John Bateman fits the bill for me.

Following in the footsteps of great West Yorkshire back rowers that joined us after a spell down under, namely Steve Norton and Gareth Ellis.

He's played in the Bradford vs Leeds derby and the Wigan vs St Helens derby. We need to sell him the Hull derby.

He's the type of player that makes the difference of you being contenders rather than being supporting cast.

Hope Shane Richardson can help sell him to us. And that our club is on top of bringing him in.

It won't be easy. Clubs like Wigan, Leeds and Warrington I would assume would all want him in their team too.

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Don't think Wigan would have the cap space. Saw something saying they would be very quiet in the transfer side due to this. Warrington probably in the same boat especially now Yates has come in. Bateman would command a huge salary. Would we pay it?

For me it’s an area that is one of factors of our poor performances and the pitifully slow tempo we play at as our line speed is probably the slowest of all SL. While I don’t deny he’s trying, sadly it’s just not enough anymore as he is done at this level particularly if repeating flogging for 60 plus mins every week. Even Gaz held his hand up and said he couldn’t play week in week out and it’s time Danny was honest or somebody the club.

Great servant in his day but we are playing in 2024 in the here and now.

Risk of repeating myself.
We have the smallest pack in sl.
My opinion, the reason why Houghton is playing big minutes is that we are being dominated and over run.
At the moment I dont know what option the club have.
If Houghton didn’t play, I dare say smith and Balmforth would struggle with the defensive work.
I wasn’t a fan of Grix and the input he had working under Tony smith.
However, he and Cummins surely have no axe to grind against Balmforth.
They see him on a daily basis and have access to his fitness data.
They’re paid to produce a winning team
So in essence why would they ignore Balmforth unless they “ didn’t think he was ready or capable to play “ ?

I'd agree he needs to be spelled more. But our coaches we have at the moment don't seem to think we have anyone in the squad that can cut it at the moment.

They work with the players everyday and have been in the game. They all seem to think Hoghton is the best option we have this season.

They (Grix) also continued playing Okunbor and Smith in the halves until the penny dropped.
Seems to take time but with Houghton he will continue to be first on his teamsheet
Grix seems to have done nothing of note with Tony Smith or now as coach and i do believe that the new coach should be able to appoint his own assistant and not have to accept Grix.
Will be difficult as he has another year on his contract but has he done enough to warrant keeping the position im not convinced.
Bizarre decision to drop Walker after one poor game at London when he could have dropped the whole team apart from Ese

Did anyone watch his press conference pre the cas game? Probably one of the most uninspiring things I've ever seen from a head coach. It may have been because he didn't get the head coach job but if that's the ay he is with the players, no wonder we lack enthusiasm

Maybe why he was dropped?

An absolute horse- rumour over from the weekend was we've spoken to Ash Handley, but Les Cats are his choice.

A few at the Cas match insistent that Abdul has signed on a x 3 year deal.

Abdul signed

Not a lot of people's first choice, but he's a good player and crucially only counts for £50k on the cap, if it helps us strengthen and make better use of the cap in other areas where we badly need it (like wing, centre, prop, hooker, second row and loose forward) then I'll get behind it

Just had a kebab to celebrate

Fine with Abdull if Cartwright can get him fit - probably still looking for a winger, hooker and backrower. Ideally a fullback, front rower and centre as well depending on if they can offload Carlos, Pele and Walker.

Never seen a rebuild that needs to be as extensive as this. Out of the experienced first teamers you could count on one hand the players most would definitely want to stay and you'd have fingers left.

Asiata is the LF