The lads in the academy are under 18's. Whilst Bateman (and previously Sam Burgess & Leon Pryce) has shown it is possible to break into the team at such a young age, most players start to appear in the first team at 19/20 and usually have to wait a season or two before they establish themselves as regulars. Throwing the under 18s into the first team could end up being detrimental to their long term development.

Exactly, those 3 are exceptions to the rule. But the academy lads need to be given enough time to develop because there's a hell of a difference between playing academy and SL rugby.

TBH, our retention is what is going to dictate our recruitment. I know that's like saying "water, it's wet" but I think some people need reminding that we've got to get the balance right.

The main thing that needs to be sorted is how many open overseas spots will we have. At the start of the year it was only 1 that both Sammut and Manuokafoa were battling for, however Purtell's illness does raise the question "is he coming back?". Personally, I hope he makes a full recovery, but putting my pragmatic hat on, his spot is under threat as the club is a business and not a charity (a statement which will no doubt raise some ss from the idiots in the peanut gallery).

I think you should sign Ferriol, Bailey, Morley and Cockayne. It would be an entertaining team to watch, as well as making things a bit more interesting on the message board. Just a shame you've missed out on Brent Webb already

Yeah I didnt see Ferriol, would rather sign him than Bailey.

walker - doesnt do much for me, no contract
jeffries - has played well and new contract
elima - yes
hargreaves - yes
nas - yes
sibbit - no, injury prone and doesnt do much
sammut - would rather keep nas, but if purtell cant play again then yes. but hope purtell pulls through this.
addy - yes definetely
crookes - yes has been fantastic
briggs - yes get him signed up
ainscough - yes, very hard worker
burgess - unless he goes to australia, but sign him upm on long term
donaldson - yes, for the future
mcavoy - yes
pryce- needs to run harder and show more effort before even think of offering new contract
joseph - no

who to sign:
youngquest - maybe
ferres - would be good signing but have heard he is off to giants
j.griffin-maybe but not certain on him
millard - could be good signing
walker - have heard good things about youngster
tonks - heard good things about him too
l.watts - good signing
r.bailey - i know a lot of haters but he is a big strong prop and with right discipline could be great player
mcclorum - from leeds but doubt he would sign with us.
j.mellor - good signing with more experience
s.marsh - would be good signing
tuson - ery good signing

Clerk bulls, why don't we just sign the entire list of OOC players and while we're at it sign the whole QLD team, Clueless.

Why would we need Chris Tuson when we have got a abundance of potentially strong back row forwards? Besides, he's never really stood out to me, just plays a simple role in a strong Wigan set up when needed.

i didnt mean to sign every single one, I was just identifying possible signings. off course you could sign all of those players, just stating my opinion on best players out of all of them.

Whiting has extended at Hull
McIllorum has extended at Wigan

Given our position and lack of cash I doubt we'd be in the running for many of the bigger names.

There are a few players in their that have potential and if they could prove they were prepared to work I'd be interested in the likes of Watts and Ambler. We really need some scoring power out wide and some more cover at halfback (especially if we decide to keep Manu and let Sammut go). But there's not much out there, especially given that we have our quota full of non fed players.

I guess like watts and shenton there will be other players who may become available either on loan or just let go - maybe a few at leeds with our pal gary threatening a mass exodus.
Scenario 1 - the rumours that we are about to find a backer get resolved quickly - we can then renew the likes of elima who will enthuse confidence and we get to resign the players we want to keep - meaning other players have a little more confidence to sign for us.
Scenario 2 is we drag out financial situation past the next three weeks and lose the players we want to keep and have to feed off the scraps available to us.

Either way I would be looking at borrowing a young half from somewhere or deciding if cain is ready and letting him have a game or two towards end of year to decide if he could be our back up half.

I think the likes of sibbit and walker despite majority of us not wanting to keep may be best options as squad players due to them knowing systems and not having to bed in, injuries have caught them but no guarentee that anyone brought in will not suffer injuries either.