Best wishes to Wade etc. We need to sign someone better than Kearney to fill his boots Imo.

NRL fullbacks out of contract next season;

Marmin Barba, Matt Bowen, Nathan Gardner, Dale Copley, Kevin Locke, Peter Mata'utia, Jake Mullaney, James Roberts, David Simmons, Fetuli Talanoa, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.

Bowen, Gardner and Locke are the obvious choices there. No chance in Locke coming, very much doubt Gardner although would be a good signing and Bowen? Was linked with a move for this season but can't see it again.

The Count has been rumoured to be signing for Leeds and with Catalans after Webb, who knows?

21 times at SL level if anyones watched all his games, with 6 tries (5 this year), 3 in one game (V rovers)

All very well but if no one wants to come here or stay here it's not really worth it. Have to say I'm sort of with Standee on this. Very disappointed

Of course they will, we were told the agents were knocking the door down when we signed G.Ellis

The disappointment for me is that this year was supposed to be the 'transition' year where we bed in the new signings and next year was the top4 challenge.

now it seems next year will be yet another set of new players, and that season where we all sit back, relax and watch some good rugby seems even further away.

That said I have faith in Gentle/Pearson/McRae's abilities to pull a good squad together.

Sorry to see him go. I often thought he was'nt as good as he thought he was but maybe that was just self confidence. It was good to have specialist full back definatly made a difference in attack

I think Pearson, McRae and Gentle have all made it individually clear that the squad wasn't what they wanted and there would be changes this year. It's just that the Manu news has broken mid-season and Wade has unfortunately left mid-season instead of at the end. A pain, but not the greatest hurdle to overcome.

Don't understand how people can say this is a blessing in disguise? Looked a great signing to me, dissapointed he's gone.

Bowen would be a great replacement, but can't see it, same with Eden. Interesting times continue.

He looked half decent but in all honesty we have only seen him for a third of a season, he seemed good under the high ball but short of pace.

For me he was not worth a 3 year contract and I feel that this will prove to be a good for us. Losing Manu and possibly Turner, Moa and O'meley for me is no big deal , we have achieved very little with them perhaps it's time for change.

IAWT

I was really excited after the first few games, and he [iwas[/i a good signing. Not a blessing in disguise and the timing's crap, but wasn't a Gentle choice in the first place. We'll just have to wait a bit longer for our fullback. In he scheme of things and after what we've been through for so long, it's not the end of the world.

It was Jason Crookes who scored at the KC in the pre-season, went 80 metres on the interception, our backs made NO gain on him.

Scored some good close range tries, very strong reminds me of Peter Fox.

Not being kept out of the Bulls side but injured.

For me an excellent choice of a young winger with much improvement in him, and won't cost the earth.

Things have started to slide since it was announced Ellis was coming both on and off the pitch.

I'm seeing a link between around a dozen injured/unavailable players to our on the pitch woes rather than Ellis's signing.

Kath encouraged him to sign so that it would happen. Honest

Blessing in disguise for me and I'd bet McRae and Gentle are very pleased to have a 31 year old player who was (most likely) overpaid relative to his ability off the books, at least for next year.

For me, he was not top class. He did some good individual things, but this was negated by many other aspects of his play, i.e. looked lightweight, generally poor kick returns, failed to establish good links with half backs or outside backs, no kicking game, and above all made serious cock ups far too regularly for an experienced player which directly resulted in opposition trys.

IMO, Phelps offered us much better value overall, although for a side that wants to challenge for trophys I agreed with not retaining him.

Gentle wants his own team . 2012 is transition time indeed.
Looks like some of Agar`s signings don`t impress him.

I've noticed you keep posting similar comments to this, but the fact remains that all of the replacements you are concerned about are still nothing more than idle gossip at the moment.

I personally suspect that Kearney will not happen, if Crookes does it will be in addition to what we have to see if he can replace Briscoe the year after, Arundel has at least as much potential as Turner had when he first came, and if Johnson comes it may be another 'in addition to' rather than direct replacement. The amount of wage we have just had taken off next year's cap can only help this, too.

Agree with the 3 you pick out, would love us to get Gardner or Locke but like you say, it's very unlikely.

Totally disagree about him not establishing good links with the half backs, it was really starting to come together before he got injured, and I really don't give a toss how good a fullback's kicking game is, way down the list of priorities.

I've noticed that most of the recent rumours are starting to come true and that I'm right that the replacements are weaker than the outgoing players. You keep on living in your cosy dreamworld where agar was a good coach, rule led the club to a grade a SL licence and kath wasn't milking the club dry

I agree a full back's ability to kick the ball is not high priority. However it is just another example of things he doesn't do particularly well. IMO, the overall package adds up to a player not worth what we had agreed to pay him.

there is a full bk at the moment at york aka jordan tansey ??????

Pretty much how I see it, too. No point crying about it. Yes, it's a blow and I ain't buying all this 'I bet Gentle and AP are pleased' e. Why on earth would they be pleased that one of their stand out players in an important role is leaving half way through the season? Beyond me. However, it does give them a good wedge to scope out his replacement and ample amount of time before next season to do so. Goodbye Wado, a big shame it didn't work out.

We've had 2 rumours come true, both about outgoings. As of yet we have had nothing confirmed about any incoming that were rumoured, in fact the only signing we have confirmed was supposedly 'nailed on' to go elsewhere.

I'll reiterate what was in my previous post, too; it's your assumption that all of the rumoured incoming players are replacements, some may well just be additions (or even in fact, not coming at all), and we could have much better players coming in yet, it's only just turned May.

Don't recall where I'm claiming the last 3 points, either, or indeed that things are all rosy. I'm just pointing out that it's very early to be getting so disappointed with so little confirmed information.