Agreed

The Prior rumours aren't going away, and then we've had a few additional departures in recent weeks (Peteru, Ferres, Singleton).

Prior/Cuthbertson/Ava/Crosby/Oledski/Holroyd looks like the front row in prospect then.

Merrin/Ward/Martin/Mellor/Smith/Sutcliffe/Trout/Walters would be your back row.

Hooker does look light with just Dwyer and Johnson - they must have let Lunt go for a reason and would assume Leeming/Levi/someone else is on the radar.


Lui/Gale first grade halves with McLelland/Myler reserve grade?

Unfortunately the first team back line picks itself pretty much, but reserves could be: Stephens, Tindall, Broadbent, A Sutcliffe, Hall?

We could do with another couple of youngsters graduating to first grade over the next 12 months. The side is improving but still in massive transition - much will depend on how Agar can get them playing as a unit and playing with some skill, because there are bigger sides and faster sides than us out there. There are some skills in the pack for example but we need to be able to play tough as well as fancy.

Fair appraisal of where we are I think. One or two midseason signings and we are already in better shape.
The only thing that worries me is this time last year we were all pretty optomistic about the coming season and look how that went!

Agreed but there were a couple of mitigating circumstances for me;

We thought Furner would be the answer but going by rumours he was quite the opposite. I know agar is not everyone's cup of tea but the players and club know what they are getting so no surprises.

Tui was a bust and a bust at hb with no real understudy is a big issue. Lui and gale will be better and if there are issues mclelland is a year further into his development and as of now Myler is still with us as is sutty.

The pack was all wrong. Ablett and jjb were blown, Crosby crocked and parcell fell out of love with the game again.

If we can sign a prop, get Crosby fit and get a decent hooker their is cause for cautious, mid table, optimism.

Agreed, we could make the play-offs actually but I don’t think that squad has the real X-factor to win anything.

Then again, Ava, Martin, Merrin, Ward, Gale, Hurrell are all at/close to international standard and we’ve a few more like Walker who will be knocking on the door in a year or two. Certainly not a mug side but I feel we’ll need to see the talented young lads closer to their peak before we’ll be contenders again.

Bit of a joke that we’ll spend to cap (or beyond!) and use two marquee rule signings , and still we are probably looking at mid-table.
Surely we must be just below the top 3 now?

Winning the gf has to be the aim of the group but realistically the playoffs would represent real progress and I would be happy with that. I'm not convinced we have guile to win the close games yet which is why we may just fall short of the playoffs and land in mid table.

The key thing for me is that the club need to have robust plans for the development of the talented youngsters we have and also succession planning. For example, there must be a high chance Merrin will leave after this season and I'm sure his agent is getting his demands in early with the salary cap folk at each club. If he goes who do we get in, don't want to get caught with a handful of cash but nobody to spend it on.

I also dont think the coach is good enough for us to win things again but thats a whole other topic covered many times..

One thing I think we are still missing (and hasn’t been addressed by any new signings..so far) is aggression in the pack.

Whilst Prior will be another ‘pack leader’ along with Merrin and has an offload game I don’t see him as the kind of barn storming, get out of my way, sh**house forward that we are still lacking. In ADDITION to Prior I’d love us to sign a line breaking sh**house south sea islander. Do we still have an NFT spot available given that Martin is getting his PNG passport so comes off the full quota list, enabling us to bring in Prior as a full quota signing, so do we still have Peteru’s NFT spot available to fill?

Couldnt agree more. I'm lost re quota spots though. I'm not sure what happens when Martin gets his PNG passport

Holroyd is possibly the closest thing we have to the raging bull forward, but he’s still a bullock.

I’d be happy to wait another season if we could then make a serious play for a serious player.

We do look a better balanced side for this year and I think running Reserves will help us at this stage too.

When have we had this type of forward sine Barrie MAC?
You don’t need this type of player any more and there aren’t many around. More like a game a chess nowadays, 5 drives, rely solely on last tackle play. Discipline and control more important than aggression. Hence why we are bored most of the time!