Wakefield set to announce Andrew Fifita imminently according to the Yorkshire Post. If this is true, and given he’s not played NRL this season yet so it likely is, my question is why aren’t we after a prop of his calibre? He’s an absolute wrecking ball and would be exactly what we’re after.

He is shot.

He has major issues with his knee. He was offered to all SL clubs in the offseason and only Leeds bit but they soon withdrew when the extent of the injury was revealed.

Wakefield are in a desperate situation and by all accounts will only be paying a small % of his salary.

We need someone who is more than a panic signing like him.

I think you could offer him the world but from what we know playing along side David means more to him, its a hell of a risk but I hope its true we need him more than you do

The last I’ve read is that he’s lost 20kg, is getting over his knee injury and is looking good. I’ll try and find where I read it but I think it was a tweet rather than an article.

If what you say is true then fair enough, I’ll happily stand corrected, but if not or he does get back his form (or form good enough to dominate in SL) we’ve lost out on a huge signing

Do we have the cap room anyway? If Jukesays is right about a fair portion of the Burgess money going on upgrades for French and Hastings then we might not have much choice for this year.

After the George Burgess signing I think we can understand the club being extremely cautious about signing players with injury doubts.

After watching his late hit on a kicker in the NSW Cup (that I believe he unbelievably got away with a ban for), I await his bleating about how dirty Wigan players are with baited breath. That’s presuming he’s a big moaning girls blouse like his twin.

I don’t know, I’d assume we do given French & Hastings were given wage increases months before Burgess left.

Months before IT WAS ANNOUNCED that Burgess had left.

We got burned on Burgess and Tomkins.

I’m more than comfortable to take a pass on Fafita and play the waiting game, better quality long term options will come on the market.

We don’t need a short term, and forgive the terminology, knee jerk signing.

2 from 2 and in the quarter finals of the cup with nearly a full backline missing.

Wakefield need a spark and a lift short term, I think he will have that affect. If his contract goes into next season though it’s a car crash waiting to happen.

we signed the best prop in the championship

I'm talking about for our next prop, if we can't get a top SL player.

I know but we need an experienced classy player | feel, Burgess was perfect in theory just the injuries were terrible.

What about the best prop in the Aussie reserve grades? Not sure how it works from a visa POV, but worth a try imo.

Guys like Lachlan Timms had a huge rep as the "next big thing" in 2019, but he's not made the NRL yet. rlhttps://www.nswrl.com.au/news/2020/05/25/lachlan-timm-st-george-illawarra-dragons-canterbury-cup-nsw-stats/rl

Some of these guys just need an opportunity to show what they can do. Kind of like what Field is looking for with us, or like Blake Green did.

Yeah I have a theory that props tend to come over from the NRL with that kind of rep, but then we quickly find that the NRL has taken too much of a toll on their bodies, like they age quicker than SL or Championship props because of the intensity of the game there. Just my opinion, but I'd primarily be looking at this hemisphere if we want someone in their prime.

Whilst I agree with others saying we're a quality prop short, I think it's too easy to focus on some underwhelming stats on meters made whilst glossing over the work they do when it comes to our outstanding defence & energy levels. Obviously in a perfect world you could get a rare player like Walmsley who makes meters for fun but can defend well whilst doing very decent minutes - but how many players of that calibre are in SL? Rightly or wrongly, we've asked our pack to play a role in recent years which is focussed much more on aggressive defence, mobility and durability than any other team in the league. Post-contact meters are still important, but I'd avoid using them as a stick to beat our forwards with when you can be sure that Lam and the coaching staff will be judging them on a whole range of different factors.

My worry is not so much that the pack isn't up to it - we came within a hair's breadth of winning the GF last year without Havard, & him with our other young forwards all have another 12 months experience. It's more that a couple of injuries means we suddenly start relying too much on Clubby or Clark.