Jordan Walne, Dan Bretherton and Alex Davidson are still on the books. I think Whitehead has been released and is going to Oz. Not sure about Massey.

The number 9 spot is an issue. As far as I am aware, Wagger is still crocked and Howarth, though I am told he is a supreme athlete, is never a hooker in the memory of man! Whether he is a half is also doubtful in my opinion. Leaving Gaz Owen as the only specialist hooker since Files has been shipped off to Oldham.

I see Sneyd as a SH rather than a SO. On his day, he can be as good as the best who have graced this game, but needs confidence and consistency. Plus, he is a far better goal kicker than Holdsworth ever hoped to be!

Evalds should be given a shout. He is lightning quick with good feet, but needs to learn to pass the ball, particularly close to the line where he is too light weight to crash.

Gleeson doesn't seem to be a done deal, so let Jon Ford have a crack.

To me, the whole point of the franchising system was to allow clubs like SCR to develop young talent without the fear of relegation and without spending shed loads of money on overpaid over the hill antipodeans. I don't suppose we could convince PV of that, as I get the impression that he would prefer more of his fellow countrymen around him.

German Red: there is nothing pointless about speculating or being positive instead of all the doom and gloom. Even if you knew more, would such speculation be anymore meaningful? A thread like this is a discussion and exchange of opinions.

There are contributors to this forum who are too happy to complain, but few who seem prepared to want to actually help the club out of its problems.

Sadly, nobody can run a professional rl club on 3-4000 gates. It's the old chicken and egg: fans won't turn up if the team keeps losing while the club can't afford to strengthen the team because it has't received enough gate money.

Wigan has a population of 81000 people and attracts 16000ish to their home matches. Thats about 20%. Salford has a population of 234000 and struggles to top 5000. That's less than 2%. I keep hearing that Salford wants and deserves a successful rugby league team, but based on figures like that, where does the fault for the lack of success lie?

OK, so the club have not exactly excelled in the field of marketing. But surely there are enough rugby league fans in Salford to make a difference?

Correct - Wagga still recovering.

Think that we have more than enough cover in the backs but I'm desperately worried by the forward line, we got bossed to easily last term and if anything we have gone backwards by losing Feka (I know he wasn't great but his occasional desire to play brought something to the team when he did) and do think we'll miss Andersons creativity.

Just hope PV knows what he's doing with the front row or it's going to be a longer season than usual.

How have we got “more than enough”? We have A full back at the mo who should still be playing in the U20’s if they still exsisted, two wingers, a winger playing centre who can’t tackle (Gibson), a young unproven SH playing standoff(Sneyd) and a player who is technically a forward playing SH (Howarth). Back up is a 2nd row (Nero) to centre, no reserve FB, A teenage French lad for back up to the halves and a young another guy who should still be playing U20’s as cover for wing and centre (Ford). That is definitely NOT enough cover in the backs. Agree the pack needs beefing up but at least we can put out a pack and have a bit of back up. Get the backs sorted first then try and beef up the pack. At the moment the backs are square pegs for round holes.

simple there are deals agreed with quite a fair few players, they will go through
platt will be full back
mason will be at prop
i believe anderson may be doing a u turn
and a couple of young aussies are also waiting for the green light
also a couple of loan signings are on the cards

I see Ford as good enough to get a starting place along with Gleeson, the wingers speak for themselves and Evalds at full back looks to have a very bright future.
I technically meant the back 5 as I know the halves look a bit ill equipped but think Long will play alongside Sneyd and think at some point next year Theo will get a crack at it and I just hope the talent he has shines through when playing with the senior team.

Nero has never let anyone down and to be fair Gibson scores a fair amount of tries for someone who normally only comes in as cover. Gleeson on his day has/had (which remains to be seen) to do the things we saw Moon do and do think that if Pryce came he'd certainly add something to the backs and potentially the back row if push came to shove.

Am not sure about some of you points mate, I agree Nero has never let anyone down at centre, but hes hardly a wingers dream as he rarely offloads. I'm not sure Ford is ready tbh, he looks promising as does Evalds but there still young lads and should only be used as back up, neither of them have the right size to them yet and Ford needs time on the wing before he is brought in side to centre. Long being our SH is another thing that I can't see happening, I think that ship has sailed and should only be used if all 3 halves are out. With regards to the previous post about Mason signing, platt at full back, Anderson coming back. All pie in the sky, Can you see Anderson coming back now that he will have moved his family over to France? I'd be surprised! Mason has other clubs after him as well so you would imagine he would want security. Who know what vievers has in mind for platt, I would hope Centre but he does offer versatility and Pryce is just a pointless signing, no hunger, no skill, nowhere in the team for him. Vievers goes on about hungry players, the only hunger Pryce has shown over the years is the hunger to steal a wage.

Thing is, on limited funds, we're going to have to be selective where we spend, and utilise everything we have. Absolute number one priority HAS to be Stand Off. We only have two halfbacks in the squad, one of whom is a teenager yet to make his superleague debut. Sneyd has done well when called upon and deserves his shot. He should play at scrum half, and a Stand Off brought in to play alongside him. Theo should be around the squad, and may get some gametime with injuries. Someone like Platt covers centre and fullback, and so wouldn't be a bad choice. That would mean Nero, Gibson, Gleeson, Ford and Platt to cover centre, with Platt and Evalds to cover Fullback. Wings take care of themselves with Jodie and Williams. Gibson, Ford, Evalds, and even Nero at an absolute pinch can play there. Probably as good as we're going to get on limited funds.
After that we need to look to the forwards. Last year we had a good attacking backline, but without the forwards to give them a platform often struggled. Big year required from alot of the current forwards, and a big aggressive front rower wouldn't go a miss. If Godwin is still out, then I'd definatley look at a hooker too as we I thought we were really lacking a proper hooker last year, and I have to agree Howarth is never a hooker. Starting backrow of Dixon, Ashurst, and Wild looks ok.
Of those suggested Mason and Platt would probably be good for us right now. I too don't see what Pryce offers, nor bringing back Anderson, as Dixon will surely take his place (plus I think he closed that door when he joined the winding up petition). What worries me most is not being linked with any halfbacks at all. Here's hoping Vievers has big suprise up his sleave.

I do wonder who the Aussies PV has looked at are, do remember seeing that we were linked with an extremely talented half from Melbourne just hope he's discovered a few gems as we certainly have enough quota spots available.

Erm...i wonder how much P.V offered this extremely talented half to move over here,money is no problem aye?