If cap issues are preventing us strengthening in the halves and in the pack then I'd move on a couple of the more redundant high earners. Hall and Watkins. Decent centre and wing that are of no earthly use with current shortcomings elsewhere. This assumes that talent is available to come in; I'm nowhere near as sold on Widdop as some are. Thinking about it, I'd make an offer for Williams. Wigan are always up for a fee.

In previous years though we've moved on B. Mcdermott Senior Webb Ali Mckenna Bai etc etc & on the Coaching front T.Smith & Bluey Cummins Poching so it's nothing new to GH.
In fact id say it's part of the Blueprint to our sustained success now we are back at the start of that cycle i.e early 2000's where the cull & rebuild began.

Yes, but I'm not so sure GH is that same person he was with the same drive and desire for the club he had circa 2000 as in getting down, dirty and ruthless. Hopefully i'm wrong. Guess we will see soon enough.

I'd say the evidence suggests GH has fallen asleep at the wheel, buying into excuses for last year when he should have done more, at least in the off-season, to make sure it wasn't repeated. The fact that after a mere 4 games he's had to email fans to try to placate them may at least be a sign that he's waking from his slumber.

He may be, he's also shrewd enough to know that the people who are now grumbling (and rightly so IMHO) about lessons not been learned from last year will soon be aiming their ire and questions at him if he doesn't nip it in the bud with an open ended fluff piece.

Who stays / who goes ?

1. Ashton Golding
2. Tom Briscoe
3. Kallum Watkins
4. Joel Moon
5. Ryan Hall - Contracted to 2018
6. Danny McGuire - Contracted to 2017
7. Rob Burrow - Contracted to 2017
8. Keith Galloway
9. Parcell
10. Adam Cuthbertson
11. Jamie Jones-Buchanan
12. Carl Ablett
13. Stevie Ward
14. Liam Sutcliffe
15. Brett Delaney
16. Brad Singleton
17. Mitch Garbutt
18. Jimmy Keinhorst
19. Brett Ferres - Contracted to 2019
20. Anthony Mullally
21. Josh Walters
22. Ash Handley
23. Jack Ormondroyd
24. Jordan Baldwinson
25. Jordan Lilley
26. Cory Aston
27. Cameron Smith
28. Mikolaj Oledzki
29. Josh Jordan-Roberts
30. Sam Hallas

It's hard to say without knowing the player's salaries but this is how I'd go. We need a quality half, line breaking prop and second rower and this will hopefully free up the salary and positions necessary to make this happen. I haven't made a call on Aston as we haven't seen him yet. Ultimately though I do think any major squad clear outs will only be effective if we bring in some fresh faces on the coaching side.

All the ones i've selected to keep would all be subject to the New Regimes call.

This would be my call. I think Watkins needs a fresh start ala Hardaker and the money it would create would be better spent elsewhere.

Backs & Halfbacks - stay, give him the opportunity to develop
2. Tom Briscoe; [2018] - stay
7. Rob Burrow; [2017] - go
1. Ashton Golding; [2018] - stay
5. Ryan Hall; [2018] - stay
22. Ashley Handley; [2017] - stay
25. Jordan Lilley; [2017] - stay
6. Danny McGuire; [2017] - go
4. Joel Moon; [2018] NFT - stay if he wants to, but can go with Keinhorst development
14. Liam Sutcliffe; [2017] - stay, give him chance, should be loose forward
3. Kallum Watkins; [2019] - stay, get the ball to him like Segeyaro and Aiton used to, there is no better on his day.
Forwards - stay, be the experienced player in the squad
24. Jordan Baldwinson; [2017] - stay, big potential here.
10. Adam Cuthbertson; [2018] - NFT - stay, he can get back to 2015 form.
15. Brett Delaney; [2018] NFT - go
19. Brett Ferres; [2019] - stay
]8. Keith Galloway; [2018] - NFT - go for me, money best used elsewhere
17. Mitch Garbutt; [2019] - NFT OQ - stay
30. Sam Hallas; [2017] - go, not going to get the chance at hooker or prop
11. Jamie Jones-Buchanan; [2017] - go
29. Joshua Jordan-Roberts; [2018] - stay
18. Jimmy Keinhorst; [2018] - stay
20. Anthony Mullally; [2018] - go
28. Mikolaj Oledzki; [2021] - stay
23. Jack Ormondroyd; [2019] - stay
9. Matt Parcell; [2019] - NFT OQ - stay
16. Brad Singleton; [2018] - stay
27. Cameron Smith [2019] - stay
21. Josh Walters; [2017] - go
13. Stevie Ward; [2020] - stay

I think we would get more bang for buck by letting Hall go too. Not hard to replace for an acceptable replacement and he is on big money. We need some strong thinking to manage the cap.

Agreed. Both are great luxury players to have but are not essential to a re build and shouldn't be taking up big chunks of the cap when money is better spent elsewhere. Most of our cap money needs spending on a half we can build the side around (example- Widdop) and we need a couple of impact forwards at least to go with Garbutt. We really miss Garbutt, he was carrying our go forward for the first couple of rounds, a couple more from the NRL like him would aid us massively which is why i would also release Galloway, Cuthbertson and Delaney at the end of the year to free up the quota spaces.

Quality 3/4s are not luxury players. They're essential, and hard to come by (especially centres). All that would happen if we let them go would be that they would be snapped up by Saints Hull or Warrington, and we'd be left scraping around for quality replacements.
We have enough to worry about elsewhere in the squad without adding to our issues by getting rid of another couple of our backline, especially so soon after letting Hardaker go

We would still have Golding, Briscoe, Handley and Moon left in 3/4's Keinhorst could play centre too quite well enough during any 2 year rebuild, it also gives a chance to anyone else who is ready to step up from the lower grades. Watkins has absolutely proved he is a luxury player over the last 18 months and played nothing like the marquee player he gets paid to be. I just think he needs a fresh start anyway. Nothing against Hall either, a fantastic player but expendable in this situation imo. Again, both players will be on a huge wedge now which could be better used building the foundations elsewhere in the team.