I think Rob Parker is playing out of his skin. I think he deserves a year.

To me id only keep Chase and Emmitt and build a team round them 2, good job im not coach hey.

think we should give parker a year and maybe try and get ben davies

No Huby?

I'd keep the bulk of the squad - we need depth.

You're joking, right?

Apart from not being good enough, injury prone and (reportedly) one of the biggest drains on our salary budget?

Yeah.

I'd definitely keep the vast majority.

For me - I'd not be interested in:

Hudson & Widders : both seen better days - I'd claim our weakest players

Fozzard : if we can get a younger replacement (Ben Davies??)

Isa : possibly a good player but a complete waste of money/quota so far

At the very top of the 'to go' list has to be Hudson,looks tired ,Mathers next maybe,the blokes half decent at running it in but blimey under the high ball I start to get chest pains watching him! Where else can we stick him , the wing? Again wingers have to deal with kicks usually grubbers , so for me hooker and full back next for us

I do think Ryan Hudson hasn't been his old self this season, so thats a possible. But with Orr, Clarke and Milner in the squad, I am less worried about this.

I think the only others for discussion would be Isa, Fozzard and Widders;
Isa looks a great prospect, but if he cant get fit and on the field, thats unfortunate.
Widders and Fozzard have to figure out if they can go on again and up their levels.

Not sure why Mathers attracts so much criticism! I am comfortable, relatively speaking with 3 fullback options in the squad.

So, looking at this season I would suggest that with Thompson, Eden and Arundel having shown well, that 1 outside back and look at the grunts - I think Parker could fix one of those spots for us, Davies seemingly will be back at Wigan. Snitch seems to be on the wrong side of TM somewhat, but the new coach effect will negate that.
If you look at our pack with Walker and Huby back in it, then we need to add depth, not have a wholesale clearout.

We put ourselves in a position for next season, by playing Clarke, Milner, Holmes, Davies, Eden, Arundel etc to NOT have to make wholesale changes to the spine of the team and ADD to the squad.

You're not the only one! Seems to have brought an air of professionalism to the club. With the nonsensical hero worship Ryan McGoldrick enjoys from some Cas fans, perhaps having someone that spends his spare time looking after himself rather than in Pontefract/Xscape isn't what those fans are after...

To answer the original post, I'd keep the majority of the players. Strip the dead wood - primarily McGoldrick and Hudson - the rest of the squad plus a few quality additions and depth would be top 8 certainties every year.

I agree about the options of the number 1 shirt at cas but are they good fullbacks or can play fullback ,Mathers came as a good fullback,it would be nice if we had one in our last line of defence. Mate! His positioning is woefull at times.Like I said ball in hand he looks great,but don't you just get the feeling that every team in SL think he's a bit iffy and target him. Might be just me!

I think we need a big centre. I like Arundel and Dixon but I think that we need someone - pardon my French - in the mould of Keith Senior. Someone who has good handling skills but equally adept at running and with strength.

I was hoping that would be Isa but I don't know whether he'll be retained beyond this year given his injury problems.

I'll be the 3rd person to say I can't understand why Mathers attracts such criticism. The only thing that slightly concerns me is the way he holds the ball out in front of him with 1 hand when he runs it back, but it doesn't seem to have resulted in excessive loss of possession so far.

I tend to err on the side of minimal reduction of the squad and just bring in a few quality players to add strength in depth.

We have been hugely unlucky to have so many injuries to props. I know everyone has to cope with injuries but to have 4 props, 3 of which (Huby, Walker & Emmitt) are probably your 1st choice in that position get injured at the same time is very unfortunate. The strongest sides in the comp would have struggled with that.

If we're being brutal I'd say get rid of Fozzard, McGoldrick & Widders and bring in a quality Aussie prop, utility back/halfback and then just a couple more decent forwards and maybe another back.