Our Recruitment

[ChookMaster]

Lodge - Going after a short deal was supposed to replace SST?
JS - Failed experiment. On 700K?
Walker- on the outer and talk of Pearce coming home for a swan song.
SST- Letting him go with no replacement
Liu - Same as above
Baker - About to ink a deal with the broncos when we need props!!

And I can go on.. I really believe we need to rethink our long term strategy and not go after these flashy kids for starters.. a lot of our juniors are hyped during their early schooldays but once they come up to a tougher grade they fail to hit their strides. We are currently seeing this with our current prop of forwards which again leads me to this question - what in the F were we thinking letting Siua go when we he was arguably our best meter eater last season boy do we miss him… that falls flat on Robbo. Retention is looking very shaky right now and hope we can nail this aspect in the near future because we are looking bleak in some areas

[Thirteen]

How did you rate the recruitment of Cooper Cronk and Sonny Bill Williams?

[rented tracksuit]

How did you rate the recruitment of Cooper Cronk and Sonny Bill Williams?

And Brandon Smiff and Ryan Hall?

[Thirteen]

And Brandon Smiff and Ryan Hall?

And Fatty Vautin.

[rented tracksuit]

And Fatty Vautin.

Yeah, let’s blame Robbo for that as well!

[zac]

on the one hand the team is underperforming despite having the best squad in the nrl while on the other we're underperforming because we haven't recruited well

[Qld Chook]

I’ve always been a cheese fan but I honestly felt like Verrills was always better suited to this. Long season and happy to be proven wrong but Sammy was handy and never commanded big coin although he can find an injury.

[TumutChook]

Lodge - Going after a short deal was supposed to replace SST?
JS - Failed experiment. On 700K?
Walker- on the outer and talk of Pearce coming home for a swan song.
SST- Letting him go with no replacement
Liu - Same as above
Baker - About to ink a deal with the broncos when we need props!!

And I can go on.. I really believe we need to rethink our long term strategy and not go after these flashy kids for starters.. a lot of our juniors are hyped during their early schooldays but once they come up to a tougher grade they fail to hit their strides. We are currently seeing this with our current prop of forwards which again leads me to this question - what in the F were we thinking letting Siua go when we he was arguably our best meter eater last season boy do we miss him… that falls flat on Robbo. Retention is looking very shaky right now and hope we can nail this aspect in the near future because we are looking bleak in some areas

Agree on some points, but some things are a bit more in depth than what they seem. Yes SST going has hurt us, but i can't blame Robbo or the club for that. If you have a bloke nearing the end of their career & they get an option of 3/4 year deal in the UK or at another club where they can get big coin as opposed to being a year by year proposition at the Chooks on way less money then I think our club has been the benchmark in doing tight by players,which then giltete out to players from other clubs who look favourably upon us & our culture. Same for Liu, as he had a better option leaving for a long term career, but also look how he's been a shadow of himself seince leaving.
The JS one is the one that hurts as South's (hate to say it) , got it exactly right by now bowing down to his demands. A club should never give the player complete control where they hold the aces as no player is bigger than our great club. It was never going to end we for us & I believe the recruitment of him was a desperate attempt to try & get one back over South's after they stole who was out best player, a game changer & hadnt yet hit his peak.LM hurt us in so many ways, yes he wasnt a FB, but his X-factor, his ruthlessness & his goal kicking ability which we have lacked the most.
I dont think for 1 minute that Walker & Pearce are linked, I think the Pearce stuff has come our as a cover up for if Walker does go (I expect him gone next season). No way we were going to bring a mid 30's , washed up 5yr ago player for a kid that had 10-15 years with us. Other things at play there.
Baker I believe has already gone, so that ship has now sailed. Did he go because JWH ended up inking that 1 extra year & by also bringing in Lenui, having Brown on our list & possibly Lodge staying?

[roosterchook]

Recruitment is the problem boys.. we got a lot wrong and are paying the price for it now. Coach is hopeless too because he’s not coaching properly. A team needs to be picked on performance not status or reputation. That means Suualii had to go 6 matches ago. Why’s he still being selected? Teddy needed to do a stint in reserves as did Keary. What’s to lose? Are we afraid that by demoting these superstars we would get beaten 50-0? Wakey! wakey coach - WITH your so called superstars we did get beaten almost 50-0 so drop those superstars who aren’t performing. Can we really do worse than these has been superstars of yesteryear who can only score 2 tries in 160 minutes of footy and now are the second worse team in both attack and defense? Robbo has been selecting an entire team of incompetents week in week out and is crazy. It doesn’t matter if we get beaten by 50 with a team of reserve graders but superstars? It’s not on - DEMOTE them. Teddy, Keary, Suuali, anyone who’s not performing. We want tries and wins not crap. Walker needs to return asap too.

[roosterchook]

Only the forwards are doing their job. The spine needs demoting and replacement as they couldn’t get much worse. They can’t score not even threaten to score. Get rid of them and try some reserve players. The worst than can happen is they’ll play as bad as Keary, Teddy & company but then they may not.

[Rooster_6]

I haven't had any major issues with our recent recruitment and retention at senior level.

Time will tell with Brandon Smith, I was a doubter but he deserves the season to prove his worth.

I think of greater concern is our development. Hard to find a player who has debuted with us in the past 2-3yrs who came through our pathways, especially in the outside backs.

Is Joey Manu the most recent outside back to come through our pathways and actually play more than 25 games. And we're talking what... 2016?

I think the signings of Allan, Paulo, Hutchison Keighran, Copley, Gildart, Naiqama, Abbey & Hall really speak to our inability at the moment to bring talent through pathways to first grade, especially in the outside backs.

These are all low tier players being preferred over our internal talent.

[Steggles]

Recruitment is the problem boys.. we got a lot wrong and are paying the price for it now. Coach is hopeless too because he’s not coaching properly. A team needs to be picked on performance not status or reputation. That means Suualii had to go 6 matches ago. Why’s he still being selected? Teddy needed to do a stint in reserves as did Keary. What’s to lose? Are we afraid that by demoting these superstars we would get beaten 50-0? Wakey! wakey coach - WITH your so called superstars we did get beaten almost 50-0 so drop those superstars who aren’t performing. Can we really do worse than these has been superstars of yesteryear who can only score 2 tries in 160 minutes of footy and now are the second worse team in both attack and defense? Robbo has been selecting an entire team of incompetents week in week out and is crazy. It doesn’t matter if we get beaten by 50 with a team of reserve graders but superstars? It’s not on - DEMOTE them. Teddy, Keary, Suuali, anyone who’s not performing. We want tries and wins not crap. Walker needs to return asap too.

Excellent post. Seriously, what have we got to lose?

[rostar69]

Only the forwards are doing their job. The spine needs demoting and replacement as they couldn’t get much worse. They can’t score not even threaten to score. Get rid of them and try some reserve players. The worst than can happen is they’ll play as bad as Keary, Teddy & company but then they may not.

If game plans arent being followed, Trent may as well give them the Alex Ferguson treatment (https://youtu.be/9zjlBvh1sEc) and threaten to demote the senior players not following his game plans. There's plenty of players in bears and roosters reserves, who cares if they going to lose anyway.

[theGman]

Just on the recruitment front, does anybody in the know, know about Daniel Anderson's well being and if he's still working as our Recruitment Officer?

[Bondicigar]

Robbo has had a terrible revolving door of ordinary slow outside backs coming and going for a few years now .
His fetish with super league wingers continues next year, hopefully the next one can play a little.

BTW Brandon Smith is a great signing , we need some pace and tackle busting ability out wide .