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?

Thewlis would certainly present more of a threat with a different centre partner, I think most wingers threat would be better with a centre who knows when to pass.

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.

Cap space wise I believe Dufty is getting more per contract agreement. Obviously don’t know the details of that and how much more he is getting.

Leyland from what I have seen as a decent kicking game even kicked a few 40/20 if memory serves his goal kicking will need to improve but I’m sure Ratchford can help with that.

Musgrove just not consistent enough for me and that’s the problem you can’t just turn up in the odd game. Think Vaughan as had that kind of season just not as bad.

Believe the club are trying to move Bullock on.

Thewlis I know a few who really dislike him. I don’t know where I sit with him sometimes really good sometimes really frustrating. But and it is a but if we go with Leyland for goal kicking I could see a reason why some would prefer a different winger.

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.

Thewlis i'm happy with,he has great hands, good engine, lots of speed etc. He hasn't shined because Tai is more of a defensive centre than a strike centre. If he was playing outside of jake Wardle, Tim Lafai, Hiku etc He'd be well further up the try charts, I'm happy with him.
Musgrove has played bog standard low minutes this year, I know Burgess rates him higher than his actual displays though, so this will keep Max Wood from playing more games than him. Wood has a much better engine, better skills and a slightly better impact than him......but Musgrove gets the nod every week over him, bit of unjust favouritism there i think.

The rule that was introduced in 2024 with the allowance for a 3rd Marquee Player specified that the player had to be Federation trained, so Vaughan wouldn`t have qualified to be used in that role.

You would wonder why Tai has had so any games if you looked at his attacking/skills & stats but to balance things up we ought to mention that he does flatten a few & at times it provides a great lift for the side. Not many run through Tai & most come of worse. Big Sam obviously puts defence high up on his priorities when picking a team.
We also seem very obsessed with using our backs to carry the ball up, presumably to rest our forwards for defensive work, and he's pretty good at this too when it is very very tough.
Lindop, obviously, will be a better all round centre in time.

I thought as we had Williams on Marquee as Fed trained we could have 2x overseas marquees if we wanted?

Yes we could have 2 Overseas Marquees, but they count more on the Salary Cap.

A home grown Marquee only counts for £50K on the Cap.