedge their bets wisely though (e.g. sign 2 international wingers for little more than minimum wage) and cut their losses (e.g. release players mid-contract if they haven't got it... IMO Robbo is VERY good at cutting people loose without rumours/reasons/controversy

A small list of good signings that others wouldn't have backed to have been as useful/influential...

- SBW
- Tauks
- Moa
- Matagi
- LOD
- Fergo
- Gordon
- B-Moz
- Manu (over Latrell)
- Verrills
- Stapo

IMO the fact remains that for roughly a decade, Robbo's made the finals every year and never had a cr@p squad. One can nit-pick about small stuff but our team's NEVER one that other fans pity for its lack of troops.

[Inflictor]

WOW. In 9 years he has won us 3 premierships and who knows if not for injuries the last 2 years whether there was another one or two we missed out on. And some question his recruitment.
Who cares of the duds he has signed in that time.
Is that what he is being judged on?

[ChookMaster]

WOW. In 9 years he has won us 3 premierships and who knows if not for injuries the last 2 years whether there was another one or two we missed out on. And some question his recruitment.
Who cares of the duds he has signed in that time.
Is that what he is being judged on?

Not at all but he has certainly brought over real duds in his time here has robbo its pretty funny when you look at it - hendo, Willie Manu ( back in 2015 ), FPN, Mcillwrick, Lopini ( NSW cup only wasn’t good enough for a game in 2015), Paul Carter ( who cost SKD his right to finish here ) just to name a few.

Robbo is Robbo he likes to take a chance and backs his development skills with these guys I guess but some have really stunk - Bringing back Lopini freaking Paea is one. Ahhh robbo you brave man

[HunchoRooster]

Clearly 16 out of 16 club coaches coudn’t get Tedesco because he ended up with us despite having numerous offer elsewhere.

SuperCoach Wayne Bennett couldn’t keep Suaali….

Brett Morris for 300k. Were the other 15 coaches who could’ve recruited him on holidays?

Name those 15 coaches who are doing similar in recruitment… because I can only see a few..

Clearly you are misinterpreting what I'm saying and taking it too literally. Or perhaps I've explained it poorly.

I am saying that the status/calibre of those players meant that every club/coach could've told you they were a great signing for ANY club at ANY time such is their talent. Clearly Robbo and our club did well to secure them but it was more a nod to good negotiation than a nod to amazing talent scouting. All of those you mentioned bar Suuali had played lots of NRL footy before signing and all at a very high level.

Players like Naiqama, Reece Robinson, Dale Copley x2, Ryan Hall (unlucky with injuries), Joe Burgess, Michael Oldfield, Momo (maybe a bit too soon)... i'm sure I'm missing a few. These are players the club and therefore Robbo has taken a gamble on. They were cheap and I doubt many of the other 15 NRL coaches at the time were lining around the block to sign them.

I am not disputing Robbo's amazing coaching ability and the majority of his signings have had a positive impact. I do think however there is a pattern of some not so good outside backs (usually wingers) that have come and gone that haven't made the impact we would've liked for us for whatever reason.

[HunchoRooster]

WOW. In 9 years he has won us 3 premierships and who knows if not for injuries the last 2 years whether there was another one or two we missed out on. And some question his recruitment.
Who cares of the duds he has signed in that time.
Is that what he is being judged on?

No he isn't being judged on that from my end. Just an observation. Its also not his fault that many of those players failed as they were good elsewhere... Its just a small negative in a hugely positive era/period for the club. Our recruitment was much much worse in all departments before Robbo's arrival.

[roosterproud]

All solid, unconventional bets on players that took up minimal salary cap space.

IMO Robbo's a shrewd gambler! Even the best card player won't win every trick. They'll hedge their bets wisely though (e.g. sign 2 international wingers for little more than minimum wage) and cut their losses (e.g. release players mid-contract if they haven't got it... IMO Robbo is VERY good at cutting people loose without rumours/reasons/controversy

A small list of good signings that others wouldn't have backed to have been as useful/influential...

- SBW
- Tauks
- Moa
- Matagi
- LOD
- Fergo
- Gordon
- B-Moz
- Manu (over Latrell)
- Verrills
- Stapo

IMO the fact remains that for roughly a decade, Robbo's made the finals every year and never had a cr@p squad. One can nit-pick about small stuff but our team's NEVER one that other fans pity for its lack of troops.

Moa. Casty

[ism22]

In other news, he's been named for the bears this week. Presumably still has a contract guys?

[Inflictor]

I find this release strange. It is his last year with us anyway so won't make a difference to next year's cap. He will never play in the first grade team again. He would be on minimum wage so what will we be saving for the last few months of the year.
We have released Volkman, Lussick, DSF and now Big Kev.
Are we making room for someone else in our Top 30 before 1st August?
Just cutting him at this time of the year with no underlying plan doesn't make sense.
Anyway we'll see what happens over the next 3 weeks.

[Rooster90]

Not at all but he has certainly brought over real duds in his time here has robbo its pretty funny when you look at it - hendo, Willie Manu ( back in 2015 ), FPN, Mcillwrick, Lopini ( NSW cup only wasn’t good enough for a game in 2015), Paul Carter ( who cost SKD his right to finish here ) just to name a few.

Robbo is Robbo he likes to take a chance and backs his development skills with these guys I guess but some have really stunk - Bringing back Lopini freaking Paea is one. Ahhh robbo you brave man

Remi Casty
Lagi Setu
Mitchell Frei
Kurt Bapitise
Brock Lamb

I'm going to exclude Mitch Cornish from this list as I quite liked him...