He's on the mend from shoulder surgery i believe so im not sure when he'll be back.

Having seen the pre season friendlies(1st team) and the Catalan game, the one thing i'll say about NB is that he aint afraid to throw the young un's in.

i just can't be bothered to read 21 pages of blinkered rubbish

fwiw needs must and he fits what we need in the team, much better than signing a 32 year old guy who has played first grade.

we have a tradition of bringing in players that have something to prove and giving them a chance, whether British, NZ or whatever - rather than the "safe" option of a guy who has played SOO and passed his sell-by-date in the NRL.

i really am not sure why other fans have so much of an issue with it. Let's be honest the majority of clubs have absolutely no moral high ground on this issue yet continue with the hypocrisy.

i guess hitting the headlines last weekend for x% of GB players in a winning team really got the Huddersfield fans excited.

The signing of overseas (and substandard ones at that) is certainly not a Wakey problem it is a problem we have in British sport.

I admire your optimism...... Lets hope you are right. Can't help but think that, reading through most of the thread on the VT, that they are actually making a fair and valid point - although the anti-Wakefield message of a couple of posters kind of makes it loose some credability.

In general, they are probably correct in my opinion - we do have too many middle of the road imports - hard to argue against this. I do understand the signing and the reasons behind it, and hopefully he will turn out to be another Willie Manu type player - but I think we probably could do more to help ourselfes when the current round of contracts runs out. In 2 or so years time:

Henderson Certain
Martin Certain
Drew Certain
Demetriou Probable
Obst Possible ?
Latu Possible ?

That would leave the likes of Winterstein (if he comes good) Peterson, Blanch, Stosic and leave us room for another International import. That would be a fair mix maybe? I dont think its too much to ask of the club to try and replace these outgoing imports with lads from our own academy, the lower leagues or even RU.

We have got too many imports, but are still within RFL regulations, and there in lies the problem.

This does need reducing and I have hope that as these players drop of the roster they will be replaced either by academy players or through home qualified talent being brought in.

Agreed - as long as you do it over a pre-agreed / planned period of time that allows for clubs to fill the void with suitable quality. The starting point should be, say, 10 years hence. By that time it would be reasonable to say that 'established' SL clubs should have a max of, say, 3 overseas players - end of / no exceptions. That still allows for over 40 players in the comp, but at 3 per club, each club will target the players for positions / skills that they cannot cover elsewhere. It would also leave plenty of room for GB players to play / develop.

So, take what we have now, divide it across the 10 year period and there you have a formula for all clubs to follow and time for them to do it in.

This is a prime example of planning as opposed to the constant knee-jerk / back-track that we see in our game.

In the meantime, my blind faith is based firmly on the well-proven ability we have to 'spot' talent, particularly overseas - and especially when Robbo's involved - after all, that's what he's he for!

I think Kear knows talent when he sees it. If you see a player with promise your bound to try and sign him and Frank is certainly that, he has bags of talent and I see no reason why he can not make quite a name for him self. It's better than signing Aussies who are past it IMO

always do the same and so have resorted to buying run of the mill overseas bargains. Whilst the merits of this at times is questionable, it worked at our most cash strapped. Had we the advantages mentioned above, we might have been able to hang on to the likes of Jackson, MacDonald, Mason, Griffin, Snitch, Hudson & others, not to mention been more competitive in signing English talent like Robinson, Wild, Hodgson, Aspinwall, Brown, etc. Thankfully we've begun to look longer-term over the last few years and have made great strides in our English player base & youth player development, which is what I'd rather focus on.

As such, I think Wakey fans would be best ignoring threads like this on the VT rather than fanning the flames.

Not a bad shout that squire.

Here we go again banging on about developing British talent and stopping signing oversees talent. Well what about this one. We couldnt keep hold of Ellis, Ferris,Fox or Golden but to name a few. They all left under the claim of wanting to win something, when really they left for more money. So can anybody tell me how we are going to keep the British talent when they all want to leave when the cash is flashed in front of them. FFS we couldnt even compete with Salford for Paul Whites services. I would refer players who want to represent Wakefield irrespective of where they are from. Its loyalty we should be after.

That one isn't true (although I would like to have been). We made Ellis a tremendous offer, but he genuinely thought he would be better elsewhere.

Good luck to the lad!

Ok but you take my point. Its ok bringing through young British talent but if we cant keep hold of them then we need to have players who are committed to the trinity cause, no matter what country they are from. If we end up with another Ellis then what are we gpoing to do to keep them that is the major concern because they are gonna carry on going to the other so called bigger clubs. So once again what we should be discussing is not so much about not signing oversees players but about how to keep the British young talent we already have.

I think the answer you are searching for lies in one word - Stadium!



With it, we can compete. Without it, well we all know what that means!

Can't believe so many naive Wakey fans have taken the bait on the VT thread.
I wouldn't waste my index finger responding to a fan whose club has such a despicable and embarassing recent history.

Come on, how would you like to be stood on your own at away games, he needs to talk to someone.

nice on, but doesn't that apply to home games aswell as he is probably the only one who's paid.

surely even he wouldn't fall for that

Not entirely true. Perhaps if you took Cain Southernwood out of the equation I might agree. A very large amount of money has been invested in a very talented young player, with a bit of luck he will go to prove it was worth it.

Quote ="Sandal Wild Cat"If anyone hasn't already seen it.... viewtopic.php?t=395166 All this from a jumped up midget fan, my how they have short memories. The way they slag off us and our players you would never think they had once, twice, no three times finished bottom of the league. I have heard some really positive things about FW and really hope he comes over here and does what some of us heard he has the quality to do. Silly, Silly Shuddes fans. I can already see him having a stormer against them at BV! Here's to hoping.'" for what its worth I dont want to see him come over here or any other overseas player for that matter i want to see us giving Pitts bibb etc game time or bring a decent young player in from the national league

Quote ="Sandal Wild Cat"If anyone hasn't already seen it.... viewtopic.php?t=395166 All this from a jumped up midget fan, my how they have short memories. The way they slag off us and our players you would never think they had once, twice, no three times finished bottom of the league. I have heard some really positive things about FW and really hope he comes over here and does what some of us heard he has the quality to do. Silly, Silly Shuddes fans. I can already see him having a stormer against them at BV! Here's to hoping.'" for what its worth I dont want to see him come over here or any other overseas player for that matter i want to see us giving Pitts bibb etc game time or bring a decent young player in from the national league

Quote ="Sandal Wild Cat"If anyone hasn't already seen it.... viewtopic.php?t=395166 All this from a jumped up midget fan, my how they have short memories. The way they slag off us and our players you would never think they had once, twice, no three times finished bottom of the league. I have heard some really positive things about FW and really hope he comes over here and does what some of us heard he has the quality to do. Silly, Silly Shuddes fans. I can already see him having a stormer against them at BV! Here's to hoping.'" And just for Mr Hypocrite Giant [url=http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12196_4967085,00.htmlGiants to sign Fulton[/url

Quote ="Sandal Wild Cat"If anyone hasn't already seen it.... viewtopic.php?t=395166 All this from a jumped up midget fan, my how they have short memories. The way they slag off us and our players you would never think they had once, twice, no three times finished bottom of the league. I have heard some really positive things about FW and really hope he comes over here and does what some of us heard he has the quality to do. Silly, Silly Shuddes fans. I can already see him having a stormer against them at BV! Here's to hoping.'" And just for Mr Hypocrite Giant [url=http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12196_4967085,00.htmlGiants to sign Fulton[/url

SQUADBUILDER anyone?

started to read thread got bored because King Kear thinks he can do a job and with his track record i will peacefully at night.

Will what????

[size=200=redsleep[/size

Anyone got link of him playing on youtube? If so could you pm me it please

what mutley sleeping