Stones comments after the game last night:

"Recruitment and retention wise it's probably a three-year cycle to get what you think you need and you can't do it in one or even two off-seasons to be honest."

Sounds to me like he knows with the squad we have we will be no where near the top 4 again next season. And I have to admit we don't have a scoobys chance unless we make 3 good signings which we know won't happen.

Likely hood is I cant see us strengthening much on this years squads.

I do trust Stone with the signings he will make.

Year after Ferguson, Clough, Murphy, Brough, Hinchlffe, Wakeman Taai, Mamo, Ikahihifo, Symonds & Simpson are all OOC so we have a chance of bringing some decent players in with the money available. Of which I would expect to lose Clough, Ferguson, Symonds, Simpson & Murphy.

I hope Mamo and Seb can be signed up long term. And possibly short term deals given to Hinchliffe and Wakeman depending on how they perform next season.

Reality is this year we will likely lose just Ormsby and Rapira.

Year after is when Stone really has the chance to get his own team.

yeh not much chopping and changing this time roubd, not really needed for me anyway, we had enough of that last season and didnt have a settled half back pairing which is important.

just needs a few tweaks and luck on the injury front and we wont be off the top 4 again

All the emphasis needs to go on getting the players we have to perform to their full potential, rather that continually trying to buy a winning side, I would be more concerned about fitness and conditioning than about buying new players. We have plenty of talent in the squad but they so rarely play as a team and with the right attitude.
I'm not knocking Stone because he hasn't been here long enough yet to have had a big influence but i will be very disappointed if we don't see a big improvement next season, this season we survived, which is all i was looking for personally, especially with the kind of season we had injury wise .

Neither Wakefield or Cas are riddled with class players, yet both have had excellent seasons, maybe they have't suffered to quite the extent that we have , but certainly they have the knack of getting the very best out of the players they have. That in my opinion is what we need to concentrate on , getting and keeping the players fit, ( always going to be unavoidable injuries ) Everyone knows that on paper we are not a 8th placed team, So to me we have to find out and remedy why we can't deliver, rather than trying to buy a winning team.
I know it's a bit off topic but i still thing most of the problems are higher up the ladder.

Looking like Daniel Smith could be on his way out in search for more first team chances, according to LE and there is a club already looking for his signature.

Would you let him go?

I would. Never really got going here after his injury and now found himself down the pecking order and will free sum cap to use elsewhere.

yeh let hime go, was an anderson signing and project has not really worked out

Quite like Smith and can't really fault him - has been a bit part player true enough but seems a good squad player to me. Would not fault him if he wants more game time elsewhere but will trust in RS to do what's best for us. Bound to be some more players released to make way for more signings as RS continues to assemble his own choice squad and team. Always difficult to lose players but that's just the way it goes. If Smith does go then will want to see him do well just not against us.

note rick stone's comments regarding the club -

going in the right direction but its a 3 year cycle



i understand this, hes the right man to do the job, on track so far so good.

stone hinting at a 3 player turnaround in the off season..

so two we know of are that bradford prop and adam walne from salford

one more...

Stones seems very methodical. See what we had at the end of last year. If people didn't want to be here they could go, we worked with the players we had a brought in a raft so we had an actual squad to work with.
This year let those who haven't performed to what expected go and aquire a few more to get the mix rite. No whole sale changes just tweeks to the squad to try get a winning formula!

Im hoping we may be able to sign Julian Bousquet who is OOC with Catalans this season, would be a quality signing.

What we need is a long spell of not having 6 or 7 players injured!

And I think we'll see another good signing before too long to round us off. 1 year into a 3 year plan. It's all good.

Next season...top 6 after regular rounds

yes top 6 would be progress again