Smells a bit of a "sell lots of season tickets and worry about squad strength later" move to me if true. He might be better than any other 3/4 we have at the moment by some way, but we have yawning chasms at #7 and #8/#10 right now that need filling as a matter of priority first.

I'm starting to get a bit worried over the club's current direction now for the first time in about 15 years...

Jamie may have been signed as a half though, he is more than proficient there and would give a better distribution game than any of our current halves IMO.

You were not concerned when we where top of the league playing brilliant rugby and then went and sacked our most successful coach ever mid-season?

There was a huge amount of doubt at that time, but the Chairman proved he had the clubs interests at heart and did what he thought was the right thing.

You cannot divorce the move with the playing squad, the board have all been about the long term. With the long term secured the short term is more in focus and more emphasis will be on this as a result. The board could hardly demand results with one arm behind it's back.

Another angle to look at, purely speculation, TP retiring? Had some trouble with his shoulder recently.

Lets remember this is just a rumour from redvee.

I know, everything is speculation at the moment.

www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/j ... 6300887904 just posted on redvee

www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/j ... 6300887904 just posted on redvee

& This. www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... mer-688194

& This. www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... mer-688194

Fair point, but we all kind of knew the reasons behind that one at the time and sort of saw where the board was coming from. We know a lot less about the circumstances behind this one and, judged on a purely on-field basis (which is all we have to go on right now) it smells of needless panic at this stage of the season. Together with the alleged signing of Lyon it all starts to sound like panic, showboating and/or crowd-pleasing at the expense of everything else. One thing that reading message boards like this one proves indubitably is that crowds in the main don't know what they're talking about....

I spoke to josh perry before the Catalan game at Langtree Park and he was saying he'd met up with his former team mates when they was over. I asked him if he'd spoke to Jamie about coming back, he just laughed and said he'd spoke to him and he doubted he'd be back as he's off contract at the end of 2013 and he's be 33.

We should have signed him for this year, he'd have sold even more season ticked and he's still top class.

Having watched every Manly game this year (and every Bulldogs game for obvious reasons) Lyon at 30 is still clearly head and shoulders above any centre in Super League. It wouldn't surprise me if he is on for another Australia call up if the selectors are willing to forgive him for messing them around years ago.

As for the competition, two of the top clubs play with a 32 year old Francis Meli (33 next month) and 33 year old George Carmont, both of whom have never even been close to such quality. If a player this good becomes available I don't see why any club would not want to sign him.

I think he retired from international games last year.