Hastings was released by Manly on the 26th June. Even if the Tui deal was agreed by GH before then we still should have gone for Hastings as we desperately needed an organiser at the time and we could have signed him on short term deal as Salford did.

Poor show from GH and possibly Sinfield too as he must have been in talks with GH for some time before he started and could have suggested going for Hastings. Great player though Sinfield was I am not convinced about his management capabilities or judgement. He is the one pushing for Sutcliffe and Ferres as captain plus other 2nd rate signings.

Oh I agree with that. Just saying Lolohea wasn’t a Sinfield mistake. Actually think we would have gone for Hastings had Sinfield had way.

Wouldn't disagree but Sinfield's appointment would seem to be part of a long term strategy, presumably under the guidance of GH. It really shouldn't surprise anyone if his judgement and leadership skills aren't 100% right now, given that it's such a different role to anything he's done in the past. A bit like cutting a young player some slack, sometimes folk have to make mistakes and learn from them.

GH may well have agreed a deal with Lolohea weeks before his signing was announced, but he would have been talking to Sinfield weeks before his appointment was announced also. I don't believe that the signing would have gone ahead without Sinfields agreement, indeed his comments at the time suggested that he was delighted with Lolohea's signing.

I don’t either, and wasn’t suggesting that. However, it would be a pretty poor first job for someone in that role to cancel an agreement already made. Not sure you would have any goodwill going forward once that message got out.

Tui could still prove to be an excellent signing. However his best position is at fullback where he shows real class. His linking into the attacking line and superb passing have already created a bundle of tries in just two outings at fullback. OK he is overweight but this need not be a long term concern with the right management. He also is not the best tackler but neither was Barba and he was the runaway Man of Steel. So I for one would like to see him have an extended run at fullback.

FB is definitely his best position, can't see him scoring breakaway tries from his own 20 like Barba did though, unless he's given oxygen on half way.

The problem is we have Walker, Golding and Lolohea who are all full backs, but are weak in other areas.

Walker is our best full back. But.. is it worth having a look at him at standoff perhaps

Perhaps not as good a try scorer as Barba but he has a better pass than Barba or Walker and could be another Webb

Sutcliffe deserves to keep his position at stand off for now. It could be worth playing Walker, Golding or even Newman on the wing.