Even if he wanted to leave then surely we would need to pay a fairly large fee, he has at least one if not two years on his contract I think. There was talk of him going to the NRL earlier this yeah and sure he signed an extended deal.

Just don’t see how we could do it.

For this coming season or year after?

I don't agree Ghost.
No team can afford to have 3 quality HB's in case of injury.
Are you expecting Gale to sit in the stands waiting for an injury to Sezer or Austin? No chance.

We forget that Myler is an ex international HB.
Would he be our first choice - of course not.
But he provides adequate cover if needed.
Along with Leeming, johnson or Sutcliffe if we're desperate.
We just have to hope that we don't get as desperate as last season.
Maybe the new strength and conditioning team will help in that respect...

We need to sign a British prop now.
I think Thompson, Watts or Sutton are probably out of reach for us.
English is a good shout.
I still think Harrison would have been worth a shot.

100% NO.....

I don't know what you mean. Leeds definitely could because we built next year's squad on that assumption.

The Gale thing has been inevitable since he was stripped of the captaincy!
Then we went and signed Sezer and then Austin!
The club obviously wanted rid imo

As I say, no way was Gale going to sit in the stands waiting for an injury to Sezer or Austin.

But he wasn’t going to be sitting in the stands. According to all the interviews coming out of Agar, Austin was not signed as an out and out HB and was going to play a utility role. For what it’s worth I didn’t know how/if that was going to work in practice, but that was the plan the club had put out in the public domain.....and now we obviously have a major ‘U’ turn and Austin will now be one of the HBs all season, injuries permitting.

I wouldnt read too much into what was said at the time we signed Austin...Agar was never going to say publicly that Austin was signed to replace Gale while Gale was at the club, it seems we released him without much fuss or fee which suggests Austin/Sezer was always the plan.

Gale was marquee and home grown and as such only releases £75k on the cap, regardless of what his actual salary was. Although it releases funds it doesn't release that much cap. So unless we had room on the cap anyway I can't see how we could sign a big earner. I suppose it depends how we use the marquee allocation from here onwards

Good point. The club absolutely didn't intend for this to happen which is why it's such a blow. It really has the potential to undermine all the carefully laid plans for next year to be a big one. Totally reliant on Sezer remaining fit now.

Yeah ok

Excellent point. It's a large dollop off the wage bill not a huge amount off the cap. Gale divided opinions since the day he was signed, but I do think it's a significant blow to our chances of success next season. I don't think this was part of any grand plan. Would we have let McLelland go if that was the case?

And things change, Gale obviously wanted out, what were we supposed to do?

Gale didn’t offer anything last year, and poor attitude aswell. Think a new direction for both parties is best solution.