Tom Burgess will be close to 33 years old when the 2025 season starts and he has signed a 3 year deal.
I was told that both Leeds and Warrington were very interested in signing him,
but that the sealing deal that the Giants ultimately offered him was way beyond both of the other deals that were on the table.
It's always a big risk when you sign a player of that age and one who has played in the NRL for so long too imo

Time will tell if he is worth the huge outlay on the cap,But his game time minutes at the Bunnies has gradually been reduced over the last 12 months

Burgess would be another Widdop. How did that one go?

He had his moments but his best days were already long gone. I was about to say hopefully we are past making those kind of signings now but we had Bateman.

I wouldn't want Burgess and Ese'ese is a pipe dream. We'd need to sign an overseas player as there aren't any UK props available that are good enough, that aren't already signed up.
We can all throw out obvious names but the fact of the matter is, tgey are already signed up and no club unless they were in dire straights money wise, or the player and club have a massive fallout, clubs aren't just gonna give up their best forwards.

So in a nutshell whatever the differences are between Burgess and Vaughan are they need to get past it and get on with the next season.

The Mole as posted that Warrington have denied reports that Parramatta have asked for us to release Vaughan.

Th e problem is Vaughan can see his last decent contract slipping away from him,

If you actually believe that Vaughan cost us making a grand final in 2023, I withdraw all of my earlier responses about you being biased by personal opinion, and instead would just say that you’re just clueless.

I can’t fathom in a world where we have had Kasiano, Bullock, Musgrove, Dudson etc. in the front row stock, anyone looks at Vaughan and see’s him as the issue.

There is one player who could fill a Vaughan sized hole and he wouldn't count on the quota. Ryan Sutton has had a terrible 18 months with injury but at 29 I reckon he could be one that has a bit left to offer if he can get himself fit.

Leigh have offered £180,000 for Vaughan.

Will also be a multi year deal. He can go for me but only if we have a replacement. If he does actually want out there is no point him being here.

Maybe we’ll get Bunty in

Thing is we are owned by some extremely high net worth individuals. I am never convinced we are swayed by money. But if he wants away then off he goes.

As good as Vaughan is I think Burgess wants more of a leader in that pack which he doesn’t get from Vaughan (and has allegedly told him so). £180k for a player on the wane and freeing up a quota spot (Bunty) would probably be good business. Don’t know enough about Afoa - can any NRL watchers see him as a pack leader or is he an impact prop?

No idea on the leadership part, but he's very much used as an impact prop. I'd say he's in a bit of a mold like Chris Satae for impact. I think it would suit him over here and he'd do very well.
But it all depends if he even wants to play over here, but i'd be very happy with him. He's a big big guy but he sprints when in full charge and is very quick so has a big impact in collisions

Looks like we are done then with recruitment with what Fitzpatrick just said.
So we have a little bit of cap space left so we're just holding on to that and he fully expects Vaughan to return, as we've had no contact about him from any NRL club and nothing from Vaughan or his agent about him wanting to leave.
So our forwards are set so i expect more game time from Wood, Okoro, Holroyd, Whitehead etc
And i think we are stronger in the halves next year with Hayes and Leyland fighting for a place.
2nd row i'd be happy with Fitz and Holroyd starting, but if Burgess can get Russell up and firing on full cylinders i think he has the potential to do really well, despite what we've seen from him from PNG.
I think we are very slightly stronger than last year but not by much at all.
So not sure if we can improve that much on this year. But we've still got a quality squad so you never know, and i'm already looking forward to next season

If lindop starts instead of tai we'll be massively improved in the centres. He will have had his first full pre season and will be ready to take the league by storm!!(no pressure lad

)

Losing Nicholson and Bateman and recruiting Russell is weakening in my opinion. I think we are stronger in the half backs. Lindop must be centre to give us an attacking edge.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/pa ... ecruitment

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/pa ... ecruitment

You can read that 10 times and come up with a different reading of it.

From a defensive point possibly but Nicholson was always a bit overrated in my oppinion, Bateman defensively was great and got better as the games went on.
I think Holroyd is better than Nicholson and is a machine in defense, and will have see if Russell jumps up a gear over here for us

I love holroyd, but at this point in his career he is NO way better than Nicholson.

Very close then, apart from a few good tries Nicholson didn't excel in defense or attack, and wasn't a stand out player. He's good but overrated. Holroyd was superb in defense and full of energy in attack, not as big as Nicholson but not a big loss losing Nicholson with Holroyd stepping up.

I would argue we haven’t lost with Bateman, him only being on loan.
His inclusion displaced Holroyd, who will be coming back matured an hungry to disprove Wire’s decision to drop him for Bateman.
Fitzgibbon fit is a greater presence than Nicholson. We still have Currie too.
And with the academy lads pushing themselves on the fringes, backrow is one area Wire really has no weaknesses.

Re: Bateman, I was considering the strength of the squad as 2024 ended vs the projected squad for the start of 2025. Bateman was in the former, but won't be in the latter. Hence a loss. His performances really improved over the final weeks. But I like Holroyd and hope he continues his development.

If the squad numbers are anything to go by it looks like Currie and Fitzgibbon in the 2nd row with Yates at loose forward.