When was the last time a player who signed for us caused this much excitement and buzz around the club. I was only 11 when King and co signed so didn't know enough to be that excited.

For me it was probably Myler, I watched him destroy us away at Salford and couldn't wait to see him play for the Wire.

Only Andrew Johns has caused a bigger fuss recently and Allan Langer before him.
Sandow is only whispers of excitement compared to the legends I mentioned.
Sandow isn't a legend just great.

Showing my age now, but Alex Murphy in 1971 was sensational at the time.

He was, no quite the media frenzy back then and certainly not even a blinked eyelid in Oz.

phil blake got a few tongues wagging when he came here

What about Moz? First real stament of intent for us to become a top club

Indeed. As a fan of another club, this signing was the first to really make me sit up and take notice. He was 27/28 at the time and a top NRL prop forward.

I remember constantly checking teletext (!) for updates on us signing langer. He'd been my favourite player for years. That off season signing Langer, Nickau & Gee was amazing.

nothing will surpass Johns signing

a) he was the best player in the world
b) we were assembling a decent side but still lacked something
c) He signed late in the season and people genuinely thought we were in with a chance of old trafford as soon as his signing was announced
d) there wasn't even a whisper of his signing it was completely out of the blue.

It just created such a fantastic buzz around the game as a whole Phil Clarke said Johns Debut was one of, if not [ithe[/i most memorable moment in the summer era,

Alan Langer was already retired when he signed for us.....and it didnt have the same buzz because we didnt know what we were getting. fortunately he was just as good as he ever was.

Johns Was 31 and had around two years left on his Newcastle contract, even without his injury we would never have got him full time, Langer was 34.

Sandow is 26.......that needs to sink in.

lets see what our first fixture is in the super 8's.
I guess it will be the home game against whoever is 3rd in the League (if ive followed that grid right)....... if thats Saints or Wigan that will create quite a buzz.

I think the last time we had a player who brought so much excitement was 70 years ago....he came quietly without a fanfare of expectation & set the club & rugby league alight for the next 18(?) years. Sadly,i never got to see Brian Bevan play in the flesh.

this is the biggest factor..... as a league we cant get the cream of the NRL unless they

a) interfere with a dog
b) slag their coach off

the monaghan signing was a good one... but this Sandow one has the potential to be the clubs greatest ever recruitment from the NRL.

And yet we lost count of the number of opposition fans on here saying we had made a mistake signing an 'NRL Crock' on a 4 year deal.

The town was buzzing, a little earlier during the Aussie off season a certain Bob Fulton I couldn't wait for the weekends.

I think it was that Boxing Day when Sculthorpe re-signed for us.

When Andrew Johns came it was much bigger, Johns 31 shirts everywhere

Not only did I see BBevan play he also signed my programme at every home game. I used to wait for him at the back of the stand......I'm older than dirt.

That's just because you are a young sprog Nine. I saw the end of his career, looking like an Egyptian mummy and probably a mere shadow of his former self. My dad used to have an old photograph from the Guardian where they had spliced together a series of sidesteps / dummies and sheer pace to beat 9 ? players in a game at Wilderspool. Unfortunately it seems to have been lost when we moved back North a year or so ago. Pity, I too would have loved to see him play in his pomp.

Warren Stevens when PC said he was head and shoulders the best prop forward in the Championship.

All of the others but I also remember being excited by signing Gleeson who was at the peak of his powers then.

As I have learnt with age, I'm going to keep expectations low as contentment is inversely proportional to it.

and spoons!

I think there is another interesting point about his age (providing he lives up to expectation). He will be 27 next January, and as he is on a two year contract will be 29 if he leaves us and starts playing for a new club. That is probably a bit too old to go back to the NRL particularly with his reputation. So we would probably stand a very good chance of keeping him until the end of his career.

Definately Dallas Mead for me.

Gleeson gets overlooked quite a lot, but there was a massive buzz around his signing at the time and he did play very well for us for a couple of years too.

Him and Morley were the big excitement signings of the last decade or so, but neither of them could play for us until the start of the following season - Gleeson because of controversial circumstances - so it was months after signing them that we saw them.

I think the signings of King, Monaghan and Hicks didn't quite create the same feelgood factor because only regular NRL watchers really knew who they were. Johns and Langer were different as they were genuine superstars almost everyone knew. Sandow would probably be similar in normal circumstances. As it is though he's expected to win us the Challenge Cup and storm our charge in the play offs after a thoroughly mediocre season so far, so that's got everyone's mouth watered nicely!

On reflection I think the signing of Henry F was the start of the new era, and although I wasn't overly excited by it at the time I really enjoyed watching him (an unfashionable view I know)

Watched back the 2004 season review recently which featured the press conference where he was unveiled. You should see the size of the bags under his eyes. He looks like he's just got off a four day bender, looked absolutely gutted that he'd signed for us. Still, was very exciting at the time. The most exciting in my time has to be Johns though, closely followed by Morley.

I was told by a very senior and reliable source that we had.
What a season or two that would have been.