So assuming we make a coaching announcement from the NRL in due course, I would hope that a couple of the attributes they bring (along with being ruthless, great coaching, man management skills etc.) would be being highly skilled in player development and well connected in terms of potential fringe NRL players who could make an impact in SL.

On that basis, two questions:

1 - Which current players in our squad do you think have potential to really move up a level or two with good coaching and development?

2 – Which positions would you like to see an influx of 3-4 overseas new players fill? I’d assume centre and half back are the two obvious ones.

I'd like to think Julien, with the right coaching could become a decent NRL standard forward. He has the heart and the strength but i think he lacks the nouse. I'm not suggesting he could become a luke lewis but i think he's got the raw attributes to make a Nutley.

Fullback
Centre
Winger
Stand off/Scrum Half with a kicking game

in reality we need alot more than 4 new players.

in backs, if you remove the dead wood and the not good enough, looks a bit like

1.
2.
3.
4. Ratchford
5.
6.
7.

Did Tony Smith permit you to put Racthford at left centre? He is still here for another week - have some respect!

Amazing how Atkins has all of a sudden fallen into ‘not good enough’ and ‘dead wood’ category.

Harvey Livett will be the next Scully. Where he will play is anyone's guess

i think there's a lot of potential in both livett and toby king, if they continue to improve that wouldn't be too bad going forward, king needs some work on his defence but he's got a bit of attacking nous.

Where you play livett is a good one though, again, going forward he does appear to look threatening, its where you play him tho to get the most out.

Was it a serious post, probably? I agree with you, for next year Atkins stays in the team on merit.

In part answer to the OP's proposition (1) and as it was ALL the fault of Smith and Agar then with better coaching, perhaps Johnson, Smith and Patton may improve by a notch, giving them half a chance. Livett, Jullien and Philbin could really kick on and I'd like to think T King could also, but, I've not seen enough of him by comparison, until someone tells me he's played more than Livett...so perhaps more of an impression.

sorry.. forgot about Atkins

I agree that our backline is poor. I do think that if you put a few good and well-chosen players around the likes of Brown and Lineham they would suddenly look a lot better.

I would agree that a centre and half-back are the priority, with a Chris Hicks-quality winger a real bonus. I am happy enough with our second row but we need a good new prop.

If you remember the performance level increase of almost all of the players when smith first took charge then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a different coaching perspective could get a lot more from a large proportion of the squad.

We need some signings too, things need shaking up and the professionalism and focus needs to improve dramatically.

I think a different management style is what is needed to achieve exactly that.

There's potential in these players that will be left on the roster, it's just a case of a fresh start under a different ethos that will probably have us see what they can offer.

Lineham-type players could be very good under the correct guidance and the right discipline.

Two wingers, full back, scrum half, stand off, prop forward of the ball playing variety.....

Could we be waiting to see what team gets relegated - Catalan, Leigh or Widnes. Maybe a few players could be of interest.
Catalan - Louis Anderson / Paul Aiton
Widnes - Joe Mellor
Leigh - Ben Reynolds

Only Reynolds worth a punt on out of that list