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.

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?