Garbage.....what arrogance/ignorance from you! you surely have not seen the squad cas have assembled then. it is far more balanced and has real strength in depth in comparison to the last 8 years! granted the squad is not as strong as wigans for example but it is as strong but stronger than all of the teams you list in the league fo 4 aqbove with the possible exception being Hull KR. Salford squad is poor, you could argue an ok starting 13 but after that it's poor.

i guess the proof will be in the pudding but i would comfortably say we will finish in the top 8 this year unless we are crucified by injuries!!

Calm down. Only one mans opinion. Cas have lost two of their most influential players and have brought in garbage like Mathers. Can't see Cas getting in the eight, they don't have a squad as good as Hull KR, Bradford and Hull IMO.

Mathers isn't garbage, however, he does need to have some top class players around him to allow him some confidence, which he had at Wire & Leeds and didn't have at Wigan or won't have at Castleford either.

He won't struggle or indeed be 'garbage', but he isn't the type of signing to suddenly make a side significantly any better.

I have never doubted his hunger or his effort but a proffesional rugby league player should be dropping easy catches on a regular basis and looking scared to go for the ball. He is a poor player, why else would Tony Smith get rid and replace him with someone better, he was the only weak link in the wire defence. His tackling is poor and he even throws out stupid passes. He doesn't score enough tries from a FB and doesn't link up in the line to create tries like Tomkins, Hodgeson and Webb.

End of the thread.

.....He is not garbage.....Any player who has the bottle or talent to play at Super League level is definitely not garbage and you are a fool for even daring to use that term for ANY player.

Yes, us non-Wiganers all get it....Mathers had a rough time of it at Wigan, of that there is no doubt, but just because he dared to under-perform for you lot does not make him garbage.

Being a Warrington fan, if we are using your analogy, then there are plenty of players who I could diss over the years, as being awful players, if I based their talents on their Wire performances.....Steve Roach, arguably the best prop forward in World Rugby in the 80's, was an absolute donkey in a Wire shirt, yet I wouldn't even consider questioning his talents....David Kidwell, unrecognisable from the NRL version of the same player, could be cited as being 'garbage' by some Wire fans....The list goes on, and the same probably applies for most clubs, but to simply label somebody garbage is insulting and disrespectful.

And just because Tony Smith chooses to replace him with 'someone better' does not make him a poor player....We have replaced Hicks with Joel Monaghan....Does that make Hicks a poor player?.....Similarly, we replaced Martin Gleeson with Chris Bridge in the centres and suddenly we have 2 Challenge Cups in the trophy cabinet.....What does that make Gleeson?...

A Super League Champion...

Exactly, and definitely not a poor player based on the thinking of some, who think that a released player automatically makes them that....

To be fair, Mathers was utter garbage at Wigan, he used to shy away from catching bombs, & making one on one tackles, what kind of fullback does that? Then he goes to Wire and plays like he did at Leeds, its pretty justified why Wigan fans feel so annoyed with him.

But some players just cant handle the pressure at such a big club.

He was far too mistake-prone, both at Wigan and Wire, to make up for any of the positive things he did. You could guarantee 2 or 3 "Bloody hell, Mathers!" moments in every game.

One of my favourites from last season is the fumble that allowed Pat to go in from 90 yards against the wolfs...

Talk about a kettle blowing off steam.

What are you on, mate?

Were you one of those deluded Wire chumps who was loudly trumpeting that Warrington had got the best part of the deal when we swapped Mathers for Gleeson? Is that what this is about? Are you just not prepared to admit you were wrong?

I'd generally agree that no-one who plays in SL can be total garbage. But I also used to think that no-one could play full-back who routinely missed tackles and dropped high balls, and yet Mathers proved the exception to that rule too.

And come on ... comparisons with Steve Roach and David Kidwell! Give me a break. They were donkeys in your shirt because they were here for a holiday, and the only people who didn't seem to realise that were you lot.