Unless you have seen the contract, how can you say that with such certainty?

if this is true, they can have him back. He might be quality but if he's willing to back out of a deal because his current club have had a good season, I don't want him in the P&B.

Lots of Cas fans at the game yesterday were saying they need to win the cup now because they'll be nowhere near it for a a long time, the expect a lot of the players they have to get a gig elsewhere next season.

...and there we have it, in a nutshell

If the lad is anything like 50/50 about wanting to be here next season, then I want him nowhere near our club.
Let him stay at Cas, if he thinks the grass will be greener, there.
After all, Cas may turn out to be a one season wonder (even though I do, and always have, rated Powell as a coach).

If rumours are to be believed, WE hold his contract for next year. If he wants to wriggle out of it, Cas'll have to pay us more than what we bought him for. More dosh for us, which will help us in future, as many are up in arms in the Wire accounts thread. I dare say we'll cope next year with Higham and Dwyer as hookers, and there'd still be a chance of getting cover elsewhere (NRL, Championships, out of contracts)

He's coming. Forget this nonsense that he doesn't want to. He's got to let the cas faithful know he doesn't really want to leave but he knows it makes sense for his career. He will leave with a heavy heart but we've got an absolute gem and a bargain.

Let's hope so.

Having been on the receiving end of it as a Wire, as I'm sure most of us have, Cas' main responsibility is to ensure the survival of the club and the odd Wembley appearance isn't going to change that I'm afraid, so the tangible assets are all fair game.

Of course, at the risk of sounding condescending, as one door closes another opens. When Andy Greg left us most people of a P&B persuasion thought the oceans would boil and the planet would fall off it's axis, then along came a lovely fella called Keith Holden who could also play a bit and we all moved on.

The fact Keith sufferred a career-ending injury all too soon is another reason on top of the 180,000 others we know of as to why Cas have done the right thing to cash in their chips.

I remember Keith Holden, plucked from the Pie reserves as recall. I was at there at Swinton, the old Station Road, when he ran around the blind side of the scrum and just collapsed as though he had fallen in a pot hole. Never really truly recovered but what a player we had, albeit it too briefly.

Didn't his lad play for one of our our junior sides for a spell?

I remember watching Sculthrope and Harris go and thinking the world just ended (I was just a kid then) I hated them both forever after that but when you realise that the fees received for these players kept our great club going then its easier to take.

Cas were close to going out of business and now all looks rosy, I like to think that we helped them out but fear they may feel the same way I did as a kid. They have a great coach and a really good team I really hope they kick on from here and improve year on year and hopefully finally get their new stadium!

The new stadium is essential for them. without it they'll just keep pouring money into the bottomless pit that is Wheldon Road and in 2 years they'll be back where they started. They are also going to lose quite a few players at the end of the season and I don't think that the replacements they've brought in so far are anything like as good.

Its just like Southampton in football, clubs need money to survive and if it means selling one or two players then so be it. They have shown that they can compete and do you think a team like Cas could bring in the likes of players they have for next season without the money generated from the sales

We're budgeted to spend less next year than this, thanks to freeing up big contracts to Richard Owen and Lee Gilmour.

I think all this is clutching at straws. The deal quoted was put to DC 2 months ago, Wire were happy to accept the money & comp back. Cas were happy to pay it, and double his wage, and give him a get out clause to NRL for 2017. He wants exposure for the NRL and reckons his best chance is at Wire. So snubbed the deal.

Have things changed since then? I'm not sure.