Aaron Fox Will make Sheffield Steelers EIHL champions again...

[paul johnston]

We've been very hit and miss with our recruitment of uni place players . To attribute our failure and Giants success to that is madness.
Yes recruitment, yes systems/coaching.

[House_of_Steel]

We've been very hit and miss with our recruitment of uni place players . To attribute our failure and Giants success to that is madness.
Yes recruitment, yes systems/coaching.

This has been my biggest issue over the past few seasons we have wasted these slots on Barry Brust, Oskar Ostlund, James bettauer and the likes we’ve historically had some good players on the uni deal Colton Fretter, John Armstrong to name two. I hope we can get back to been more diligent with who we use these slots on. An ageing unfit goalie, a subpar underwhelming goalie, and a mobile tennis guru/entrepreneur dont cut it!

I agree with you that it’s a poor excuse to blame the education package Belfast provide for our failings. Player recruitment for us is a big problem many people shun elite prospects and sometimes stats don’t give the bigger picture, but as an whole I find them very reliable, you merely had to look at the personal accolades of the Belfast players at junior and university level to know they were getting good players this as been the same pattern for several years. Steve and Keefe definitely have the advantage.

[Doom]

We've been very hit and miss with our recruitment of uni place players . To attribute our failure and Giants success to that is madness.
Yes recruitment, yes systems/coaching.

That's down to poor recruitment as far as I'm concerned.

If you recruit well it's a valuable tool in the armoury.

I'd suggest Neal Martin has probably been the most influential player in the EIHL era and he only ended up at Coventry due to the Uni course.

Steve Munn was magnificent for us.

Use the Uni courses well and you're effectively adding £10k to your wage cap figure for each player recruited to a Uni course.

The failures of players like Brust and Ostlund rest at the door of Fox. Wasting a place on injury prone players who are a big risk is down to poor recruitment.

I wouldn't say the difference between Belfast and Sheffield is all down to the Uni places, but by using them well it has definitely given Belfast an edge.

I'd be delighted if we were able to offer 7 or 8 Uni spaces next season, I'm just not convinced Fox is the man to get the best out of them.

We don't want crocks and we need players who are capable of mixing the pressures of study with playing.....that comes down to the coaches judgement.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

Bettauer had a great resume, but for whatever reason it didn't work out here. Agree on Ostlund and Brust though. Let's be fair here though, Belfast did not get their recruitment spot on last summer. What they did do well was in making mid season changes, and I think that is where we struggled. That could have been due to timing of when we needed to make changes (I e lack of availability) or poor recruitment choices - and we'll not be able to say (unless anyone here is an agent!).

I hope we're looking at the 29/30 year olds for uni places - career AHL type guys who's shot to make the show are probably gone, so will need to start thinking about the future. I'm sure though it's not as easy as we all make it sound though!

[paul johnston]

Fox's title aim just got a lot harder with Russell going to Devils. A coach would have liked at Steelers. A missed opportunity there.

[jas]

Fox's title aim just got a lot harder with Russell going to Devils. A coach would have liked at Steelers. A missed opportunity there.

I have said exactly the same

[mark]

Fox's title aim just got a lot harder with Russell going to Devils. A coach would have liked at Steelers. A missed opportunity there.

Never coached a top club I believe and also has limited recruiting experience, he'll be relying on others doe contacts.

[saturn]

I would suggest that Belfast are the biggest team in the league not Steelers

[Bob46]

Bettauer had a great resume, but for whatever reason it didn't work out here. Agree on Ostlund and Brust though. Let's be fair here though, Belfast did not get their recruitment spot on last summer. What they did do well was in making mid season changes, and I think that is where we struggled. That could have been due to timing of when we needed to make changes (I e lack of availability) or poor recruitment choices - and we'll not be able to say (unless anyone here is an agent!).

I hope we're looking at the 29/30 year olds for uni places - career AHL type guys who's shot to make the show are probably gone, so will need to start thinking about the future. I'm sure though it's not as easy as we all make it sound though!

Belfast did get their recruitment pretty much spot on.

Two players seasons were cut short due to injury and one’s career was ended due to a bleed on the brain,
One player was sacked due to off ice incident involving a team mates girlfriend and Peyton Jones was replaced by Besko. Thornton and Keefe are EXCELLENT recruiters and Smith does them a disservice by claiming the Giants success is due to over use of a Uni program. Giants had just three players on a program with Lasell Uni last year.

The Friendship Four and the teams reputation for looking after the players extremely well has been a much better help in recruiting talent than Uni places.
Plus the Giants dont have a figure like Simms hanging around causing cringe worthy embarrassment.

[Bob46]

We've been very hit and miss with our recruitment of uni place players . To attribute our failure and Giants success to that is madness.
Yes recruitment, yes systems/coaching.

That's down to poor recruitment as far as I'm concerned.

If you recruit well it's a valuable tool in the armoury.

I'd suggest Neal Martin has probably been the most influential player in the EIHL era and he only ended up at Coventry due to the Uni course.

Regards

Doom

I’d suggest Tyler Beskorowany has taken over that mantle from Neal Martin now and he has never been on a Uni course.