Is he not just a replacement (And major improvement on) for Sita Akouala? Presumably you'd have signed him whether Hill is staying or not.

Signed Bullock also though (apparently)

Depends whether you think Harrison is a prop, or a second row. Agree that he's a squad filler, but hopefully a very shrewd one.

For sure Harrison is not a replacement for Hill. Sita perhaps, but Sita still ought to have been a first 17, one of the 4 props, I see Harrison as a squad prop.
We need at least 4 out and out props, and the 5th & 6th with mobility, Philbin and Perhaps Harrison. If Hill was leaving, we have zero depth and will be stung filling our first prop injury or suspension.
I cannot see Hill going. It makes no sense to me. If he was, we’d have signed Watts or Taylor by now.

so, props/middles for next year
cooper
philbin
mulhern
butler
doro
robson
harrison

possibly bullock

hill?
clark?

Does Jack Hughes come into the "middles" equation..
I guess Holmes has not been signed as a middle and Longstaff waiting in the wings for a second row spot doest his put Hughes more Into that category..

Ideally I’m hoping for a pack of:

Hill
Clark
Cooper
Currie
Holmes (playing on the right? Think he has predominantly been left sided previously)
Hughes

Bench of:
Walker
Philbin
Mulhern
Davis / Harrison / Bullock / Butler / ANO depending on opposition / form.

Whole front row should be on alert. Hill & Coops won’t be here in 2 years, spots will be up for grabs. But we should be looking to add a high quality prop to the group from 2023, with the rest coming from that above group.

For me, Jason Clark moves on, with a thanks for your efforts. If Hill leaves, potentially we retain him for a bit of leadership if we can’t replace Hill, but if that happens, we look small for 2022.

i meant to include holmes though he does cover both bases, personally, i wouldn't have him front row full time.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see hughes at 13 next year, we got a glimpse of this last week at leeds, with longstaff playing right 2nd row. Although we didn't use ellis too much when he was on the field.

Does the monkey on our back really matter that much ? We beat the glory boys regularly these days ,so much so in fact that our games against Wigan ,Saints & Leeds are becoming tedious .

Longstaff is a back rower, one of the reasons I wouldn’t want Clark to stay is that he holds up a spot for a young’un.. Hill staying / going has no impact on Longstaff, who looks good.

I don’t think Robson is good enough.

Not sure on Doro, not sure he’s going to be big enough. He has time though, only 20 and can fight it out with Davis for a 13 / sub 13 role. Starting prop / prop rotation is a way away for him yet.

Fair enough opinions. My comments were on the pack overall.
So my main point is then.
What is the point of the academy, if young players we’re investing in are not good enough?
It’s ok to have a opinion that certain players are not good enough but what do you base it on. The guy’s not played more than 5 games for us.

People forget that the owners at the end of the year have got to find new training facilities. Moran and the directors have already invested heavily in the training facilities we’ve got hoping in the future they don’t have to keep on shelling out big money on transfer fees etc.
They must be well cheesed off when 8000 spectators turn up for the Wigan game.

On Robson, the club seemed ok with him signing with Ottawa before that fell through, players don’t just show they are first team worthy when they get a shot in the first team. They need to look the part in training, I assume if he had, he wouldn’t have signed for a Champ 1 club - He’ll be 23 before the end of the year.

I think the club has shown if the player is good enough they will be given time to develop, Currie, Philbin, King are examples of that. Problem is we don’t produce them often enough. I don’t believe the answer is to put them in whether you think they are good enough or not. We need to be better in the talent I.D and development phase. It wouldn’t surprise me if we spent more on our academy / youth set up than Saints, but the output is poor in comparison to the investment, this is what we need to work on.

We don’t have any big props coming in, so we will have to recruit and bring in from outside. We have Longstaff coming through for the back row, I think he has a shot. In 3 years when Holmes is out of contract he’ll be 22 and looking for a regular spot, until then he works his socks off and takes every opportunity afforded to him.

currie king and philbin all came through under smith though.and were pretty much established first teamers (king was 3rd choice centre)

Price has been questionable in his usage of youngsters during his 4 years here.