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Thread: Signings U Were Pleasantly Surprised By

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    Default Signings U Were Pleasantly Surprised By

    The retirement of Taia and all the comments about how great he's been for us had me thinking how he's way surpassed my expectations. He's got to be well into the top 10 for such signings who you weren't expecting to be anything like as good as they turned out to be.

    Others that spring to mind that were far better than I expected were McVey, Farleigh, 'Baloo' Anderson & Fozzard.

    Any others?



    PS - apologies for the use of 'U' in the title; there's a limit on the number of letters you can use

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    In The West Stand Ralph Fridge's Avatar
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    Jason Hooper
    Paul Anderson
    Derek McVey
    Sonny Nickle (I knew how good he was, was just made up when he came back)

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    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk STIDDY's Avatar
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    Veivers was one who surpassed expectations.

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    Coote - in an interview before he signed he said he wasnt interested in moving to england but wow hes been superb
    Hooper - never heard of him before he signed
    Walmsley - again a no body when we signed him
    Hargreaves - signed from relegated leigh looked a poor signed but in the end was very disapointed when we let him go

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    Lee Gilmour.

    Didn't want to sign him and then he turned out to be one of my all-time favourites. Underrated player.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WidnesExile View Post
    Lee Gilmour.

    Didn't want to sign him and then he turned out to be one of my all-time favourites. Underrated player.
    I would go with that in SL times.


    Overseas Shane Cooper and George Mann

    Domestic Les Quirk and Paul Groves.

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    Kevin Ward was meant to be washed up when we signed him. He ended up adding to his GB caps.

    Kevin Iro signed at 31 and was absolutely a class act.

    Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk

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    Quote Originally Posted by WidnesExile View Post
    Lee Gilmour.

    Didn't want to sign him and then he turned out to be one of my all-time favourites. Underrated player.
    Thought Gilmour was outstanding at Bradford. Made up when we signed him.

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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    I'm always surprised when these type of topics come up that nobody mentions Darren Smith. He was absolutely outstanding in his one season with us. A fantastic athlete who would chase everything and never give up. He gave a 100 % in every game and also scored 19 tries in 31 games!
    He was playing that well that I think he broke the tradition of the Aussies refusing to pick players for the touring Kangaroos who were playing anywhere else than Australia.( Admittedly as an injury replacement).
    One of my favourite overseas signings, not bad for a 34 year old. Just wish we'd have got him a bit younger and for a longer period.
    Last edited by Duke Eddington; 6th July 2020 at 01:23.

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    Scott Gibbs, Joynty says it took him the whole of pre-season to keep up with the stragglers at the back and another season to get to RL standard.
    The best centre out of a pick of four internationals Good Friday 1996, scored at Wembley that year in the CC giving Paul Loughlin the big heave-ho.
    When he switched back to the dark side he was first choice for the Lions and along with Bentley, Tait and Quinell the only reason I found interest in this code.
    I met a few Welsh lads who were on his case where they deemed him not up to standard (you can have him back at St Helens were their drunken retorts) in the 5 nations in 1999, he then put in a superb effort against France and tore England another one in the final minutes at Wembley when Jenkins kicked the goal to give Wales a great victory there.
    I often wondered what they thought of him then!!

    I think the same of Scott as Ralph does of Lance.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WidnesExile View Post
    Lee Gilmour.

    Didn't want to sign him and then he turned out to be one of my all-time favourites. Underrated player.
    Once got in a taxi in Kirkcaldy and is was driven by Lee Gilmour’s cousin

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    Gilmour for me too, cracking player.

    Also Jason Hooper, Mickey Higham, Scully (seriously), Longy I suppose looking back. You could probably come up with quite a long list if you thought about it a bit.

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    Quote Originally Posted by STIDDY View Post
    Veivers was one who surpassed expectations.
    Totally agree. He came with no reputation but became an excellent signing. Not the quickest, but very consistent and reliable and very loyal too. One of the few Aussies to make the UK his home. Only once can I recall Phil being stopped in his tracks as the last line of defence - Des Drummond put his shoulder into Phil’s ribs/chest and scored - Phil stayed on his knee a while to recover!

    Kevin Ward was a revelation having been written off and became a real favourite.

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    Big Paul Anderson was another. People thought he was done a bit like Wardy. But he gave us a good couple of years.

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    Quote Originally Posted by brook View Post
    Big Paul Anderson was another. People thought he was done a bit like Wardy. But he gave us a good couple of years.
    A good omen for Jammer?

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    Nick Fozzard (first time)

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    Default Signings U Were Pleasantly Surprised By

    Quote Originally Posted by brook View Post
    Big Paul Anderson was another. People thought he was done a bit like Wardy. But he gave us a good couple of years.
    Anderson was massive for us in 2006. He turned a lot of games for us coming off the bench. Whenever the pack was struggling to get a foothold he would come off the bench and wreak absolute havoc and the tide would turn. If anything I think we missed him more than Lyon in the following years.

    I wasn’t keen on the news when we signed him so I’d say he has to go down as my most pleasantly surprising signing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Duke Eddington View Post
    I'm always surprised when these type of topics come up that nobody mentions Darren Smith. He was absolutely outstanding in his one season with us. A fantastic athlete who would chase everything and never give up. He gave a 100 % in every game and also scored 19 tries in 31 games!
    He was playing that well that I think he broke the tradition of the Aussies refusing to pick players for the touring Kangaroos who were playing anywhere else than Australia.( Admittedly as an injury replacement).
    One of my favourite overseas signings, not bad for a 34 year old. Just wish we'd have got him a bit younger and for a longer period.
    Yeah you're right
    Smith was quality for us in a poor season

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    In The West Stand Ralph Fridge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tallaght Tiger View Post
    Scott Gibbs, Joynty says it took him the whole of pre-season to keep up with the stragglers at the back and another season to get to RL standard.
    The best centre out of a pick of four internationals Good Friday 1996, scored at Wembley that year in the CC giving Paul Loughlin the big heave-ho.
    When he switched back to the dark side he was first choice for the Lions and along with Bentley, Tait and Quinell the only reason I found interest in this code.
    I met a few Welsh lads who were on his case where they deemed him not up to standard (you can have him back at St Helens were their drunken retorts) in the 5 nations in 1999, he then put in a superb effort against France and tore England another one in the final minutes at Wembley when Jenkins kicked the goal to give Wales a great victory there.
    I often wondered what they thought of him then!!

    I think the same of Scott as Ralph does of Lance.
    Ha ha ha.

    Gibbs was quality for us once he got going. Really tough to deal with

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tallaght Tiger View Post
    Scott Gibbs, Joynty says it took him the whole of pre-season to keep up with the stragglers at the back and another season to get to RL standard.
    Surprises me, that - I remember Gibbs being unusually impressive for a union convert right from the off. Compare with Tuigamala, who moved just a bit before and took more or less a season to get fit enough to play (IIRC).

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    Willie talau appollo perelini were pretty good for us

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    Quote Originally Posted by brook View Post
    Big Paul Anderson was another. People thought he was done a bit like Wardy. But he gave us a good couple of years.
    À lot of the others that people mention were good, but were we that surprised? Baloo, I thought was just a tub of lard trundling around Odsal. He was probably the one that surprised me most; he lost quite a bit of weight and proved there was a rugby player inside.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Belgian Saint View Post
    À lot of the others that people mention were good, but were we that surprised? Baloo, I thought was just a tub of lard trundling around Odsal. He was probably the one that surprised me most; he lost quite a bit of weight and proved there was a rugby player inside.
    I think he dropped over 2 stone (and was still over 18 stone), certainly gave him a new lease of life anyway.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph Fridge View Post
    Ha ha ha.

    Gibbs was quality for us once he got going. Really tough to deal with
    Spoke to Scott Gibbs many moons back at a Sainsbury's we were lucky to get him. Told me that the Goons sent him an unsigned blank cheque whilst in final negotiations with us, he didn't like the dark arts of the goons being inflicting on him.

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    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk Blobbynator's Avatar
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    I'm surprised Sean Long hasn't come up in this.

    He had barely played for Wigan and Widnes when we signed him and turned into the best 7 in the British game. Couldn't be more pleasantly surprised than that.
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