come on, our fullback & half backs are below average!..must have been worth a look? (ofcourse we may have!)
pacey, good kicker...not great in the tackle bit imo, still would have gone well.

But nearly all the younger players in the south sea island squads are already tied in contracts with NRL sides.

I think the idea of the World Cup throwing up previously unheralded talent is a bit of a misguided one.

RL isn't played widely enough at a high standard for some amazing undiscovered talent to appear from nowhere playing for a minnow, as has been said before, just about all the South Seas players there are already part of the Australian system.

The magic ingredients are hope, good weather and decent catering IMO

Give us sunny sunday afternoons with some good wins and add in the smell of fresh samosas drifting over the terraces and obviously news from City Hall about the OSV and things will begin to look up.

As far as the squad is concerned we're clearly focusing on the future by buying young players who will give us better options in the next few years.

I agree with the broad thrust of your argument Andy but we shouldn't use that approach as a way of excusing poor performance in certain aspects.

I certainly don't expect us to be repeating the form of 2003 in any great hurry but as a fan I do want to see the first team start to perform better as time wears on and to see McNamara improve as a coach. I don't think you can put all ambition on hold for 2 years in the hope we'll bring through another SF, JP, LP and PD because you run the risk of damaging our prospects of keeping such good prospects when they're ready.

Most of us recognise the difficulty in recruitment we face in comparison with 10 or 12 years ago but these aren't insurmountable problems yet I hear this too often as an excuse. I guess I'd just like to hear a more "can do" attitude from the club.

I'm not holding out any hopes for the OSV and hope that Plan B is ready to roll!

Beginning to look like misplaced optimism from Macca, although hope is not yet gone!