I would like to see a confirmation that we have BUTLER from London. In this case NO NEWS is not good.

the annoying thing with the sita situation, is that nearly everyone has forgotten that . prior to him being off with his kid being born, he was a different animal this year, he was doing a lot more minutes, he and philbin were a good duo off the bench.

Most of the bods saying to get rid are talking about him like he's in his first season again. the main problem here is post birth, he's made it on price's list, and as we know its not easy to get off that, unless he really has no other option

It does seem that way, the KF early glasnost and perestroika format is now an iron curtain with effluent.

Mike Cooper
Joe Philbin
Chris Hill
Robbie Mulhern
Rob Butler

Is that enough? We also have Doro and Kibula in reserve.

Not included Akauola and Latu, as we're trying to get rid.

Its easily enough. Mulhern is decent at barging over from close range as well so it will help our pathetic creativity near the opposition line!

It's certainly a big improvement on last year's line up.

For me it's a big step up to what we had this year, will it be enough?.....only time will tell, and if we can't get rid of Latu hopefully it could be a massive wake up call and it massively makes him knuckle down and kick on......doubt it but Matt King was poop the first year and Michael Monaghan was bang average and they came good so you never know?
Akauola i would keep as a reserve, this is his last year contracted with us anyway i believe and he was playing more minutes and was a good improvement this year before he went off with his new born like Fantasic Mr cat Said.

I'd temper the "ooh look at our lovely new pack" sentiment a little to be honest, given Butler is still work in progress in my view whilst Mulhearn has never really stood out for me.

Until then, I'm cautiously hopeful.

]

I'm a bit "tenth bitten twice shy" with our prop recruitment. Partly driven by the fact I can't comment on Butler and I haven't seen enough of Mulhearn this year. They're recruiting in the right place at least, whether Butler is a Hill or an England, we'll see in a few months, I'm hopeful for him though, as I was hopeful for Tasi, Cox, Sita, Roy, Dodds et al.

I get what you're saying and the new lineup may not be perfect but an England is an upgrade on a Latu, surely. I would also say an upgrade on a sita given the ability to play (or be trusted to play) for longer than 10 minutes.

We will have to see, I'm glad we are trying to bulk up the pack depth anyway and I'm also glad it's UK based players who I think will be hungry to prove they have the credentials to belong at a team expected to challenge in all competitions.

It will have to be good enough, unless we offload Sita and or Latu we will have:

Hill
Cooper
Philbin
Mulhern (if it comes off)
Butler

Sita
Kibula
Latu

With the likes of Clark, Doro and possibly Hughes (depending on if we sign a new back rower) who could class themselves as 'middles' (hate that term).

We have too much of our salary cap already in the prop department because of poor recruitment.

All depends on how Mulhern and Butler turnout, Hill, Cooper & Philbin are more than good enough, but we need two more pros to step up to become that 4th prop option in the 17.

When we let Chris Hicks go to accommodate Monaghan Jnr, I seem to recall that we paid him off in the offseason so the payment didn’t count towards the Salary Cap, is that still the rule (and if so would the club consider it for Latu?).

As far as I know yes, as long as a player doesn’t play in the season, you could pay them off with no cap impact. Would still cost us to pay off the contract obviously and I’m not sure what happens if we pay ‘some’ of his salary to facilitate a move to another club, does the amount we part pay count, or does none count as he isn’t our player?

Just increases salary cost at a time I’m sure we are trying to cost save.

I’m sorry. I just assumed based on what some other posters have said that we had a bottomless money pit (it’s just to the right of the money tree if you’re trying to locate it).

So 2 props acquired, on the face of it both good signings. I can’t see any obvious criticism of these signings, They are not from Australia so no issues re families (although Yorkshire based players have been known to struggle), they can hardly be accused of being here for a holiday/pension top up. Mulhern seems a steady Eddie with potential to step up and Butler a bit of a young gun. Hardly “Hollywood “ signings but is that important.
We as supporters have spotted the weakness in the prop department, so have the club and they have worked to fill it. Are they due some praise? Is this a flurry of signings? My natural optimism is starting to reassert itself, throw the cold water my way.