Given that Saints would have been his last ever career game and nothing has been said of it anywhere am I jumping the gun a tad in assuming that he must have decided to play on for one more year?

How old is he now?

Maybe he hasn't decided yet?

He's 32 (33 in February)

Just seems like he should be a lot older, as he's been knocking around forever.

he's 32 so not exactly ancient, but he's been at it a long time and I don't think he should be our starting halfback come 2012

He should be used wisely in the easier games to keep our frontline fresh imo. Hes still good enough without doubt against quite a few teams in the league.

If he's going to go round again then maybe we are struggling to bring in a replacement and he's going to be used in conjuction with Mellor. I don't think he's got a full season in him and he's really struggled at times this year, especially in the bigger games. He's had a superb career and I'd hate for him to play on one season too long.

I'm guessing it will be a decision based on other options available to the club. If we can sign a halfback he'll retire and if we can't he'll probably play on.

If it's the latter that must only be as back up to Finch, Mellor and Powell.

Did Deacon play more game time this season than last. Last season in the last 2-3 game he was one of the best players we had. This season during his last 2-3 games he was much poorer. If he stays as a player for one more season then he needs to be used wisely.

He was ineffective at home against Saints.

Personally I wouldn't like to see Deacon play on now as a first choice half back option. Time is catching up with him I feel, based on the top of the table standard. However as a back up squad member I'm quite content to see him offer his services for another year.

To answer the previous poster. Deacon played 20 times in 2010 (13 starts) and 29 of the 36 matches this year (23 starts). He missed 4 matches between 18th March and 8th April (only won 1 in his absence) and then played every game bar 1 until missing the last 2.

Thanks too knackered to look stuff up atm.

Yeah hes played more this season and he was effective early on in season but at the back end he started to struggle a bit. He will still do a good job next season imo just not every match. We need to take it a bit easier on our best players in the seemingly worthless regular season imo if we want to be at our peak at the end so Deacs would be good for that.

Expect an announcement about June 2012.

Whats happening then?

We announce our new coach