Agree he would improve our distribution from the play the ball, but suspect the reason he was allowed to leave was the money he was on. I suspect that the money was used to improve the squad elsewhere and we don't have the spare cash to get him back, even more so with the Eric France sponsorship deal not being paid, and I expect the C&D deal being for a lesser amount.

Add to this the fact I doubt Ellis would want to come back having spent most of the time out of the side (I suspect had Aiton not being out at the back end of last season, he would not have featured much at all)

Give over, that's history and it won't happen end of.

However I do agree that we need another hooker to vary thing up a bit - luckily there is no shortage of such players in SL with players capable of playing no9 our most common product.

yeah because things things work that easily in life.

fwiw i think Aiton is being overly criticised, His work from dummy half is fine, we just need a bit of variety and the ability to spell him a bit more.

wont happen but it was a poor decision to let him go as was the decision to let Howarth go we should have let Wildie go a player I ratted 2 years ago but he has gone backwards
Agar did not rate Ellis thats life and he will know we have a problem at 9 just like we do

You are all probably right that ship has sailed but think we've a problem at 9 and 13.

Probably had we not had a decent loose forward last season who finished top of the tackle count then we might have had Aiton at 13 and Ellis at 9.

Our club has a very good relationship with Leeds at the moment. James wants to get on the phone to Gary ASAP and get Liam Hood over on loan. He is dual reg at Hunslet at the moment and he would do the job we need.

It's interesting how some of the armchair experts on here have Andy Ellis down as the next Cam Smith, and yet no other SL coach has picked him up.

Some of you ought to be working as scouts, instead of wasting your talents on an interweb message board.

We have to be careful here as we are not over-flowing with home grown players in our squad. Only Annakin of our current first team is home produced, then we're inti Trout, Walshaw, Wildie, Cowling and Kay. It's nit much to show for our efforts!

We're almost onto a different subject here but, compared to the big boys, our junior development is not producing enough SL quality players compared to the likes of Wigan, Leeds, Saints etc.
Even Cas seem capable of bringing more of their youth through to SL level and this is in spite of the 1873 scheme.
Are we putting enough into the scouting/ coaching at this level or, is it a case of us being squeezed out by Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford etc.

It is recognised by the club and there is a new emphasis on producing a smaller number of higher quality players, rather than producing a champion side. It will take time to see the results.

This has been my point all along, clearly there is a mis-match between what fans see and what coaches see. Personally with the coaches on this one as I personally saw Ellis as decent but not fantastic. I see Aiton as excellent but totally overworked.

Not sure why he let Ellis go because he did a job but more baffling is the lack of a replacement.

We certainly played better when he was in the squad!

Ellis , whilst not being outstanding did the basics very well. So I can understand why other coaches aren't breaking down his door.

Aiton is much more dynamic and therefore grabs the attention more, but his distribution from dummy half is definitely a concern, particularly if he is going to be our only hooker in the squad.

There is no doubt that he is no world beater but for me he would have been the perfect foil for Aiton if used correctly. And we now have three hookers at the club and IMHO he is better than two of those and a contrast in style to the other, so we would have been a better team had he been kept on. But his face didn't fit and Agar wanted the money spent elsewhere, thats his call. But I personally think he got the call wrongand will end up now looking for a new rake for next season. Put it this way if Aiton misses a spell again I wouldn't have much confidence in having both Wood and Wildie interchanging. Both much of a muchness and both not particularly good. I actually thought James Davey showed more promise at an early age than either of them but never kicked on.