Also with the announcement of interchanges dropping to 8 we do need our middles to play longer minutes - getting rid of Garbutt may have been a great move.

With respect to Walters et al leaving, even if they can't get their full contracts paid elsewhere we'd still be better off WRT the cap if we only have to pay part of their wages with whoever they join paying the rest. Its standard practice in the NRL to shift under contract players who they've paid overs for.

The problem with arguing that someone like Mullally is maybe OK is that you could argue that about everyone (except maybe Walters....). Once you start down that route you end up with a whole bunch of plodders, which is where we ended up last year. I accept that we can't move everyone on and some might have to stay until their contracts run out, but our ambition as a club surely ought to be to try to have the best possible players in the squad. Furner seems to have flagged that intent, and hopefully it means no more of the likes of Walters getting games if a youngster with promise could get a game. Its not as though continuing to pick the plodders actually paid off last year.

If we can still snag this specialist prop which has been rumoured, it will be interesting to see if there's a player swap involved. I do think with another prop and Furner's impact, we should at least be highly competitive with this squad, notwithstanding injuries. Getting Ferres, Ward, Watkins, Merrin, Lolohea, Hurrell, Ablett, Cuthbertson fit will be interesting too.

We still need to move on three of the players, Walters, Mullally and Ormonroyd, maybe then we get in the Prop we need. If we can get Ferres fit and back to his best it will be like having a new player available, hopefully the new conditioner will have him fighting fit before the start of the season. All he needs to do then is see a shrink to stop him giving away daft penalties in our half and he needs to ask Ablett to go with him, both are walking penalties. Getting them fit and keeping them fit is key to a successful season. One or two others need to go back to tackle school and lean how to tackle big men and not simply jump in head first. One prop due to sign shortly.

And said prop is rumoured to be from another SL club and will raise a few eyebrows if true.

LMS. That would raise my eyebrows, though not in a good way.

We spoke in 2017 of his development similar to JP’s early career and saw so much potential.....I agree, unfair for him to be treated as a scapegoat - so many of the pack should have that label as well because they were awful. I hope DF sees what we saw!!

I think Seb with Ash G as a player swap (but I want to be wrong!!!)