Thanks for the recommend Arthur. A while ago I read "Reilly" the biography of Malcolm Reilly by Ian Heads. That has a bit where he remembers seeing an explosion in participation in Sydney in the early 70s with kids playing RL all over the place. That, along with the climate and the lack of competing winter sports meant that the game down under was always going to surpass that over here. Their interest in new coaching ideas helped too. I read in the biographies of Roy Francis and Jack Gibson how they used to swap notes. While Francis didn't stay long at Norths his approach to the game appealed to Gibson who then went to the USA and came back and revolutionised things. They've been ahead of us ever since. That bit in the podcast about who Penrith learn from and who learns from them was interesting.

So I had a major update from my source tonight as I asked over the weekend was there any update with recruitment after the Sivo deal was announced I asked about are we looking to bring in another forward.

Ian Blease has reportedly enquired about singing John Bateman for the 2025 season.

Now I was told that Blease contacted West Tigers about a season long loan for 2025 with West's contributing towards his wages and if Bateman was to be a success in 2025 we would look at taking him on permanently in 2026. He's wanting to try meet with Bateman now he's in the country playing for England so that could happen in next couple of weeks.


It's been quite public that West Tigers are looking to offload Bateman after apparently falling out with their head coach Benji Marshall. So I could see West being interested if their isn't a mass amount of clubs chasing Bateman.

I was also told the club is very happy with the recruitment ahead of next season and are only looking at 1 more signing if the right deal came about so if this Bateman deal happened we wouldn't be bringing in another forward/ signing such as Liam Byrne etc.


If the Bateman deal happens I can however see this that he'd get the 11 shirt, Mcdonnell would get 12 and then Bentley would move to 16 and act as middle/ back row interchange like he was playing under Arthur at the end of last season. Having a rotation of Bateman/ Mcdonnell/ Bentley & Gannon creates healthy competition between them all.
My only slight concern would be that the 4 players I've named above are all in the same mold smaller back rowers with a high work rate it does lack a bit of punch for me but we did ok with JJB & Ablett as our back rowers for nearly a decade and they we're workman like backrowers.

Overall if this happened I don't think it's bad business and smart business as well from Blease as it would only be a loan and we wouldn't be stuck with Bateman if he had a poor season and didn't perform like we would if we bought him from Wests.

Interesting bit of feedback mate thank you.
Having heard some of the pundits destroying Batemans performance and stating there is no way he will play for Wests again. It did feel he is playing a bit of a game, contracted for 2 more years and if you want to pay me for sitting at home then so be it.
My concern is he is too similar to what we have and whilst we managed with the likes of Ablett and JJB we also had a better set of halfbacks and prop forwards than we have now.

Interesting. Wouldn’t add any size to the pack, but as you say it would add a lot of flexibility. Bateman does seem to gave burned his bridges in Oz.

I mean we all know everyone hates Leeds but can you imagine the sheer amount of housery we would have with Bateman Connor Newman and Bentley in the same team

I kind of like the sound of that.

A team only a season ticket holder could love.

I understand the cheap loan idea but not beyond that.

If we are going to sign a backrow it has to be different to what we have.

Depends what you mean by "not different". If you mean physically similar, yes. If you mean similar in ability and experience, no. Neither McDonnell or Bentley have played in the NRL or been a regular pick for their country. Hand on heart I'd rather have another big (non project) prop, but since our options in that regard seem very limited indeed, you can't blame Blease/Arthur for looking to strengthen in other ways.

Personally, I'd leave someone else to manage Bateman. I don't think we need what he brings. We should either look for another big unit for the front row, a pacy sizeable line breaker of a backrower, or keep our power dry in case something happens mid season.

Bateman was utterly shocking for Wests before he left. He looked like a 50-year old at times. That might have been down to lack of interest, which is even worse as a fan. Do we really want someone who only plays if they feel like it?

Don’t get the Bateman interest don’t see what he brings he’s past his best and just another rafter like Bentley and Mcdonell. We need another prop. The two new signings can also play second row and add size. Win win

I wouldn't be against signing Bateman if the deal was right. He was dreadful at West's, but he could still definitely do a decent job for us.

Gosh, Blease is a real wheeler-dealer isn't he. Fair play if he can get another signing where the previous club is paying a proportion of the wages. Wests were awful, and it's hard to look good in such a bad team.

My concern with Bateman would be signing him for the same reasons we signed Austin and Sezer. To a degree both NRL and SL proven talents and big names, but probably at the wrong stage of their careers to really be up to much.

BA/Blease seem to be going for some big name signings, but all of them probably have question mark over them.

Wests are such a shambles it's harsh to judge any player there. Bateman looked pretty good for England at the weekend but I would say Leeds need props more than anything.