3 pages dedicated to this rubbish.

Facts are comparing the teams that are in place now is completely pointless exercise in terms of how things will go in the middle 8's.

Leigh will probably win the championship but nobody cares as long as you're in the top 4.

Fair point. And I was forgetting about Oscar Thomas, who can't be any worse than Siejka, surely.

I think we'll see Thomas at 1 before we see him at 7.

I'm really interested to see how Oscar Thomas gets on, he's the new signing I'm most looking forward to seeing in action. He's taking Brook's place as the young half but is looking at Mullaney's birth of full-back/half-back. I just hope he gets a chance.

The one time I remember seeing him last year was London's Summer Bash game and he was superb. You just never know if it was a one game hero type of situation or if he's that good regularly.

I might know the answer to that one having seen him play a few times last season

g

Think Havalaf need to be catching Sheffield and London first.

The former

]

While I don't think we'll sell thousands in next fortnight, I do think there will be a last minute surge and we'll end up with roughly same number sold as last year ( 3-3.5k figure reported for last yr iirc). Not having an early bird scheme means there's no incentive for people to pay early and they might as well keep money in their own bank accounts earning interest and only pay in last week or two before season. I suspect issue with winding up order before xmas also meant a fair few hung onto there money whilst it was cleared up. I think they announced a 2.5k figure sold a week or two before season last year as well.

This. People only moaned when sjielka played so its a bit rich claiming him as a big loss now. We've still got addy on board who covered for sjielka most of season and we've added thomas who can play in halves and are looking at Jacks whose an actual half, quality still to be seen.
And whilst I'd class mullaney as a big loss thats only for the 50% of games he featured in. We;ve still got the same cover for fullback as last year and have added thomas and campbell and from his interview caprice sees fullback as a likely position he could slot in if we take him on.

Think we've strengthened in forwards in general, maybe not in starting options but more in terms of bench options and squad players.

We look in decent enough shape for initial 23 fixtures. Gives us plenty of time to look at our options and then strengthen any areas that are found to be weak in time for middle eights same as we did last yr. Suspect we'll have more wiggle room on cap to make improvements later in season than leigh will who look to have brought pretty much all their recruits in already.


TBH whilst T&a article is maybe a touch heavy on negativity think we can use it in a positive way. Show it to all the players and pin it on dressing room wall. Tell them this is what people think of you, go out there and prove them wrong type of thing.

There still seems to be rumours going around about us trying to bring in Craig Hall. I guess he would be a worthwhile squad player because of his versatility, but some of his performances last season for Wakefield were disgraceful.

He's not alone in that respect though, is he?

Whilst I agreed all season that Siejka was as much use as a chocolate fireguard, it's still a loss to the squad for him to leave and not be replaced. Largely because he's a specialised 7. Whilst people may not have wanted him in the strongest 17, if Addy, Purtell & Thomas were to all get injured this year as we haven't kept Jacks, the squad would benefit from Siejka.

So it is weakened by him leaving, albeit only a tiny bit due to him being turd.

Siejka was a panic buy. We thought we needed a 7 going into the season, but we managed most of the year without one. So even if Jacks isn't the player we hope for, it's not the end of the world.

It's only guess work but I think your problem if you can call it that is one of money, he was Webster's first signing as coach and his persistance paid off when he signed for us, and it's my guess he did not come cheap and there in lies the problem, he might be prepared to drop down a division however temporarily that may be but would he want to lose out financially assuming that's the case.