FGB wrote:
Genuine question...seeing as tho Warrington have now signed Austin & Widdop, did we aim high enough in terms of our marquee targets/signings?
I think we have both of ours on 3-year deals in theory?
I guess at the end of the day, you can only sign who is available and wants to come at the point in time you're in the market. Merrin was a very good player in his day, and Hurrell is also world class on his - neither are probably as consistent as you would ideally like a marquee to be.
It's also positional: which young lads are coming through, whose path you are about to block for 3 years or so? It's a big call. Assuming that Watkins stays at Leeds long term and Hurrell settles, is it the right call to hold back Newman, Broadbent, Burton for that length of time? (you could mention Sutcliffe and potentially Handley too).
We desperately needed a pack leader prop, and we got a pack leader loose forward... that will look like a great decision when Ablett and JJB are retired, and if/when Ward gets injured again... but then we also have about 8 back rowers at the club now. Again, is Cam Smith ready for more game time, or Owen Trout?
Even if Leeds could afford to (which we can't), I don't think dropping 2 Aussie internationals into the side from 2018 would have been the right thing. You have to balance resources across a squad, your marquees may well get injured, or not settle, or get poached back to the NRL on a higher salary if they do play well and settle... lots of risk factors.
I imagine you'd create a toxic culture if you had 2 players paid way over double anyone else in the team (including current England internationals), and then those marquee players were out of form, didn't work hard enough in training, didn't settle, etc. That would just have to have a demotivating effect on the rest of the team, and is one of the potential banana skins of the SL marquee policy IMO.
To answer your question, yes I'm happy with our Marquees in principle - they both seem like humble blokes who will dig in and contribute, and they're better players than pretty much everybody else, so it works on a meritocracy, ish. I would have taken JWH and Marty Taupau having said that, just to contradict myself!!