Top player. Remember him destroying us when he played for the Cowboys IIRC

throws a bit of a look on the 'golden' generation .. technically sinfield and jjb a few years before , jjb hardly made a break after another injury (smith hall ablett came later ) most of the others left or regressed fortunately we only had a 1yr of transition in 2006

Officially announced now

Martin stays for another year though

Sad to see him go all in all. But the timing feels right. He’s loved playing for the club so to turn the deal down he must have had a much much better offer at Saints.

Onward and upwards

Same here If have liked him to stay but if hes been offered a longer better deal at Saints then good luck to him, I do think the Saints fans won’t be as receptive to him though and im not really sure where he fits in to their squad, they seem to think he’s a Second Rower but IMO he hasn’t got the fitness or durability to play there, he’ll probably prove me wrong though

It'll be a shame to see him go, but more for what he contributes as an entertainer and to team morale.

On his day, he's unstoppable, but he does have a tendency to come out of the line too soon and his ball handling is something I doubt will be improved at this stage of his career. He's done a good job for us and gives his all in every game, but from the start, this season always seemed to be his swan song.

The truth is, with the readiness of the emerging talent at the club, he's a bit surplus for next season.

Good luck to the fella though...

Get the feeling we waited too long to offer a contract. Used properly he is a game changer. Yes he has errors in his game but he's certainly exciting which is why I go watch. Hopefully we have a good player lined up to replace him

The player replacing him will be sutcliffe/broadbent. I hope the money is being invested into a quality prop as we're definitely light there now.

We need at least one prop.

Yep Newman has that right centre spot sewn up and I imagine Sutcliffe will play left. Hurrell is more damaging than either but as we know has some weaknesses too.

Overall if you look at squad balance this seems a sensible decision.

If it were me I’d go for one good prop and let L Briscoe go this year. I know he’s had a very good year this season but for me it’s time to clear the way for Broadbent or Tindall as cover for T Briscoe and Handley.

I think Hurrells defence weakness far out weighs his go forward ability. Teams have learnt to put him on toast easily

Yeh, good luck to him.
Be interesting to see how he’s used at Saints.
He’s not a back row in a million years.
He goes one one decent run and then stands with his hands on his knees.
Nowhere near fit enough for the pack.
He’s an edge of the seat player at time, but his best years are well behind him.
Good decision for me.
L Sutcliffe should get the number 4. I think he looks a natural centre now.

And as I’ve said on another thread we MUST get another prop.
Should have cap space for quality as well.
Tommy gets injuries and Tet gets suspensions.
We will end up flogging Mik and Prior again and wonder why Mik gets injured and Prior is out on his feet.

I actually quite like Luke Briscoe.
He’s done well lately.
But yes, if Tindall can step up as cover and releasing him helps us to bolster the pack, then I’m all for it.
I think he’d get another SL gig.

Very much agree. I think we have better left centres in the system than Sutcliffe, but it is his best position and it’s up to him to defend his shirt there.

Tommy has some work to do in pre-season on his fitness, but you would expect that at his age.

I’d like to be able to rotate loose forward between Smith and maybe Prior; push Tet up front because I’ve not seen a ton of high quality passing from him.

I’d probably attempt to sign a starting prop at least as good as Ava. That gives us much more resilience but it needs to be a high impact, out and out prop. We have back rowers and 13s coming out of our ears. With a fully fit pack we have good go-forward - if we can give Sezer some space he could cause havoc.