He has been better this year than 2023. Looked more involved and committed. I don't think any forward came out of 2023 looking great.

I do maintain that 3 years was one hell of a contract extension though.

Thanks for this. I really like Luke Yates and think every pack needs a work horse like him.

Interesting stats but they’re based on total number of performance's rather than prorated. If you look it appears that Crowther and Holroyd are way down on effort which we know isn’t the case.

Nevertheless Yates and Currie have been very industrious.

I’ve always been a fan of Currie.
It’s no coincidence the episodes of his career that stagnated was where we weren’t so healthy in the front row or just plane bang average.

Currie was brilliant the start of the year but not as effective in the second half.
But still a marked improvement on the past few years and he's put a lot of work in. I've been happy with him this year all in all, Nicholson is another who seems to be overrated by most. He's not a bad player by any means, but people seem to rate his performances much higher than actuality.
I'd argue Holroyd has been more effective than Nicholson in the games he played this year. He's not as big a loss as people are making out.

Holroyd puts on a bit of beef and then I’d say he’ll outshine Nicholson. His defence is excellent, engine is superb and he has a great eye for the line.

Moving on to Toby. Do you think we will give him an extension? His contract is up Nov 2025.

Probably will be offered an extension but nothing like he is already on or even as long 2 years tops be my guess.

I’d agree on Nicholson, and I’m afraid I’d put Bateman into the same bracket which is why the loss of Fitzgibbon was so important, he presented a threat that the other 2 didn’t.
This isn’t a diss in Nicholson, he played an important role in our defence.

On Currie, I think his distribution is great and he seems more comfortable defending in the middle, a full 2024 and off season training and playing at 13 should mean he is even better in 2025, I thought he had a very good 2024 personally.

We have Bateman, Drinkwater, Nicholson and Bruines moving off our cap from the end of 2024, with Russell, Leyland, Bullock coming on to it. We also have to consider increased contracts for several youth players (Lindop, CTW, Thomas, Holroyd etc) and probably a decent rise for Ashton, netted off partially by a lower contract for Ratchford.

The money coming off cap feels much higher to me than those coming on to the cap. I think we have room for a good signing should someone become available (plus some transfer fee funds burning a hole in our pocket from Nicholson).

For King, I'd be happy for him to stay, but on a much reduced deal and probably move him over to the right, as he has got older he provides less strike but is a solid defender and makes decent ground in his carries. Hopefully Lindop will be the choice at left centre if he progresses as we all hope.

My biggest concerns for next year:

- Do we have the strike to trouble teams? Fitzgibbon aside we look pretty toothless in the centres and backrow, they are all solid defensively but don't threaten the line too much. Hopefully Lindop can push Tai out of his spot.

- Prop: Harrison & Yates are good workhorses to have around, Vaughan seems to be diminishing a little 2024 vs 2023 - hopefully he can get back up to 2023 levels. Musgrove is the big disappointment for me, we have 3 props very comfortable to play 60 minutes, we need a prop coming off the bench who can be more dynamic and change the momentum - even if they only play 10 - 15 mins either side of half time, Musgrove just offers more of the same. If it were possible, I'd be trying to swap out Musgrove based on 2024 form. Philbin, Crowther and hopefully Thomas offer good cover, Bullock I think can move on.

- Long kicking game: Not good enough from Drinkwater, hopefully Hayes and Leyland can offer more.

- I keep changing my opinion on this, is Thewlis good enough?

I find it odd that we have used 2 of our non fed places on “development” players. Having said that Tai improved considerably over the course of the season, and I can’t see SB signing players he doesn’t rate so…

King - Personally I would not extend him. He has not been good value for us over that ridiculous contract period. I think he can be improved on. He has half the assists of Wardle and nearly 3m less average gain. I'd be looking to recruit a centre that offers something more in attack, and hope that Lindop can break through. Ideally I would like us to attack equally well on both sides of the pitch.

Long kicking - exactly. It's been our weak spot for a while.

Impact forward - exactly. Someone who can do what Mago did in the GF to change the context of the game.

Thewlis - I don't mind him. Sure he's not our best player, but he's not the weakest either. His goal kicking improved a lot during 2024 and he has natural evasiveness and decent, if not blistering, pace. He is no worst than Miski who has won every club honour in the game.

Dufty signed a 2 year extension half way through the season, but his wage increases significantly for 2025/26 against what he's been earning. The clubs highest non marquee wage.

Now I remember it was you who said this a while back. Are we still looking for players do you know.

Thewlis has some good bits to his game ,he can tackle & he has a good swerve, but he needs to be quicker deciding when to just run for the line to take advantage of the overlap instead of coming inside. He has obviously been saddled with goal kicking & if that isn't going well it could affect the rest of his game.

But wouldn’t Dufty take Batemans marquee spot, therefore leaving Dufty’s previous 2024 salary free?

2025 marquee players being Williams, Dufty & King?

Must be a wingers nightmare to play outside Tai.

Would have thought that Vaughan would be on a higher wage than King?

King is a "Home Grown" Marquee Player and hence only costs £50K on the Salary Cap.

Tai has just 2 try assists in 18 games. That's nowhere near good enough for a centre for a team that wants to win a GF.
Wrench has 4 in 9 games.

In fact we only have 9 assists across both centres.

I am glad you mentioned Wrench i was thinking he seems to have been forgotten in the comments. I'm not convinced by Wrench he seems to be a bit panicky with ball in hand it just seems all frantic but i would like to see him have an injury free season he's had a terrible time these last three or more years i think it would do him the world of good

He has the attributes to be a very good centre, as you say just needs to iron a few things out - especially defensively in my view - but I'm hopefully he can still come good.

Yes so picking some numbers out of the air, if Vaughan was on £200k he would count as £150k on our cap, so a saving of £50k. If King was on £150k he would count as £50k on our cap, so a saving of £100k.