Yeah if you divide out the salary cap then the average player in the 25 highest earners is on £73k, so you would assume £50k would get us a reserve halfback rather than a starter. As you say, much of it will probably get swallowed in contract re-negotiations.

If Lockers is to go again in 2018 then we need to bring in his replacement now.
Who we'd get i s another matter but I wouldn't like to see him depart and just carry on without him.
This is going to be some bit of recruitment to replace Lockers, if it can be done!

£50k plus Lewis Tierney wages perhaps? Maybe more if Tommy takes his coaching role sooner?

Things change which may give us some wriggle room on the cap - we let Smith go last season while under contract and if the club are doing their job this off-season they'll be trying to offload a number of players for free to freshen up elements of the team or looking to move Leuluai or J Tomkins onto their non-playing jobs early.

I hope you're right, I couldn't believe they were willing to sign Smith. I just can't see why other clubs would want to pay the wages of the players we are willing to offload at the moment, or why Leuluai or J.Tomkins would be willing to take early retirement. Of the top earners I reckon:

Could maybe offload:
Manfredi or Burgess - Probably the most viable option, as they are both very good wingers who other teams would want, and we have Davies, who looks ready to be first choice.
Nu'uausala - MAYBE a chance that an NRL club would take him as squad player, given that they have a much larger cap, so can take a punt or two. Hopefully the homesick stories are accurate
McIlorum - Can't see Wane being too happy to lose his lovechild, but this would be a good move to be honest. Can maybe see some mid-bottom end SL clubs being interested given his CV.

Don't think other clubs would pay their wages/the player would be willing to leave a good contract:
S.Tomkins - Marquee money, seriously doubt any club would take him as their marquee player now.
Leuluai and J.Tomkins - Signed when their stock was much higher than it is now, so I suspect they have quite cushy contracts which other clubs wouldn't be willing/able to match. Can't see why they would go voluntarily.

Would be a bad move for us to get rid of:
Gelling, Gildart, Williams, Flower, Bateman, Farrell and Lockers - Very good players in positions we don't really have much cover in

True enough. It's a bit of a dilemma though. If like me you think Wane is the main problem do you stick with him another year because the only coaches you could tempt here are the likes of Chester?

I think crowds and season ticket sales will plummet if there are not some big changes made. We might make the top 8 next year without a repeat of the early season injury crisis but if it is off the back of the boring rubbish served up this season (and last) I can't say it appeals very much.

I just don't know.

I'm not sure what stage we're at with contracts. I suppose there is still time this year for SW to do something remarkable again, but I seriously doubt anything of the sort will happen.

I can only say that if we get a sniff of a quality coach from the NRL, even if it's another well-regarded assistant (as Madge was), but we have to wait another year, it might be worth hanging on to what we've got until the time is right. Though even that might not be possible. SW himself might step down if he thought he wasn't part of a long-term plan, and that could leave us with a stopgap coach, which could be utterly disastrous.

This is all conjecture, of course. In reality, it's impossible to imagine us tracking down and luring a top class Aussie coach in the time remaining between now and next season. They'd surely need at least a year just to put their personal stuff in order.

But I maintain that we need to do something drastic. The top of the tree is suddenly far, far above us, and I can't think of anyone in the immediate vicinity who's likely to get us up there.