Are these confirmed?

I am charitable and he has the weakest squad in the league, BUT we need a wheeler dealer to get some better players in and i am not sure he can do it. Also worry about the bigger names coming in - Witt/Gower, will they have anything to do with him?

Powell did a certain amount of inheriting - it's not clear to me that all recruitment was done *after* Powell began as acting head coach. In any case, he had the smallest budget in SL so signings are inevitably hit-and-miss - admittedly Koups was a disaster, but Bailey is a good player.

Same goes for UK players - we're not in the market for stars, we have to sign cast-offs. Players sign for money+potential success. We can't offer the latter, we struggle with the former.

On Randall. The squad hasn't had a no. 7 for years - again not sure if Powell had time to fix this pre-season. In any case, with Randall at 7, the team won games so not a disaster.

Latus/Calderwood were on trial which was hardly an outrageous option. Not sure why Calderwood has been persisted with but swapping him for Caro/Dixon is peripheral to what the team has/would have achieved in 2011.

Now, all that said, I think Powell's record over the past 20 games is poor. His team can't defend and he's not managed to work out why. But successful player trading has - until now - been almost impossible with the hand he's been dealt and I suspect that Wilkes/Ellis made up their minds to leave earlier in the season before all the talk of new investment/new name/Craig Gower got started.

I could be persuaded either way about Powell staying on but I don't think he's the worst coach in SL and I worry that we are being linked with some who have under-achieved with pretty decent squads.

Today Rob P says in League Express, should be able to announce by the end of the week signings, hooker, we all know who we expect that to be? winger, a prop and two second row!

I am sorry but I cannot accept that Rob Powell was uninvolved in the selection of either the 2006-2010 squad or the 2011 signings, he has been here six years and was an adviser and indeed the most senior coach after McDermott left before becoming Head Coach.

Olly and Andy Ellis were ok to sign, Olly wanted two years, Andy did not want to go either, they weren't waiting on Wakefield on the off-chance of a licence, that I can assure you - that would be ludicrous.

I'm told by a source connected to one of the players that Rinaldi, Korkidas and Colbon are coming.

I'm told Matt Cook is the second rower - he can't get past last year's two dream team second rowers, whom are contracted at Hull KR so there is no shame in that. The other player is an Australian, not sure who this is but I would take a punt on Chris Armit.

Cheers
Mark

ps I'm not sure where are the promised marquee signings - Gower might be plausible at a push, Witt is also in his prime, but I would be expecting at minimum two current State of Origin players / England internationals to claim that.

pps I have it on good authority that Dorn, Randall, Gale, Bailey, Howell, Pryce and Purdham are on six figure salaries (£100-£125k) and many other players are within £20k of this e.g. Ward, Temata etc. My understanding is that we spend approx £1.35m. That would make sense when you see how thin the squad is, silly contracts taking close to half the cap. We apparently are within £250k of the cap but you can judge for yourself the value derived.

I think its quite clear that Ellis was hoping to leave, yet happy to "settle" for staying.

I heard from a player that Kaufusi(sp?) may actually still be coming, but we'll see.

Seriously?????

How do you have such nonsense on good authority. I would be surprised if you knew what your missus earned.

Meanwhile, Quins coach Rob Powell said: "I thought we were pretty good in the first half and unlucky to go in behind.

"The second half we didn't get the response we were looking for.

"I'm not a 'lack of completions' type of man but 53% for us against 93% means you give yourself no chance of winning the game."

And which player would this be???

So we are paying a player on loan a £100k+ salary?

I'd have words with your source if I was you...

Quote: tim "I heard from a player that Kaufusi(sp?) may actually still be coming, but we'll see.'" I have serious doubts about that "news item" from Nosey Parker, But I did watch Kaufusi playing for the Knights against the Warriors this weekend. Commentators said that he was still looking for a contract and he played like it. On that form he'd be a big positive for us. Made one massive tackle on the Warriors monster winger Manu Vatuvei and dislodged the ball - unfortunately the ref decided he'd run out of the line too early and gave a penalty against him. Big guy he certainly is, but there must have been 5 or 6 Kiwi/Polynesian forwards playing (both teams had them) who were bigger than him -this one for example: tvnz.co.nz/rugby-league-news/ta- ... an-4352259. Oh, for a couple of those guys IF they can be motivated.

Quote: tim "I heard from a player that Kaufusi(sp?) may actually still be coming, but we'll see.'" I have serious doubts about that "news item" from Nosey Parker, But I did watch Kaufusi playing for the Knights against the Warriors this weekend. Commentators said that he was still looking for a contract and he played like it. On that form he'd be a big positive for us. Made one massive tackle on the Warriors monster winger Manu Vatuvei and dislodged the ball - unfortunately the ref decided he'd run out of the line too early and gave a penalty against him. Big guy he certainly is, but there must have been 5 or 6 Kiwi/Polynesian forwards playing (both teams had them) who were bigger than him -this one for example: tvnz.co.nz/rugby-league-news/ta- ... an-4352259. Oh, for a couple of those guys IF they can be motivated.

What are the rules for overseas RL players to be granted work permits?

Mark , your posts are usually very good but in reply to this one , three months ago i was told that Purdham had bought a house in Cumbria and was leaving at the end of the season .At the same time i was told Gale, Wilkes and Ellis were all looking to leave for clubs up north. How can you say Ellis wanted to stay when he had a decent contract offer on the table for five weeks but refused it . I agree it wasnt wakefield he was waiting for to come in for him but thats who he has ended up with . One last thing i can assure you is that your good authority on the players salaries is so far out you should sack him ...