Loose forward does seem to be a position we need to look at for next year given Pitts' age and as good as he is currently, the squad does need to keep evolving. 

Looking at the OOC SL players, nobody is really jumping out at me personally as someone who we should make a move for. I wonder if we will look at trying a current player instead? The two players id consider would be McMeeken and Rodwell.


If we can bring in another winger for the first team along with Smoothy and a LF, id be quite happy to leave it there in terms of incomings. But if im being greedy.....a top half to partner Trueman would be amazing, although Russell does need to be given a proper chance at half back first.

Second row for me needs to be a priority. 

I would imagine Griffin is in his last year and Croft is also out of contract. That would need us potentially lacking some depth there. 

Second row for me needs to be a priority. 

I would imagine Griffin is in his last year and Croft is also out of contract. That would need us potentially lacking some depth there. 

On converting one of the current guys to 13, even though I'd be a bit hesitant about moving 2 of our best props, I've always thought Rodwell would make a good 13, I know he's played there and done well, so not much of a change. I also think Stourton plays very similar to Pitts, the same hard-working, hard-tackling, always plays-at-a-high standard kind of player. It's hard to move your best players into other positions or bring someone in. As said it depends on who's out there

As for backrowers, I don't think we're exactly desperate for anyone, we've got 9 guys who can play there atm but I think a lot will depend on how Croft develops this year. We have Big Mike who plays there when needed, Vagana who's starting to show how good he's gonna be, Seth, Stourton & Griff. We then have guys like Cam Scott and Hall who can play there like Croft, Cam especially is a good back-rower, plus also young Stavely-Carr coming through. If Griff does go at the end of the season & we do need another who's a similar quality to the main 3, that's where either Croft comes in, or we look for someone else, we'll see.


The other thing looking to next season is quota spots, to get Smoothy in. We're going to have to move someone on, the obvious one is Walmsley imo. So a decent wing option is someone we may be looking out for. Saying all that I know DP rates Jayden Myers very highly and he'll be another year older, so maybe that's how they're thinking. 

Atoni, Faatili, Shaw and Cozza out of contract so we might be looking for props as well. I think a right winger, a couple of props, a loose forward and we're good to go. I'd be happy going into next season with Vagana, Nikotemo, Storton and Croft as our second rowers

I wouldn't be surprised to see Crowther come back, I still think it's crazy we let him leave in 2023 and picked players like Kevin Proctor.

Considering it was his first game back Atoni was impressive against Saints, I’d be happy keeping him if he is willing to stay. 

Didn’t we pick up a young back rower from Warrington recently too? Can’t remember his name. 

I'm the same. Atoni is a keeper for me.

After only 1 game it’s way too early for me to decide if Atoni is one we should keep beyond this season. 


A few more performances like vs saints and some consistency at SL level would go a long way to convincing me though. 

Matt Whitley I think could be a good target for a couple of years as a second row option. 

At least there are some potentially quality targets available. 

I'm the same with Atoni. Unfortunately he was poor last time he was in SL, he needs to show he's moved on from that.

Give over.  He started very tentatively but hit some good form or moved on as you say, once Fifita took him under his wing.  

No, I won’t give over. 

He was poor 2/3 of the season and improved the last 1/3 of the season. A season which we still finished rock bottom and got relegated. 


I want to see some consistent good performances from Atoni before I make my mind up about him. 


What exactly is wrong with that? 


He has a lot to prove at SL level especially after our last time here in 2023.