I didn't discuss my long term ambitions, I think you have taken what I said slightly one-eyed.

Signing the likes of Darren Lockyer, Cam Smith, Billy Slater or as Warrington did Andrew Johns is a huge draw and clearly a no brainer. But with all due respect to the majority of overseas signings made by SuperLeague clubs, they aint.

So my point is, rather than sign a Ben Cross, I would rather leave the spots blank and as another poster said wear them like a badge of honour and sign another Davies or Walker or Clarke or Milner.

That was my only point, that is short term moderation for hopefully long term development.

I understand what your saying but does wearing a badge of honour bring us silverware?
And for how long do you wear a badge of honour, when will we go out and fill our overseas quota.
I know Leeds have been successful with there large influx of home grown players but they also have had some very good overseas players to complement them, such as Webb, Donald, Lauititi, Toopi and Leuluai.

oh no they're not front line NRL players,they're just the next bunch of unwanted NRL players that fancy a nice pay day over here,Hohai is the best of a bad bunch there imo

At the end of the day, the quota is 5. I'd utilise the quota of five players and have five world-class overseas stars supplemented by 20+ Cas youngsters. That should ultimately be the dream we aspire to.

Yes you could be right but they also could turn out to be very influential players, that's the risk you take.

How are laffranchi and hohai unwanted? bad bunch? they are top class players who will light up super league next season. I can only dream that cas bring in players of that calibre.

Those players mentioned would probably get a start in the England side,such is the depth of talent down under.

Thing is since we went to a summer game we won't see world class Aussies in their prime in Super League anymore....Origin and the national jersey is too big a pull for the likes of Slater,Inglis,Thurston,Hayne etc.

There is alot of good 1st grade players in the N.R.L to look at....must say i think Harlequins have done great in getting that ex Melbourne prop (Kuofusi)?.

Think we need 2 props, a big raw boned backrower (we must have the smallest back 3 in the league), and if the new coach doesn't play Mcgoldrick there a quality centre. We are relatively inexperienced there and im afraid to say i think Isa maybe be too injury prone

You've got the same problem we (Leeds) will have in recruiting a centre: there aren't any. England has precisely no world class centres to choose from, and the exchange rate makes SL ever-less attractive for an Aussie payday recruit.

I heard a rumour that Ferres was out of contract. Is that true?

Totally agree. What separates the Warringtons & Saints of this world from the likes of us, Wakey etc is the quality of the overseas players they sign.

Of the 5 overseas players on our books this year I believe 3 are contracted for next season - Chase, Youngquest & McGoldrick).

It looks like Widders is going so we should be looking to replace him with a good overseas forward, preferably a prop.

We then have to think hard about whether Isa is of a good enough quality to retain beyond this season.

I believe we have a further non-federation spot available cos McGoldrick is exempt but for me I'd stick with the maximum of 5 overseas players in the squad. I've been quite proud of the fact this season that we've often played with only 2 or 3 non-British players in our side, as opposed to some SL sides that manage to have 7 or 8 through various loopholes.

Isa doesn't count through the Contonou agreement and McGoldrick is non-federated due to residency.

That means we only have Youngquest and Chase on the quota for next season. Widders was the only other overseas player we've got and he's off.

I believe that only means he doesn't count on the overseas quota, however he still counts as non-fed trained of which we can have a maximum of 5. I agree that with McGoldrick being exempt we could get 2 more non-fed trained players in but I would prefer to see us stick within a maximum of 5 non-British (rather than non-fed) players.

True.

But as it stands:

Quota
Chase
Youngquest

Non-federation trained
Chase
Youngquest
Isa
McGoldrick*

Not sure whether McGoldrick would count as federation trained as a result of being here before the rulings were introduced.