I read your posts and think sometimes you just make it up as you go along...

Galloway was absolutely shot in his last NRL season - Tigers wanted him off their cap and no other club would have paid him decent money - too slow and ponderous for today's NRL, particularly with reduced interchanges

Cuthbertson - Has always been a bit of a journeyman. Had a couple of good seasons at St George, was decent overall, but generally too many risky offloads for most NRL coaches - Knights were happy to let him go, there was no clamour for his signature

Simms - Granted played very well in his last year at NQ, however he'd already signed with Wire at the beginning of the season, and NQ had been happy to let him go - again no clamour for him.. Too inconsistent, too many penalties and bans.... He may well have had suitors based on his last season but he'd already signed with Wire - before that season, he'd been average for years, with the odd good game when he got his pecker up....

Buderus - Wasn't the Blues captain, and whilst I'm sure Newcastle would have kept him, we paid him a kings ransom to come....

AG is bang on the money - they're here as a last resort or for a big payday....

No Mags or Moon in that pic either, nothing to read into any absentees.

Cuthbertson and Delaney being true Aussies with the flip flops on.

And yeah on attendance the players do have lives and responsibilities. The likes of Hall, Singleton and Moon all absent have had kids born in the last few months so perhaps spending time with family.

The deal for Ferres this year was on a lesser sum, and we had to fit under the cap, hence the announcement of one year. But they agreed right at the start on a three year deal, with the other two following on from this one year deal.

I'm glad, I don't think we have seen the best of Ferres yet and if Achurch is leaving and Ablett wants to retire it's a good plan given jjb age, Delaney's fitness and Ward returning from injury.

rumour was handley and lilley signed 4 year deals a while back

Are we seriously going to try and wring out another season from Delaney? If he was an animal the RSPCA would be wanting to prosecute the club for gross cruelty. Sales of zinc oxide tape, deep heat and bandages will be going through the roof next year that's for certain.

I am more concerned about us getting another season out of McGuire.
Maybe if we can offload Zak to free up cap space.
We might get Widdop to play at SO with McGuire/Lilley filling in at SH and Burrow replacement hooker?
Other than that we cannot sign an Australian half and Luke Gale has grabbed a five year deal with Cas which leaves us with little to no options at SO whatsoever.

Agreed, if Segeyaro is signed then next priority has to be an organising half back.

Then Widdop would most definitely not be the answer.... An organising half he is not!

If Hardaker leaves and we still have Mcguire, Burrow, Lilley and Sutcliffe will GH want to spend on a HB? wont FB an important signing or are we now moving/moulding Sutty into a back up one?

All I've noticed recently on recruitment is about a hooker replacement, whether its Segeyaro, Farrar or Rein. I wouldnt be surprised to see GH pushing Sutcliffe into full back to replace Hardaker for next year. Ferres will almost certainly upgrade his contract which leaves the half back situation to solve. We cant possibly be thinking of another year with McGuire surely

That's my worry.
What's happened with the idea of developing Golding at FB? Is that dead in the water now?
Not sure Sutcliffe to FB and McGuire to SO fills me with much enthusiasm for next year even with a decent hooker.

McDermott said Golding was likely to be fit for the next game vs Widnes so will be interesting to see if Sutcliffe keeps the FB shirt or goes back to the halves with Golding playing at 1.

I would keep Sutcliffe at FB (he's def not a HB) and try Golding at 6 ....but what do I know