Burgess had plenty of time to sign him up again but didn't, so i'd say Mikaele is history now.

If you believe the reports we were still hopeful of signing him in the offseason, so I assume Burgess was interested in him, we just couldn't free the quota space in time - no idea if that is fact or not.

If we signed Mikaele again there is one song that would be perfect.
The Commodores - Three times a lady.
"Your once ... Twice...Three times Mikaele"
It's almost like Lionel Richie wrote it for this situation. Worth signing him just for that.

Ritchie must be a wire, with Endless (Toa Kohe-) Love and (Kevin) Penny Lover

Dufty new contract agreed.

Let's hope his good start to the season doesn't now go in to reverse!

Surprised. I thought he’d be looking for a return to the NRL. Where does that leave Thewlis? He’s a better fullback than winger. Hope he doesn’t choose to leave.

Amazingly , Thewlis is one who is being targeted as part of our weak right hand defence even though he has done some really good defensive work alongside Wrench . The pair of them are still learning ,but i see Thewlis's main deficiency as being on the receiving end of kicks & that is the part of his game he needs to work on for a fullback role. Both Wrench & Thewlis have their strengths in attack.

Announcement at 6pm tonight. 2 more years.

Hopefully he won’t lose any of his pace over those 2 years. He’s been on fire since Burgess and Gleeson found out how to use him. Especially his ability to sweep from one side to the other at lightning speed to link up.

He can learn an awful lot from Dufty, and it can help a fullback by understanding all the affects outside backs.

Happy with the contract extension for dufty. He's been fantastic so far this season.

I'm not so happy, after an inconsistent 18 months he's been rewarded for 3 good games against questionable opposition.

A couple of people went ape last year when vaughan was given an extension so soon into the season.

I'm happy with this as he has been superb this season. He has some weaknesses (high kick) & he will have quiet games, as all players do. Blocking the path of younger players is the main possible issue here.

Hopefully we are paying him enough to learn to take a ball on the full which I consider to be a fundamental skill of a fullback. But in attack he has been fabulous, in particular he is now setting up tries as well as finishing them off.