What a shocking example quoting the Leeds the game, we had circa 9 backs out for one reason or another.We had one recognised centre (Croft) who had played one reserve game after a 12 month lay off.Nothing to do with squad size,you cant reasonably prepare for a one off situation like that.And you yourself posted the comment below on the evening of the gameThis time we can’t blame the coach he can only play what has and what he has is not a lot. The glaring gaps in the centres are obvious to everybody but what can you do when you have to play two forwards.

How many centres do we have available for Saturdays game considering Croft is on loan but can be recalled I believe.

Why don't we have the two regular centres?

Obsessed!
Don’t be ridiculous, it’s just a statement of opinion, nothing more and nothing less. When the same subject comes up I’ll express the same opinion

I think he’s shown himself to be happy to play wherever he’s selected, unless you can point to a link where he’s indicated differently?
That doesn’t preclude him from losing confidence by being constantly played out of position.

Your whataboutery argument holds no water at all, other players do play out of position, however some of them are utility players and some only play out of position for the odd game or so.

You say he’s not that specialist, that clearly betrays your lack of understanding IMO

I see that Josh Bowden is now surplus to requirements at Hull and likely to be released? Haven't heard much of him recently but Hull are flush with some top class props so maybe just not getting game time and even less likely to feature now that Taylor is back. 6' 7" and 110 kg.

Rumour is he's likely to drop to Championship with Leigh or Featherstone.

Looked like a real quality player a few years ago however he has fallen away badly.

Not sure where the 6’7” stat comes from but he is nowhere near that.

Listed at 6’2” on the official Hull site and I think that is optimistic.

The main issue with him he is another “middle” rather than a Prop.

We have a pack full of “middles” at the moment apart from Fifita and now Butler who are both out and out props.

He isn’t a signing that improves us in my opinion so I’d be steering clear personally.

The last few days have made me reflect on the Rob Butler deal and whether we are really at such a low point that he’s the best we can hope to recruit or are we naive, seen as fall guys by other clubs and taken for a ride by player agents.

It’s been no secret for months maybe even a year or so that we’ve been looking for some new front rowers yet we apparently can’t find one, none are available etc.

We’ve signed Championship standard props for quite some time and to varying degrees they’ve all come up short, Batty, Hurst, Tangata for example

Then we signed Rob Butler, now like any new signing I’ll give him a chance to show his ability but on the face of it he looks like another bottom of the bargain bucket signing that we’re hoping will work out, we will see.

In the meantime Warrington, where Butler came from have signed not one, not two but FOUR new prop forwards
Thomas Mikaele from Wests Tigers, Gil Dudson and Sam Kasiano from Catalan and Kyle Amor on loan from St Helen’s

Also, Toulouse have found Daniel Alvaro a 28 year old, 114 games in the NRL standard prop who’s made an impressive start in SL

But we’ve been repeatedly told there are no available front rowers out there!

We’ve often moaned about how we seemed to be a dumping ground for Castlefords unwanted players and now it seems we’ve been used by Warrington to offload a player so they can bring in better options.
Equally, are agents lifting our leg a bit by shifting their deadwood (not aimed at any on singular player) onto us and we are naive enough to swallow the gumpf they come out with.

Is it just that we don’t have the budget to take such as Amor on loan or sign an NRL quality prop, if this is the case over such a long period of time why?

You’re not seriously comparing our budget to Warrington ! I know we’re in a hell of a place at the min but there’s no comparison btw them and us . Also why not give Butler a chance .. he’s played one game and did ok ..

toulouse have signed Nathan peats at hooker to go with him

Peats will make a huge difference to them, once he starts combining effectively with Corey Norman, which won’t take long, they’ll be a much smoother attacking unit than we’ve seen so far.

Someone at Toulouse clearly understands what they’re doing regards recruitment and has put the effort in to identify and sign their targets

They’ve signed 4, FOUR prop forwards and we couldn’t find one!
It’s not always down to money either, sometimes it’s timing and having your ear close enough to the ground to know who’s potentially going to become available, we seem to be incapable of identifying anyone other than when an agent tries to push deadwood in our direction. We’ve apparently been looking for a year or so, well whose looking, what are they doing to find players who might join us or are they just waiting for a club to contact us with someone they want to offload.

You need to read the whole post, I’ve clearly stated that I’ll give Butler time to show us what he can do but at the same time he’s not a totally unknown quantity is he and his career so far doesn’t inspire, but as I wrote earlier let’s see.

They know we are weak so are going all out to take our SL place .

We are the club that just can’t say no to Warrington because how many would sign a player like Grix on loan knowing full well he was not going to be fit. It did however allow Warrington to bring in another player.
With regards our finances surely they cannot be worse than Salford but yet they can put together a competitive team. We are basically gambling on our survival with the smallest possible expenditure.

But in the end it does come down to money doesn't it ??? We are prob aware of multiple players available but can't possibly compete with clubs like Warrington (as an example) players will go to the highest bidder/ best prospects etc....We all agree though something has to be done and quickly ,