Was it Macnamara or LSH that decided he was too old to offer him an extended deal in 2010? Easy to look back with hindsight and criticise though I suppose.

Remember when we signed the wind up merchants and the holier than thou brigade were quick to jump on here and go on about how we'd signed an over the hill Aussie cast off.

Mr Beaver was and is pure class. You don't learn skills like that you're born with them

The way Hood explained it at a fans forum was that until the Orfird problem was resolved the cash and quota spot wasn't there to offer Menzies a new deal proper although they had made assurances that once resolved he'd be signed up on a wedge. Catalans however were in a position to make a concrete offer so off he went.

No idea if that's what actually happened could have just been that we couldn't afford him full stop because we now know that the club was beyond skinny at that time and living on the never never.

That was definitely what happened, just counting the quota players confirmed it. Menzies had waited for a decent while, but there was still no guarantee about Awford and you absolutely can't blame him for looking after his own future - it was possible things would not work out about Awford, and Menzies' deal with Catalans may have fallen through, so any of us would have done the same thing.

Guess we should consider ourselves priviledged to have had the chance to see a master grace the Odsal turf for two years. It is as if Bobby Charlton had played some of his last few seasons at City.