vastman wrote:
Bit of a poor comparison tbh.
Owen is a proven SL with 125 SL games under his belt. Kaye has nowhere near that experience level and has never shown the form Owen did a few years back in his entire career. We had 2 first team games out of Liam! Can we blame Agar, partly but not completely.
So for me I would certainly expect to pay more for Owens services than Kaye's, whether that's a wise investment I can't say until i've seen him play for us.
Also this idea that Kaye is a product of our Academy is a touch spurious IMHO. If I remember correctly he joined us from Bradfords Academy after starting with Leeds quite late in his junior career (18). Also he isn't from Wakefield not that this bothers me. To suggest he's a product of our Academy system is pushing it a bit to suit an argument. Someone like Chris Anakin is a better example of a true Academy product.
Bad comparison, no not really!
We know what to expect from Owen and IMO he's not much different to Fox, he'll finish tries that are laid on a plate for him but he won't create much on his own, he's a bit dodgy under the high ball, is defensively weak and can have the odd game where he's nothing short of catastrophic.
Liam Kaye on the other hand was making great progress, he was highly regarded at Doncaster and is highly valued at Leigh, while with us he looked a good prospect and handled everything thrown at him including both attack and defence.
On potential alone he was a better option than Owen!
I never mentioned him being one of our own but he would have ticked that box as far as the RFL are concerned, I don't know who made the decision not to negotiate with him but in the long term it was a poor decision.