There not a bad band



The real enemy are six mile up the road and we played them last week.

I think this guy fits the Wakefield mould completely.

We have built a career in SL by backing our judgement over players who maybe just haven't had the break somewhere else. Frank seems to be exactly the kind of player we need in so many ways, and if we look objectively we must condider the following:
1 What money do we have
2 What position do we need to fill
3 Is there a ready made player that another club will let us have at this time

When I was first told of Frank's signing there was an analogy with BJ when he came over, in that he has a similar amount of experience, but with the background he has he is almost guaranteed to succeed at SL level.

I would also say that players of Frank's standing have still got an awful lot to prove and for that reason we can be sure he will 'put it in', which cannot always be said about overseas players.

I am comfortable with our recruitment and our development. Our football committee are doing their best to match up the short term and long term requirements for our club, but the return on some of our investment is a couple or 3 years away from being ready to cash in.

Welcome Frank - you will be OK with us!

I echo your sentiments but it does not make it right, we always eem to be firefighting, i hope three years down the line we have home grown talent to come in and not rely on overseas A teamers.

But that's what I'm saying - he's only an Aussie A-teamer becasue no-one has yet spotted his potential. The same was true of Ryan before we took him - FFS he was playing second fiddle to that other Harris fellow - and Gareth was passed over by most clubs - and look what happened there.

If the majority of our young us start to come from our own stable - and they are - then I am quite happy to back the judgement of those in our club and if they feel that we have found an Aussie who will make the grade then I am happy to accept that. Barring injury, Frank WILL make the grade - and some!

I think you have to look short term here. We have a depleted pack, we are unfairly expecting youngsters in Bibb, Pitts and Ferguson to do more than their fair share considering how young they are. We have to nuture them and protect them from burn out and suffering serious injuries. Look at Burgess at Bradford or Fielden at Wigan. These are players who in my opinion are suffering from being over played in their youth.

We all want youngsters to come through the academy but we can't just expect that every time we suffer injuries and a big injury list in this instance that we can just pick a player out of our academy. We are not that far advanced just yet. We've made massive strides as a club and i truely believe that given time we will have young english players who if handled correctly will go on to do special things.

Have you ever seen him play?

Nope - just blind faith!

No he doesn't.

First of all the reason he makes the point and the fact that he only makes it about Wakefield robs it of any credibility.

Secondly can you think of any player available in SL of any age who is available who matches up to Frank. We have no players available in our Academy who are his size, have been good enough to play junior and senior rep football or who could even come close to playing a first grade NRL. Worse still I can't think of an available British player anywhere who matches his CV and again is available.

Finally, with Pitts, Bibb, Atkins, Murphy, George, Southernwood, Gleeson, in our squad and all 22 and under we are doing our bit - which is more than you can say for Shudds.

It then shows a true reflection of how poorly run our junior set up has been run over the last few years. I have known and posted on here before junior players from the Wakefield area who have chosen other clubs ahead of their hometown team because of how unproffessional the junior set up was.

I hope and believe that Kear has sorted things out and has put into place procedures that will show fruition well after he has gone. We all would like a team full of home grown talent with a sprinkling of top drawer overseas players not A teamers.

End of the day we all want what is best for Trinity, and Kear has a knack of getting the best out of second rate, cast offs, A teamers and I believ he will do the same with this guy.

What i'm trying to say rather poorly is we should not have to rely on this calibre of overseas player and the coaching prowess of Kear to make things right.

Loving the thread

Just thought I would show how muddled this post is and leave you to it.

1.It is very faulty thinking to say that if you do not challenge every example of a failure then a single challenge is invalidated. Normally this thinking is only found in u12s.

2. there is no doubt that FW has talent. The question is whether established SL teams should be signing reserve graders. On that i appear to differ with many wakefield fans.

3. For info the following Giants players are 22 or under and in the Giants 1st team squad: Cudjoe, Lawrence, Moore, McGilvray, Walsh, Lunt, Lawson, Hemingway, Lopag, Griffin, Carlile, McNally and Patrick. I suspect that we can get so many young Brits in because we have a small number of overseas players. Also thought Atkins was 23 and Ferguson was missed - pesky facts!

here is again look making smug condescending remarks. welcome marsdengiant

There is something missing in all the views put forward so far ie £££'s. Other clubs have been, and still are, offering far more to the 'kids' than we can at this stage, or wish to, and this is why so many of them and being tempted away. Although I accept that there have been other factors, which hopefully we are addressing. Point in case, how many of the Huddersfield youngsters in the above list have been 'bought in'?

7/13

Walsh is from the Leeds academy
Lunt is a product of Workington i believe (maybe wrong)
Griffin is a product of Wakefield academy
McNally is a product of Whitehaven
Patrick is an ex Bradford academy
Carlile is an ex Bradford academy

The rest i believe are Hudds

Whilst it's nice to see Huddersfield buying in younger players. How many of those 6 from the Huddersfield academy are getting a regular spot in the 17 week in week out?

No it doesn't. Frank is a South Sea Islander and they tend to produce his kind of player which we don't. They bring a certain style and athleticism to the game that others don't. Neither do the Aussies which is why the NRL is choca block with them. I think your creating a them and us where there isn't one. Why the negative on just our Academy, I said no ones Academy had this sort of player coming through.

Thanks for your contribution, pointless though it was.

3 mate, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Hemmingway, though i expect it will be 4 next year when Jermaine comes back from Batley though you could argue Leroy wont play as much this year now Brett Hodgson is here

You missed Moore (St Helens)

Sorry for being pedantic

Well that's good to see. Do you think that Hemmingway will get his chance to become a starting player for you at some point? I'd hate to see the lad slowly wither away like Handforth did for us.

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.