Another good edition for 2022.

Right decision for me
Never offered enough.

Never got a chance with Kear, 5 drives and a kick or 5 drives with a cut out pass, nobody seemed to complain when he kept putting Ryan in for his tries.

Ryan made him look better than he was imo

He was number one on Kears team shirt for 4 years, had plenty of chances to prove himself and he offered nothing in attack, if we want to challenge the top 2 Gill is a better option than Oakes .

I've always found Oakes decent, but he seems to have stagnated the last couple of years. I think if we're wanting to challenge for promotion and improve again then we need better than decent.

I'd have kept Oakes but he would have only been backup to Gill & Evans.

Oakes has got great hands but the rest of his game is a bit average. He's been fairly decent for us but we need a bit more strike out wide. Good luck to him and Gallagher.

Although I agree Oakes is not up to it in the centre I could see him in second row.

I'll be sad if Oakes leaves. He has great hands for a centre and every time I've seen him play he looks difficult to bring down.
Anyone saying that Ryan made him look better than he was doesn't know what they're talking about. The reason we had so much joy down that flank when Bentley was here was because of Bentley. Centres need space and early ball and Oakes got plenty of that playing outside JB. Wingers need good service and Ryan got plenty of that playing outside Oakes.

The style of rugby we play does not compliment the outside backs one bit. Let's see how the new additions do if we continue with this up the middle playstyle.

Let’s also remember, wasn’t Ryan’s prolific season when we were in L1?

I'd be interested to see the stats on how many times Oakes got held up over the line this year. Wouldn't surprise me if it's in double figures. Having someone finishing those rather than just being held up would make a huge difference.

It does seem like we' re being more ruthless in our retention/recruitment. It looks like we're moving on steady, decent players like Hallas, Oakes, Kirk etc

So far the players we're bringing in are better IMHO

Deffo. The one thing our new players will bring is PACE which is the msgic ingredient that makes a goo back. Training can improve pace but if it's not there in the first place then you have no chance

It was.
Ethan Ryan scored 20 tries in 2019
He played a mixture of Centre,FB,Wing
Played less than 10 times on same side as Ross Oakes
In 2018 Ross Oakes only played 13 games so majority of Ryan's trys came with a different centre partner.

Updated 08.10.21

1. Elliot Hall -2023
2. Ryan Miller - Rumoured
3. Rhys Evans - 2022
4. Kieran Gill - 2023
5.
6. Danny Brough - 2022
7. Jordan Lilley - 2023
8. Jordan Baldwinson - 2023
9. Thomas Doyle - 2022
10. Steve Crossley - 2022
11. Sam Scott - Rumoured
12. Aaron Murphy - 2022
13.
14.
15. Dan Fleming - 2022 tbc
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. Brad England - 2022
21.
22.
23. Anthony Walker - 2022
24. Ben Evans - 2022
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31. Samy Kibula - 2022
32. Dec Patton - 2022
34. Joe Burton - 2022
43. Elliot Kear - 2022
44. Eldon Myers - 2023

One thing you hear Kear says a lot in commentary that annoys me is when a team is held up over the line or just before it on the last and he says "not a bad place to turn the ball over". Surely it would be better to force the drop out or handling error or even actually score?

We often look a bit lost on the last tackle when we're close to the line, I know the in goal areas are tiny but I'd like to see us build pressure with short kicking a bit more. Losing Milnes didn't help as his short kicking was great but I think we are too predictable and if it's not a bomb or a kick to the winger we turn it over. That's not good enough.

Anyway hoping Patton can add something here.