Unfortunately I do not think the club had much choice in losing Levi and Leutele. They could not wait indefinitely for Leutele to sign - he had stated on more than one occasion that he was happy at the club but for whatever reason he did not put pen to paper - and Levi desired to return to the NRL. Who knows if that played a part in his form dipping in the second half of the season - certainly he was not alone in that - but his form at the start of the season was electric and I was very sorry to see him leave.

After Peats' positive impact in his first spell with us I was optimistic that his steady influence would be a good fit for us with Connor also occupying a place in the spine, however the downside to these signings, as mentioned above, is that our spine suffers from a lack of zip.

I was disappointed that Leutele left given his fantastic performances last year though be it him, Latrell or anyone else it was going to be a tough ask for this season's centre to match the impact of 2022.

However Marsters is looking useful and hopefully with a settled spine, rather than different half backs every week, he will be able to showcase more of his skills. Given he is 6th in the league for metres and top for offloads, head and shoulders above our next best, and is one of our better performers for tackle busts, I think with him and Naiqama Watson has signed a couple of high quality centres.

I am as disappointed as everyone else with our start and am not necessarily always a glass half full person but maybe a little perspective is needed.

The last 3 games we have lost have been by a combined total of 5 points, (with several first team players missing) and this was to Leeds, Saints and Wigan - two grand finalists and the challenge cup winners. I would be worried if there wasn't more improvement in our fluency in attack but we have looked far more dangerous since Connor returned to the fold. A settled spine may not possess the speed we all seem to agree that it would benefit from but it would at least give us greater chance to further develop our attack.

Watson noted before the season kicked off that we would be building towards the back of the season due to the World Cup. Given the points we have acquired to date I certainly hope he is right!

We are often reminded that it's not how your start but how you finish. We started well last season, only to fade badly in the second half. Let's hope we have learned our lessons.

I agree with much of that. but the question is why do our better players keep leaving? Normally that is because their heads are turned by better clubs, that has not been the case for Leutele or Levi. I might suggest that like Sezer they don't like playing in Watsons process driven environment. Levi leaving was unfortunate, but the right option was to stick with what we had and wait until a better replacement turned up, not sign a quota player on a 3 year deal that is clearly past his best, that was a terrible bit of business.

I think we will actually do well out of our next 4 fixtures, and were these normal times i would be happy enough with our team and performances. It's the fact that Watson has talked about consitently competing with the best each year, and been given a blank cheque book to do so that has me being so critical of his recruitment and tactics. I guess i still find it really hard to get over the fact that we had a once in a generation chance to win the challenge cup last year and bottled it by trying to play out for the win. It's tactics that Watson employs time and again (the penalty at leeds mentioned earlier in this post) and his team reflects his ethos. Very little flair and certainly no pace. All the top sides build towards the end of the year, but Watson saying it desperately to try to make up for lack of performance at the moment makes it sound really desperate and it is by no means bound to happen.

He has put the bar so high himself with his talk of winning things and competing with Wigan and Saints, but isn't walking the walk on the field.

I do find the style repetitive and a little boring, especially when it doesn't work, it's nor pleasant to watch. But it's clear we've not been firing in attack, Tui hasn't found his best form yet, Connor is just coming back. I've not been pleased with Peats but he was actually excellent against catalans.

It's a long season, if we can find some rhythm in attack we will start putting sides away. We have to with all the territory we have. As long as we are picking up form Aug-Oct we have a chance

I think Pryce is having his best year for us. Every time he has played fullback he has looked excellent, for me that's his position to lose now (until he leaves)

You'll be OK at the weekend, you will look like Champions elect

Got that a bit wrong…

Nothing will change while we continue to do what we do.