The Pantomime is actually being played out in real life this year - no need to book the LB Theatre.

spot on.

and regarding crabtree, no he wont come out of retirment, he cant now with the nose job anyway.

Incoming player to be announced shortly......

Presumably this will be Shannon Wakeman. I'd expect this guy to be on significantly less money than Huby or there would be no point to taking the gamble on him.

I have no problem with the Wakeman signing but he must be on less than Huby. He has been the best prop forward by far in the NSW championship and the standard is far far better than our championship. He plays big minutes, makes breaks, makes lots of metres and tackles hard. He is 26 so is still fairly young for a prop forward and his best days ahead of him. There are lots of fans who cant believe he hasn't been signed up by an NRL side.

Hes not an over the hill aussie coming for a pension. Hes in the prime of his career and will have the bit between to prove he should of had the chance playing in the NRL.

Lets face it if there was a young player in our championship with his stats there would be super league clubs queuing up to sign him - similar to Chris Hill/Alex Walmsley when they were in the championship.

seem to be getting rid of andersons castleford buddies with wood, ellis (loan) and now huby

prob all came to training together in same car too!

I wasn't comparing what we do to other clubs i'm comparing what our new conditioning and coaching team are doing compared to in the past .....which apparently is a lot more than they have been used to, hence why certain players are finding it harder!!

Was it away to Leigh when Huby dropped the ball 5 times in 5 hit ups in the opening 10 minutes?

might have been but i recall him doing same in a home game for us too in middle 8's!

lets face it on form he has shown for us he wont be missed at all

such a shame as i had high hopes for him

leaves us with some extra salary cap for stone anyway which is good because he had his hands tied abit with the bulls 3 already signed, just getting abit late to be doing deals

Huby never played the same for us as he did for Cas, remember though he was a proven player with a very good offload, Wonder why he went backwards, in fact can you name me a player that went forwards in the last 3/4 years, Maybe Gerry.

Regards this season I don't think anyone is expecting us to do more than survive. For me treat it as a season of building, or at least learning what we have got in terms of the Bulls lads and our own youngsters. Don't be dishing out anymore long contracts, lets be ready for the start of 2018 season with a chance to sign players while they are there, rather than what's left.
We are going to get more players yet, but we are not going to challenge for anything barring a miracle, so don't be paying over the odd's for anyone. We just need to make the 8 this season, If RS does his job and get's them up for it, with the new conditioner we should be capable of that , and lets get our game right and play football that people want to watch ( like we did now and then last season ) If we make the 8 this season, that will do me, anything better will be a bonus.

Spot on Jo

I'm confident we'll make the 8 with what we have, the signings expected will just improve the likelihood

Then as you say we can get the players signed in good time to push on again

Jo you speak a lot of sense and always do. I agree with everything you are saying apart from I think we have a slight chance of making the 8 and currently I think we will finish 8th, 9th or 10th battling with Leeds and Wakefield for those positions.

I think Leigh and Widnes will finish 11th and 12th. I think the new coach and conditioner will make the difference but I think our lack of depth will cost us again and we may just miss out of the 8.

However, I do think just 2 players Full Back and Prop will be the difference between finishing 7th/8th or 9th/10th. If we can then get a hooker and another prop for depth we could be pushing for top 5/6 and I genuinely believe that - especially if Mamo will do as well as what Stones believes he will in this competition.

Then hopefully the year after we can be a top 4 team once more.