: Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:59 am
The longer term seems to reflect the current situation at the club - i.e. we can produce forwards but not backs. When you look at the forwards that have come through the youth system in the last few years, we are obviously doing something right in that department and from those that know better than I do the situation seems to be repeating itself.
Which is good.
A big Kiwi impact prop will always be popular and useful, but would not address the key situations at the club. Again, in the shorter term I welcome Glen Hall with open arms, as he is a very good player, but he doesn't address our problems.
Obviously, there are current deficiencies in our halves and in my opinion at hooker. These are positions that it is not always easy to 'create' a player in and so I feel we should be concentrating our overseas recruitment here. However, we should be looking at the Robbie Paul method rather than a close to retirement option - despite the obvious short term benefits of an Orford. If needs be, get two of them. They need to be able to make an instant impact and grow with the team. I hope that L'Estrange can do this.
In respect of the outside backs, we need to be more dominant in our recruitment. There was a time when it seemed that all the good players at the lower clubs became Bulls - Spruce, Vaikona, McNamara etc. If we are relying on a home grown pack, there will be money free for this type of recruitment and we need to be confident - we should have done everything to make Shenton a Bull last year. I accept that Nero was intended to be this type of signing. If we can't produce them, we'll have to buy them and if we need to augment to backs with the odd Kiwi superstar, then all the better for bums on seats.
