When was the last time a player who signed for us caused this much excitement and buzz around the club. I was only 11 when King and co signed so didn't know enough to be that excited.

For me it was probably Myler, I watched him destroy us away at Salford and couldn't wait to see him play for the Wire.

Only Andrew Johns has caused a bigger fuss recently and Allan Langer before him.
Sandow is only whispers of excitement compared to the legends I mentioned.
Sandow isn't a legend just great.

Showing my age now, but Alex Murphy in 1971 was sensational at the time.

He was, no quite the media frenzy back then and certainly not even a blinked eyelid in Oz.

phil blake got a few tongues wagging when he came here

What about Moz? First real stament of intent for us to become a top club

Indeed. As a fan of another club, this signing was the first to really make me sit up and take notice. He was 27/28 at the time and a top NRL prop forward.

I remember constantly checking teletext (!) for updates on us signing langer. He'd been my favourite player for years. That off season signing Langer, Nickau & Gee was amazing.

nothing will surpass Johns signing

a) he was the best player in the world
b) we were assembling a decent side but still lacked something
c) He signed late in the season and people genuinely thought we were in with a chance of old trafford as soon as his signing was announced
d) there wasn't even a whisper of his signing it was completely out of the blue.

It just created such a fantastic buzz around the game as a whole Phil Clarke said Johns Debut was one of, if not [ithe[/i most memorable moment in the summer era,

Alan Langer was already retired when he signed for us.....and it didnt have the same buzz because we didnt know what we were getting. fortunately he was just as good as he ever was.

Johns Was 31 and had around two years left on his Newcastle contract, even without his injury we would never have got him full time, Langer was 34.

Sandow is 26.......that needs to sink in.

lets see what our first fixture is in the super 8's.
I guess it will be the home game against whoever is 3rd in the League (if ive followed that grid right)....... if thats Saints or Wigan that will create quite a buzz.

I think the last time we had a player who brought so much excitement was 70 years ago....he came quietly without a fanfare of expectation & set the club & rugby league alight for the next 18(?) years. Sadly,i never got to see Brian Bevan play in the flesh.

this is the biggest factor..... as a league we cant get the cream of the NRL unless they

a) interfere with a dog
b) slag their coach off

the monaghan signing was a good one... but this Sandow one has the potential to be the clubs greatest ever recruitment from the NRL.

And yet we lost count of the number of opposition fans on here saying we had made a mistake signing an 'NRL Crock' on a 4 year deal.