I don't think that the Club had any alternative. The tax man rules this sort of thing and the Salary Cap is also a problem. The Club has acted early and probably negotiated itself out of a fair bit of trouble. Some Football and RU Clubs haven't done anything at all and are about to get seriously hit by the Inland Revenue.

I'd expect Mr Smith to be looking at next season even at this stage and uppermost in his thoughts I would hazard a guess would be a play making loose forward which in the modern game is expected to operate as a third halfback. For all his honest endeavour Ben Harrison just doesn't fit the bill. There's a replacenment for Chris Hicks already at the club..Kevin Penny.

Tony Smith doesn't seem a fan of the playmaking 13 - he often played Kevin Sinfield at 6 when at Leeds, and the same player featured at 9 when Smith in charge of GB. Harrison is a player who simply must be in the team these days & is fitting the bill at 13. It could be the days of the ball playing 13 are numbered - not that many around these days who would fill the Mike Greg/Paul Sculthorpe/Andy Farrell mould.

All things being equal we should keep Hicks as he is top drawer. Don't believe age is an issue as he is one of the naturally fittest sportmen I have ever seen.

If he wants to leave/retire then that's a different matter.

Riley would surely cover for him next year if he left.

Mike Greg was not a ball-playing forward.Tackle machine and good runner of lines off the half-backs.

I sincerely hope we keep him (Hicks)
IMO he is an outstanding RL player who offers the team more than he normally gets credit for.

Only when there was an injury to one of the half backs. He played at 6 a couple of times in 2004 with Burrow coming off the bench and David Furner @ 13.

I respectfully disagree wholeheartedly re the loose forward issue.

In modern day rugby league, the loose forward tends to be closer to a third prop, with someone like Sinfield the exception rather than the rule. Langley, O'Loughlin, Flannery etc are there for their ability to tackle all day long, not for their ball-playing ability (despite O'Loughlin being The Best Passer in the League© Phil Clarke).

And in that sense Harrison is exactly what we need - a tough, uncompromising forward with lots of energy and no little size. With Monaghan, Myler and Briers in the side, we have more than enough playmakers in the side. Having said that, Solomona's size and handling ability is a terrific asset to mix it up.

Couldn't argee more. Ben Harrison has so much potential.

I understand the issue isn`t so much image rights as the GBP -Australian Dollar exchange rate - was around 2.6 Aus to the pound when he signed now he`s getting 40% less than that - conversely it`s one of the reasons why we have SL players moving out to the NRL because even a moderate Aussie squad salary compares well with SL ...

I saw Chris Hicks and one of the Melbourne forwards at Saints game the week the WCC was on. I could see us signing him, what with the utter ness of our backs.

I like Hicks, he has done a good job and scored some crucial tries for us, but I won't be upset if he leaves at the end of the year.

There's always a temptation to keep players for "just one more year" and teams end up with an aging squad who dwindle together. The most successful turn over the squad gradually with (my guess) 3-4 new players in the first twenty each year and 3 or 4 leaving...

The Widnes squad of the early 90s were awesome...world champions but grew old together, costs spiralled and the team disintegrated. The Wigan team of the 90s kept changing personel and kept things going longer. Bradford kept the same team for 4 successful years..but their props and wingers grew old together and they've never recovered. And I'm no football fan but look at the way that Man U have renewed themselves each year....

Theres a balance to be had...
I suspect Tony Smith will look at value for money, versatility, availability of other options and whether players will be better/worse/the same next year. In all these he has more info than the simple fan...he knows the players pay packets, their technical strengths and weaknesses, their injury record, their training performance etc etc...

So Chris Hicks for next year....not sure myself but Tony Smith will make the right decision...

(on a similar note..Paul Johnson left last year..IMHO Warrington were right to relese him.he has not played since for Wakefield...various muscle strains and "dizzy spells" have kept him out)

johnners got belted in their first game did he not?

Paul Johnson http://sueleigh.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/gingerbread-man.jpg" >