I would have broken the squad down into six groupings last year, excluding loans as these players were in the main short-term 1 to 2 month signings:
1) Good players for us who were on balance normally match fit (e.g. Cook, Lee, Dixon, Soward, Clubb, Melling, Fisher, Bryant & Bailey)
2) Good club juniors with potential (e.g. Lovell, McMeeken, Krasniqi, Dollapi, Bishay, Woodburn Hall & Caton-Brown)
3) Players who were less effective for us than their maximum level (e.g. Witt, Kaufusi, Wheeldon, Dorn and Sarginson)
4) Good players who were rarely match fit but assumed as being no choice but to keep due to contract (e.g. Colbon, Robertson, Rodney)
5) Championship standard players (e.g. Grady, O'C, Channing, Little)
6) Past their best players who were rarely match fit (e.g. Howell, Randall)
The overall contribution seemed to be a losing culture and a squad that was perenially in the bottom three and had been since 2007 with little sign of more than that. I don't think a Wayne Bennett could have got the squad out of the bottom three if I'm honest.
I don't think any supporter will be unhappy with the "loss" of players in categories 4 to 6, unless they think I have been too unkind in my grading of them. I couldn't honestly have seen any of these players taking us outside the bottom three that is for sure.
I would describe the release of the category 4 players as one of the only benefits of the restructure.
The category 3 players were ones who had undoubtedly got more to show than we saw and I think our off-field structure and parsimony with facilities and support coaches was a major factor in this. All were disappointing to some supporters though clearly had some talent.
We have retained almost all the category 2 players so that's not bad news, though obviously lost some similar ones from the Academy.
What I think is the real loss is the category 1 players, with 7 gone and 1 injured for half the season, that's got to hurt.
Cheers
Rammo
