Cust will be the cover if he signs

Don't get why we'd sign Fages, he's a decent player but not in a position we need, it would leave us with Sezer, Abdul, Cust and Fages along with Balmforth and Borough for 3 positions and I can see any of them wanting to be backup.

Jesus….i bloody hope not….he is bloody awful.

Think Cust signed a long time ago unfortunately.

I think Rapana even at his age is a great player and very good signing and should go very well in SL no doubt about that or his experience and leadership qualities, but feel there is a genuine question mark over whether he is what we need player wise based on the rest of the recruitment done and areas we are still short in.

It appears that in terms of filling the remaining quota spots Myler/Cartwright have gone for players he knows fairly well and worked with before which I can understand but currently I am struggling to get enthused about next season based on everything so far. As for Sezer I'm pretty much 'meh' as he's not the running half I was hoping or lead to believe we were looking for and he hasn't lit up SL other than doing well in his first season, for Leeds he was anonymous to say the least.
The one I really struggle with is Cust as just I feel that'd be a wasted quota spot on a player that's hardly played since he came to SL, in fairness I'm pretty sure you could find a non quota player instead for the role that they see Cust in.

Whilst I appreciate the player pool is pretty dry the club will be expecting fans to pay top dollar for memberships and match day tickets and after the past 2-3 seasons alone of broken promises, the recruitment if we are to be genuinely truthful hasn't really matched the talk and for many I fear the end of the line may well have been reached.

Cust
Herman
Rapana
Sezer
Sao
Cartwright
Asiata

That’s all our quotas full then, allegedly Sezer has signed.

When you look at the team we potentially have for 2025 and compare it with a team we would like to try be getting above next year its not bad at all really... Take the Giants for example...

New coach expected unless they go full time with Robinson, they losing Milner, Marsters etc, i havent heard too much in terms of rumours of who they will be bringing in roster wise next season other than a link to Granville at 9 so with that been said they could line up like the following... see how it compares to us...

FB Connor (NRL Level Full back in Rapana is better and wont have a brain explosion)
WG Swift (Martin not at that level yet so they have that one over us)
WG Bibby (Briscoe is steady which is about on par with how id describe Bibby)
CE Naiqama (Hardaker better IMO)
CE Cudjoe (Chamberlain not as experienced but Cudjoe isn't a world beater)
HB Clune (Sezer every bit as good and i wont hear anything else)
HB Lolohea (Abdull better with ball in hand, Lohohea has better running game but is inconsistent)
HK Granville? (Cust again would be better IMO than him and Burouh and Balmforth look exciting)
PR Ikahifo (Herman miles better)
PR Burgess (Aydin/Ashworth maybe lose out here)
SR Savelio (Cartwright gets the nod already for me from what i have seen)
SR Greenwood/Livett ( Lane/Holmes probably on par with both, all hardworking)
LF Rushton (Asiata, need i say more?)

Now as i say that's one club and they may bring in one or two but it just puts things into a bit of a perspective, a team that we realistically are looking to get to the level of next season have one maybe two players that would be better than ours and that's it! I could d similar with Leigh, Salford, Cas etc once recruitment draws to a close and a bet you that it wont be too dissimilar in terms of quality.

I take Leeds being interested in getting Rapana as a positive sign in hindsight none of our duff signings the last few years were linked with anyone.

We might have though we'd been clever and found a gem but our scouting ain't all that

All very good points. After the fanfare of the new investment and Asiata signing I was genuinely excited about the future.

Most of the non quota signings have been average at best but understandable given the market at the time.

I was really expecting the quota signings to compensate for that.

I'm at a loss with the Cust signing it just seems a waste of a valuable quota place.

The Sezer signing is particularly disappointing. After missing out on Lam I believed that we would have signed a half back of similar quality and style to compliment Abdull.

Rapana is high quality and despite his age has plenty to offer but he's a winger who has played full back and both of these positions are covered.

The positives for me are we are entering a new era after years of dross with a new team a new coach with plenty of quality youngsters coming through and with the hope of more investment.

Next season I'm not expecting much improvement position wise but I do expect not getting humiliated every week. That's setting a low bar especially after the new investment was announced.

Good post

Searched the club's tweets regarding confirmation that Cust has been signed..
Can't find anything at all...yet.

Thank you but in reality I've just echoed what Chris has said but not as eloquently

The halfback in Davidsons exclusive will be Cust, I don’t think the club has actually announced him yet.

It's not. It's Dishwater

To put together a rough starting 13 of what we have so far:

Rapana
Martin
Hardaker
Chamberlain
Briscoe
Abdul
Sezer
Ese'ese
Cust
Aydin
Holmes
Cartwright
Asiata

That is, besides Martin and Ese'ese, a completely new squad to what started round one of this season. It certainly does feel like the "transition period" we seem to have been stuck in for years is coming to an end.

Would I have liked to have seen some more exciting names in that squad? Absolutely. Do I think we still look weak in certain areas? No doubt about it.

But what i will give Myler credit for is that this, for the first time in a while, feels like a completely clean slate. I don't expect that 13 to contend for top 6, but having trying to look at it from an optimist point of view, it is at least a starting point for us to move forward. It is also by far and away better than what we started this season with, not that it was a difficult task.

Asiata, Rapana and by all accounts Hardaker (if you chose to ignore his off-field antics) are good leaders to have within the squad, which is something we have been desperately lacking since Ellis retired.