Vic - my only issue with Oledzki is that he's a bit one-paced. What we need is a pack as a whole which can stand up to big, aggressive opponents - especially early in games, when we've had a tendency to get blown away at times. I expect this is something we'll see next season, as our defensive approach will be very different up the middle.

As for Cam Smith, the problem is what role he plays. There's a good player there, but not as a ball handler in every move. He is much too slow for that. Assuming he can change his fitness to focus on shorter but more dynamic involvement, we could see a far superior version to the Cam Smith who has frankly looked a bit lost at times.

So it's all gone a bit quiet on the recruitment updates for me it makes sense with Blease coming out this week saying recruitment is pretty much done, my source did say to me the club planned for Brodie Croft leaving but they we're bery firm on Croft was only free to leave if the Dragons met our demands so fair play to the club playing hardball with our own players hence why St George signed Illias from the Rabbitohs instead.

Leeds drafted a 3 man shortlist with incase Croft did leave apparently it was between Jackson Hastings, Jayden Sullivan & Anthony Milford but it seems nothing will come of these as Croft is reportedly happy to see his contract out with us.

The Bateman deal I posted a little while ago seems pretty much dead he seems a difficult character to strike a deal with. West Tigers seem struggling to even find out if he wants to stay with them or leave. We are still looking to bring in another forward if the right deal can be struck but Arthur is more than happy with his current roster.

I expect us to announce our squad numbers in next week or two leading upto the boxing day game. I'm gonna say our squad will look like this.
1. L.Miller (OQ)
2. M.Sivo (OQ)
3. H.Newman
4. J.Connor
5. A.Handley
6. B.Croft (OQ)
7. M.Frawley (OQ)
8. M.Oledzki
9. A.Ackers
10. T.Holroyd
11. J.Bentley
12. J.Mcdonnell
13. C.Smith
14. J.O'Connor
15. S.Lisone (OQ)
16. K.Palasia (OQ)
17. C.Jenkins (OQ)
18. M.Gannon
19. J.Sinfield
20. (Free if another forward is signed)
21. A.Edgell
22. T.Nicholson-Watton
23. R.Lumb
24. N.Mccormack
25. R.Hall
26. B.Littlewood
27. T.Warren
28. M.Simpson
29. J.Smith
30. P.Cassell
31. M.Qareqare

Skillful for a forward, as someone described him earlier, is correct but he's not needed as an extra half with the defence in front of him. He needs to be getting his nose through the line more. Hopefully he'll find that easier if we find ourselves with a pack that works over defences in a way we've not really done for some time.

Unlike last season , when we all knew the least worst 17 , there is genuine battle for places, roll on next year.

To be fair there was huge optimism about our new signings last year. Arguably the Croft signing and the prospect of Miller (etc) were generating a lot more excitement than those in place for 2025. But maybe the absence of similar hype this year, combined with general confidence in the way Arthur wants us to play is a more stable position to be in.

Did anyone live up to expectations last year? Arguably only Miller (in both good and bad ways) and Frawley (mostly bad) did. I hope we get more out of Ackers and Croft in 2025.