MDJ is another one who has barely played and won't be cheap. Makes sense to release him if we can.

They've told players they're being released in July?

Of course. There's a date some time in early summer where players can begin to secure their playing future and clubs can approach out of contract players at other clubs.

New contracts always start in November I believe so there has to be plenty of notice for players to be able to find new clubs etc.

I believe players can begin to speak to other clubs on May 1st. Assume players who will be signed on for next year know that they are wanting to be retained. The others who are leaving will know by now whether they will be here next year.

At the fans forum MD referred to this time of year as silly season.

Out of the regular playing players I would keep:
Scott
Patton
Gill
Lilley
England
Wallace
Scurr
Doyle
Butler
Flanagan Jr
The rest can go for me.

MD post match said the travelling fans will have seen enough character and commitment to believe we’ll pull through this.

Did anyone go and is the above a fair reflection?

We lost. But I don’t think it was that bad. The first try came off 1 missed tackle, our back 5 scrambled hard but eventually had all committed to covering the break and we ran out of bodies.
The next 2 tries were because of our discipline. I think they went pen, pen, try. Then pen, knock on, try.
MD looked like he’d fixed it at half time, because we stopped giving penalties away and Barrow stopped being able to break us. We scored first and a few flickers of belief came through.
I can’t remember what happened for Barrow’s first try of the 2nd half but heads went down and you could see them all mentally stop. And that was it. Bullseye pointed out confidence further up and MD mentioned it in the interview. I’ve not seen a team with so little confidence before.

See my previous post

But that's going to be true at every club in every season. Players can start talking to other clubs on May 1st, so this time of year will always have the narrative of players sorting out their future - it doesn't excuse us being crap.

Mick was saying on his Twitter after the game yesterday that there's no player budget fixed for next year. If true, then that could explain a lot. No player budget means no meaningful discussions about retention for 2023. I think we likely have a lot of players who are not exactly in demand with other clubs who don't know if they are going to be offered anything - that seems to be a possible reason for lack of commitment to the cause.

This is starting to sound a bit like the end of 2016 when Green was on his way. Then players didn't get paid and the rest is history

I think Patten playing behind a decent pack would be much better and he is a great goalkicker.

I don't think it's just the pack. You look at the centres, second rowers and wingers, none of them are really strike players. The likes of Kear, Murphy, England, Hallas, Evans, they're all grafters but none of them will be getting 10+ tries a year. Throw in the fact we've effectively no FB.

Patton worked well with Gill and Scott (when fit) down that left hand side.

Listening to MD's post match interview and looking at the body language it doesn't look very good does it. We're in a massive hole and it will take a lot of work to get out of it. I didn't realise he was operating without an assistant and is coaching the reserves as well as the 1st team. Seems he has been given a similar budget for 2023 as he has for this year but he did allude to a "lot of things going on" which never bodes well. Shades of 2016. I guess if players weren't being paid we'd soon hear about it.

We really could do without playing Fax next but if we can put in a decent performance it might help us turn the corner. Shame London beat them as it'll remove any complacency they may have had.