I would offer Rovelli one year but not two. If he wants a longer deal let him come here and try to earn one.

As I understand it he is out of contract at the moment. I don't know how many options he has but I think its unlikely any NRL club will offer him a deal. I think Hull FC should stand firm on a one year deal. If any other club is willing to offer him two years then good luck to him - and them.

Need to get our finger out, then. At the rate Mason's visa is taking for approval, any Aussie signed now won't be here until spring.

How much is he?

What im saying is that even if Rovelli is a very average half in Oz then hes very likely to be good to excellent in SL and should be offered terms that he will be first choice half with Long/Horne, who are very likely to be injured anyway, fighting it out for the other spot. Trying to sign Rovelli saying youll be back up to two aging crocks and will only play when they dont is clearly wrong imo.

Think he meant moving Long or to back-up would be expensive back-up

I'd have said that ensuring we have a fit half back is priceless

Too right Jake, look at Dykes more or less got to the CC final on his own, made the club loads of money.

Like Westerman let the club worry about how much money is paid to players.

Rovelli could prove to be very useful signing at hooker and halfback.

I think if we go into next season with westerman as our half back cover and washbrook as our interchange hooker then we will be struggling

Agreed. I don't get where all this Washbrook at hooker business has come from. I've seen nothing from him to suggest that he'd make a useful hooker on a regular basis. He might be ok there as an emergency measure when there's no other option, but to consider him our regular interchange hooker would be an utterly baffling turn of events.

Can't disagree with that. How will Nicklas progress if he isnt given the opportunity when it arises to show what he can do, the more he plays at SL level the more chance he will reach any potential.

Interesting isn't it. Who do we have at 9 apart from Houghton and Berrigan? I reckon Berrigan will have to stay in the middle with Turner and Yeaman (and possibly Briscoe) filling the centre spots. I think Washbrook is the one who needs to step up now that we have another good 'un competing for the 13 shirt because he didn't have the best season. To be fair, he played a lot of it out of position but he didn't particularly shine at 6 or 9.

As he only ever gets the ball from dummy half anyway, we could stick Briscoe in as hooker to cover for Houghton. His distribution would be poor for a while, but he'd not be exposed to the high balls and his dummy half running would be devastating!

Great idea. We could alternate between briscoe and moa or lauaki, depending who's on the field