If Cartwright has had a say in all of the clubs recruitment i just hope he is a better coach than he is at recruitment.
There is no real quality in there apart from Asiata,certainly no pace and an ageing most likely injury prone squad just lacks excitement.
When Pearson says "I think the squad is capable of winning some games next year and at least competing in all games says it all for me as its hardly inspiring

Might not be inspiring but it is realistic. Which is a lot better than recent years when he's claimed we'll be challenging for the playoffs only for us to sink further down the table.

Yes, that's how I read it too.
The pressure is on the new recruits to repay the faith the coach and DOR have shown in them by bringing them into the club. I guess the conversation went along the lines of 'we believe you can do a good job for us, come and join us here in rebuilding the club'

People usually respond well if they feel someone has faith in them, let's hope that's the case here, fingers crossed.

Like you say RR, in recent years he's promised a lot but delivered very little.
Maybe he's decided to try the opposite, promise little, damp down expectations (not that any of us have any wild expectations for 2025!!) and then hopefully surprise everyone! The old reverse psychology trick!!

The only way is up, surely!!!

We are where we are, unfortunately, and there is no getting away from that fact.
I agree with you that the squad is hardly setting anyone's pulses racing and dreaming of big days out at finals, but we have an awful lot of damage to repair and we have to start somewhere. I think this squad has been put together for the sole purpose of stopping the rot and stopping us going backwards even further. Then we can hopefully address the issue of moving forward again. We are not going to go from 3 wins in 27 to being contenders in one fell swoop, it just doesn't happen that way I'm afraid.

It's probably been very hard to attract anyone half-decent to a club who have been going backwards for seven years now! If I was a RL player of decent quality I'd be looking somewhere else right now for gainful employment, and that's speaking as a die-hard fan of long-standing, but even I would find the club less than tempting at this point in time let alone a decent rugby player in the prime of his years!

I agree that the squad is underwhelming and I think the next twelve months are going to be another hard slog with only the odd afternoon to cheer us up a touch (although hopefully a few more afternoons than this year!) but I'm afraid we are going to have to grit our teeth and bear it. All the wishful thinking in the world isn't going to alter the reality of where we have dug ourselves into.