The club are speaking to Kyle Laybutt (PNG #7) as a potential half or centre, but I believe he's holding out for a deal from the Cowboys having been on a training contract with them.

On another thread I noticed someone mentioned we're looking to the Championship for a centre. I know the club have spoken to Ryan Shaw a few times, but that's going back at least 8 weeks now. He would be a cheap option as cover.

Wasn’t Ryan Shaw one of our own? Pretty sure he was, going back a few years.

I think Laybutt has shown up okay, and he was good the other night, but surely there are younger guys who are knocking on the NRL door and would happily take up a 1-2 year option with us? I thought Doueihi was a good option after seeing him against NZ. Not sure about his long kicking game or organisational skills though.

Laybutt is a 6 isn't he?

And yes Ryan Shaw was one of ours Cumbria lad, Ben Harrison's best mate, hut he's a winger by trade, a decent goal kicker though

Laybutt can play pretty much everywhere according to his profile, but he played 6 against Tonga the other day. My only concern is that he’s 27 and has played two NRL games. I’m not sure Dean or Hayes would be any less of an option in that case. But Powell must have seen something in him.

He has a highlights reel on YouTube and looks good in both defence and attack. Therefore, based on a good highlight reel, I can only come to the conclusion that he will be a total letdown and fail to show any effort.

Seems a move for Drinkwater in the halves is looking more likely, with Catalan suggesting he can find another club.

That left centre spot is concerning me a little however, with no quota spot available, Gildart looking like he is staying in the NRL by moving to the Dolphins; it looks like slim pickings unless we can pull a signing out of left field. However, I wouldn't have thought we have massive cap space to tempt a SL based player over mid contract with a transfer fee? Plus we have Leeds & Catalan also looking at centre options, Leeds I think have no quota spaces either and need 1 centre, Catalan are looking for 2 centres I think and have two quota spots available with the release of Drinkwater, so potentially they will be looking to the NRL for replacements.

Losing out on Wardle looks like a big miss for us, not sure who else could be available from SL....?

I think Ratchford will play at left centre if the Drinkwater signing happens. I think if we sign Drinkwater that will be it for signings and we'll just use the current players that we have. Unless we had money for a half and Holmes moving on has given us enough cap space for another signing, even if it's just a loan signing from somewhere.

Gildart has signed for the Dolphins in 2023 so that ship has sailed, we still need cover in that position after the loss of King & a long term injury to Wrench.

It`s looking highly likely that Wrench will be playing left centre for us, when he recovers from his injury, and he needs to play there, at this stage of his career.

If we had signed Gildart, it would have blocked Wrench`s path to play centre for Wire, until Matautia left.

Although Ratchford can play centre(Which will be Powell`s initial choice I think), we also have Minikin, who is available to play there too.

We should have an indication soon enough, don’t the squad numbers get announced at the kit reveal/fireworks display?

I keep forgetting about Minikin. I think it's something to do with my brain suppressing the memory to protect me from pain.

We have god promising young second rowers coming through who can also do a job at centre both roles are very similar in the modern game there’s Holroyd , Nicholson and Currie could all play the role and I would keep Ellis Longstaff who could also fill both roles other super league clubs do it covering injuries Watkins at Salford played second row all year for Salford then centre for England Bateman and Isa at Wigan both played a number of games at centre

We also have Darbyshire Jnr. and Thewlis Jnr. who are both specialist centres and will be looking to play 1st team games.

Yeah it's such a shame for Wrench as i think he would have been straight in at left centre if he hadn't been injured. I hope he makes a full recovery and it doesn't affect him.