Announced today.

Pleased with that. interesting to see that he wants to earn a longer deal too and wants to prove himself next year to us. Best mates with Sezer too. exciting times next season.

Time to get your finger out Gale.

absolutely

I think this is a good fit for Leeds, Sezer and Austin on paper are the perfect halfback pairing for me.

Austin has lost his way a bit at Wire but I think a lot of players do in that Wire side, he is a class player.

I actually think ‘on paper’ a Sezer/Austin partnership could work better than Gale/Sezer?

I know club see him as offering utility but I’m not sure what that’s based on at 1st team level.

Just looked through his career stats and in123 NRL games he played centre 3 times and FB once and for Warrington in 60 games he played centre in one and loose forward in one and obviously we know Bennett played him on the wing for GB

Granted in his earlier NRL 1st team career he had a handful of games where he was on the bench and so I don’t know what position he came on to play in.....but those stats don’t scream out obvious utility to me?

How did they go while together at Canberra? (Not an nrl watcher )

They were very good

Sezer and Austin is a better partnership than Sezer and Gale IMO

Either way adding Austin for next year makes the squad a whole lot better

When we signed Austin I did some digging around to see NRL fans views and posted the links on the Wire thread talking about his signing, further down the thread ChiswickWire did the same



Which turned out to be pretty accurate!

I think he was overhyped when we signed him, he was pumped up in the press as a game changer who would elevate us to the next level, he was talked of as "Man of Steel contender" before he'd even started, and when he started off scoring tries all over the place in his first couple of months the pundits loved him. On our forum there were threads discussing whether he was our best overseas signing of the SL era etc.

After that hot start he never hit the same heights again and overall if he hadn't had that start he would probably be regarded in the tier of high profile overseas signings that disappointed. Still, he seemed to embrace playing for the club and making a go of building a career here, he wasn't constantly looking for an exit route back to the NRL like some have in the past.

I don't think he's a bad player, he's a fine athlete and has talent he is just a bit limited and after those first couple of months SL teams seemed to work out how to negate his best assets. If he's being brought in to play a particular role, rather than being the man the team is built around, he might be more effective at Leeds than Wire. We had a similar situation with Myler who was pretty good for us over a long period of time but some fans were disappointed in him because he was signed as the long term replacement to Briers, and he was never that type of player.

Yeah, agree with that - at the price being paid, shrewd is definitely the word for this signing.

Time to go, time to go,time to go.

Happy with this, 1 year is good for both parties our halfback partnership next year could be best in SL, I do think Gale will he leaving at the end of the season now though & Hurrell or Martin or both could also be on there way out now.

There's nothing to suggest Gale is being released. Austin is being signed to bolster the squad rather than to immediately replace Gale.