Now that the last available half back has been signed up the cupboard looks rather bare. I see that we have been linked with a smallish prop from Bradford but we look to be missing a couple of key pieces in our jigsaw puzzle.

There are a few in Oz seemingly available but we don’t have a quota spot available currently.

In short - no one.

No one without a bigger than usual transfer fee. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; we should be targeting Jordan Abdul

I think it’s safe to assume we won’t be paying transfer fees, so you’re talking somebody like Norman or a team here doing a swap deal or releasing a player to free up cap space.

I try to be positive and I’m realistic in that doing deals for the sake of them isn’t the right thing to do (like going for Sneyd) but we’ve made an absolute mess of recruiting a halfback.

As much as we need a HB and I want us to sign one, there has to be some common sense in that you’re right in what you’re saying; we can’t just do a deal for the sake of it. It has to be the right half for the club. I’m quite happy to praise the club for not doing that sort of deal and getting in the “glass half full” club, I’d like to think that’s exactly why we haven’t done any halfback business to date.

I’m comfortable backing them in not signing the recent halfbacks that have become available like Sneyd, Gale, Richardson etc but going back to mid season 2021, they really should’ve been in the running for guys like Sezer, Fages or even a runner like Lolohea IMO and not just throwing all their eggs in the Williams basket. There seems to be an excuse that we tried for Williams, so therefore they were attempting to recruit in the position but I’d love to know what the actual plan has been longer term. Williams wasn’t originally available, so that was a reactionary move, one that came up out of the blue. We knew well in advance Hastings was off, so has it just been a case that they do not rate a single halfback option that has moved elsewhere? Were we in for one but shelved it thinking the Williams deal would be a formality? We surely can’t be that lax we have just left things too late?

I don’t know the answers and for all I know they’ve just been desperately unlucky or they may even have it all under control and have done for ages but the gut feeling is that we’ve totally missed the boat and will now struggle to get one in.

If we'd played a bit harder with Williams & warrington, we'd have the money to purchase a half-back.

Oh definitely it was poor planning. We all knew what JH signed he’d be off in a few years to the NRL, he made no secret of that. Sezer would have been an ideal signing IMO.

It’s just indicative of where we are at the moment.

How have we gone from attempting to sign Williams, IL stating there is money for a 6 to what looks like signing nobody?

It is very very poor from the club.

To lose Hastings and not have anyone lined up to replace him right away is bad. But to not get anyone at all… shocking.

According to last seasons squad numbers, Jai Field was signed to replace Hastings as he was given the number 6 shirt.

Has the club now change its mind for some reason?

ok so we went for Williams and failed, don't understand how that stops us signing any other half back ???

Williams contract was going to be the largest in the club's history, so from that I perceive that we have dosh in the budget left, unless signing Williams meant we would have had to let swathes of players go that we subsequently retained - unlikely IMO.

I really hope KR and Lenegan are trying to recruit in the Southern Hemisphere and the target is an out of favour experienced player or a starlet not getting the game time.

It's not that simple tho.

There's two other considerations - salary cap space (we had dispensations for GW) and quota spots.

We might have the money to spend, but not the room on the cap for it. We also don't have any quota spots available, so can't just 'go out' and sign someone.

quota spots?

I know its wrong to assume, but you see other SL teams and they appear to have far more overseas players than us, some are packed with south sea islanders...

Well they don't, we have seven.

We have and that's all because the club cannot make tough decisions e.g. not giving Tommy another contract.