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.

Undoubtedly we've made a mess of it, but I disagree with the Tommy thing point.

The club have backed themselves into such a corner (by putting all their eggs in the GW basket) that anyone of quality has been snapped up. The Tommy signing to me screams of a last min, rushed decision to have some kind of cover & not doing him a favour or not being able to make tough decisions.

I'm sure that, if we'd have gone for someone else (which we should have done) Tommy would have moved into coaching.

Was that the clubs choice or was it Tommy's choice i.e. the extra year was in his favour?

With Clarke going we now comply with the overseas quota limit of 7, prior to that we were 1 over and administratively we wouldn’t have been able to register one of the players.

So even by losing Clarke we still don’t have any quota spots available.

It really does smack of very poor planning over the course of a number of years not just last year.

In my opinion someone should be made accountable for that, and maybe Lam has been but I’ve a feeling it’s down to decisions higher up the food chain than that and also one of the main reasons Wane is back at the club.

With Smith, Field, TL and French able to play in the halves, I wonder whether half back is really the biggest area?

I reckon an experienced prop and a strike centre might be more valuable. I respect Powell but maybe even a 9 with a little more strike to accompany him.

It's really hard to judge tbh. A good HB and make or break a team.

I really like the idea of Bibby being given a shot at centre too. He was great for Salford there, but has been a winger for the majority of his time here.

Has French played in the halves?

Yes, for a limited time, but he wasn’t very good and is why he has played fullback ever since.

Bevan French is categorically not a halfback

Which clubs and who?

I don’t agree with Fear the Vee that we’re covered in the halves already (we are in numbers possibly but not in quality) but if we do go with what we have because there isn’t the right quality available, then I fully agree that we need to look at other positions and get them as strong as possible to try and help the lads we do have be as efficient as they can be. I also agree with the positions I’d then be looking at. One would be another prop and the other a centre.

One situation that seems to be bubbling away down under is Luke Thompson and his refusal to get vaccinated. As with everything Covid related, they’re more hardline than us Down Under and after it seemingly being sorted, it now looks like he’s saying he won’t get it until the turn of the year (for some reason). I doubt anyone here would force him to have a vaccine and it’s something we should be keeping our eyes on, if the finance is available.