Very shocked. I would have guessed that the club's income would have affected the amount available to spend on the salary cap and because of that, would have thought that the club would have been working on a small playing budget.

I don't believe the 'stealing a wage' language is helpful but it seems clear that a number of players, mainly foreign, are earning salaries way above what other SL clubs (and I imagine NRL too) would offer them. Gower and Randall are presumably the club's highest earners, being captain and longest serving player respectively; Howell's current deal is presumably lucrative - Kaufusi, Dorn, Bailey and Witt won't be far behind.

We are forced into the position of spending over the odds for players because attracting native players is difficult and we have yet to develop a completely productive production line of local youngsters. Agents of the likes of Randall etc must know this and exploit it, as is their job. Unfortunately the club seems happy to let them stack the odds in their favour. I and a number of others would have been happy to have seen the back of Randall and Howell two years ago, and was thoroughly disappointed when in the last couple of years we have seen genuinely good British players (not to mention LMS) leave - mainly because their replacements have been so poor.

Powell is the Head Coach and ultimately must surely be the one who identifies the players he wants to sign and the players he wants to either retain or release from a contract point of view. Last year he was doing so with one hand tied behind his back given the squad he had largely inherited. The first six rounds of the season, appear to show to me at least, that he's made some glaring misjudgements.

With the exception of Witt the foreign players are on paper of a much higher quality than we have had in years. Few on this forum have said anything different a few weeks ago (including me) - and even the RL press and Sky said the same.

We shouldn't let recent results kid ourselves. The players have the ability - they have just stopped trying.

The players signed should be performing better because they're of a better quality than players recruited in previous years.

Gower has Australian test jerseys and won the NRL
Robertson and Rodney won the NRL last year.
Kaufusi has played in a NRL Grand Final, played at a World Cup and been selected to play for Australia.
Witt has played 90 times in the NRL and 46 in Super League.

What I'm trying to get at is these players aren't bad players, you don't win NRL, play for Australia or even play 90 times in the NRL if your a bad player. Everyone will agree that these 5 are better than the likes of Ryan Esders etc who were poor or buggered off back up North six months down the line.

I think its a case of mis-management by Powell, Tawhai etc. Going on what I've read on here, the club will be looking down the barrel of a gun should Cas win on Saturday. The franchising system allows some coaches to stay a bit longer than they should but I can't see the club sticking with Powell too long should people's threats to not turn up come to fruition.

Seems like that to me. It might seem like an odd example but look at what happened at Spurs under Juande Ramos - players were signed at great expense, but the squad never responded to Ramos - and he was a back to back UEFA Cup winner. It took a change of management to turn it around. Many more results like Friday and you can only imagine Hughes's hand will be forced.

I'm sure we can't go on like this, but who will come to London? but our other as worrying problem is the collapse in attendances, what will this week bring?

Even if Randall is not one of our highest earners, it seems to me he is stealing a living.

It will be seen as a good opportunity for some British coaches waiting for their 1st break if they are confident they can cut it. Lets face it - we have some good players - who don't want to play for the current coach (allegedly). If they come here and we start playing as we should be then they will get the credit. Getting an Ozzie at short notice might be a problem.

Brian Noble is the name that comes to mind instantly. Don't know if he'd fancy it though. The only other name I can think of is Justin Morgan but I don't know whether he's still in the country.

I liked Karl Harrison when he was at Batley, but he's now at Halifax and has a business up in Yorkshire, John Kear's at Batley, Terry Matterson went home to Oz I think and I doubt Daryl Powell would move south.

I think the state we are in can be summed up be people such as Paddock Punter commenting about thinking twice about going to away matches. I said that Easter would be the time to judge Powell, however, I have to say given the high degree of ineptitude displayed this season, and appalling result/performance at Salford and his appalling % of wins, Saturday is day of judgement for Powell.

No...because for as long as I can recall, the club haven't spent a brass farthing on any forms of marketing. I will add that if people staying away stops them wasting any more f()(k1n9 money on viral videos, then I hope the trains and busses go on strike this weekend! 13.314453125:10