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.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... s-30180365

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... s-30180365

We have no alternative. Ratchford, Wrench injured and Lindop is being eased in as he is developing.

You are right Tai offers a lot in defence and in exit carries but not a lot with the ball.

The fact that we have used all of our Quota Spots gives us a problem with signing another player that would improve our 17 man squad.

Most British/French players that are any good are already retained for the 2025 season.

True, but wouldn’t surprise me to see us paying a transfer fee for someone, we have a fee for Nicholson that needs using!

Yeah we could either look at picking up 1 or 2 English players if any are available.
I still think Lewis Bienek would be a good pick up and wouldn't cost shed loads to bolster our forward options, IF we do move Bullock on that is. And we'd still have money to play with on top of any money we already have spare if any.

I thought Bienek was good when I’ve seen him play. He’s signed a new deal with London and is part time as he has a good IT job I think. Probably do well full time on a good set up but appears keen to stay there.

Is there any provision for part time players in SL? I would think an IT job in or near London would pay an excellent wage.

I wouldn’t be surprised if part time player and proper employment paid more than a full time SL contract for a fringe player.

Bateman signing for 2025 isn’t dead in the water.
Wire haven’t been thrifty for nothing with the last 3/4 signings.

Tai offers very little in exit carries. Watch some matches back and you'll see he makes very few metres. Thewlis is a lot better because of his footwork. Tai tries (and almost always fails) to run over someone. He does provide the odd big bit but if you check his tackle stats he misses a fair few for a supposed 'defensive' centre.

Is this you speculating or have you had a snippet of information?

Quote: Chris McKean "Tai offers very little in exit carries. Watch some matches back and you'll see he makes very few metres. Thewlis is a lot better because of his footwork. Tai tries (and almost always fails) to run over someone. He does provide the odd big bit but if you check his tackle stats he misses a fair few for a supposed 'defensive' centre.'" https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/1941/rodrick-tai Missed 34 tackles, made 233. 12% miss.

Quote: Chris McKean "Tai offers very little in exit carries. Watch some matches back and you'll see he makes very few metres. Thewlis is a lot better because of his footwork. Tai tries (and almost always fails) to run over someone. He does provide the odd big bit but if you check his tackle stats he misses a fair few for a supposed 'defensive' centre.'" https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/1941/rodrick-tai Missed 34 tackles, made 233. 12% miss.

Can’t see him signing on again

No i cant see it either. The wages he's on now we just couldn't match. I would like to see him in the primrose and blue for the right price but why would he when you can live the life in Oz on a pocket full

His future doesn't look all that certain, news reports today suggesting Manly are interested and Wests would pay some of his salary to get him off their books.

Assuming we are still interested - and I'm not sure I'd be in favour of it - we would presumably have to have the cap space (£200k plus?) to move King off his marquee spot and Bateman on to one. I don't think its the best use of a marquee spot to be honest.

Bateman wouldn’t be a good use of cap, rumours abound Vaughan might not be returning (no idea if true) and if so we’ll need to spend big on a prop.

That rumor has been floating about for well over 6 months it could be the same one just doing a full cercle. It was also said that he's gone home already (this was two weeks ago) and is set to not come back..... he was in applejacks farm last week with his family. Even with Vaugh i still think we are light next year in all honesty

As has been pointed out we could really do with a strong impact prop like Wigan have with Mago.

Yeah i put the Vaughan made up rumour in the same bin as Fiztgibbon retiring. Old wives tales simple as, nothing more to it.