Makes no difference now. We only have 6 overseas slots (quota and kolpak combined) and they're all used. From 2011 the total number of O/S players drops to 5, which is the same as the quota anyway.

Your only allowed 6 overseas players regardless Paul, so it won`t make any difference one way or the other.

We do seem to overloaded with overesa players in the forwards.
Saying taht if we sign rooney and Turner, we will have

Tansey
Calderwood
Yeaman
Hall
Briscoe
Raynor
Whiting
Horne
Long
Berrigan
Turner
Rooney
Jack Briscoe

So we have plenty of players for the backs.

Think we are building a very good squad for next year.

This is why I wouldnt have signed Cusack yet, he is 32 and it might turn out that the new lad or Moa turn put to be better than him, esp in the long term, and we wont be able to sign them as we have no quota places left.

Totally agree. I also don't see why we felt the need to do it so early. As you say, he's 32, injured, and looking for one last year. With the overseas numbers coming down I can't see we had too much competition for him to stay.

With your last post, I agree Rooney and Turner would round things off fairly nicely, I was just still hopeful of an experienced fullback option coming in. Now it's just down to Tansey to make the position his own. With any luck though, he'll do well there and it'll be settled for the next 5/6 years at least.

Or Horne, with Rooney and Berrigan possible playing stand off.

Also although young Jack Briscoe will be chanllenging for that position in the next couple of years.

and i don't think there is much chance of that.o'meley,lauaki and fitzgibbon
have only just signed for the club,and cusack has recently signed a one-year extension,which leaves manu and berro.unless one of these 2 decide to leave,that's it.willie will see his contract out,and possibly apply for the excemption rule that gene got,and that then leaves berro.either way if he decided to go,it would cost the club a lot of money,so he will be staying.moa and cordoba are now putting themselves in the shop window for the rest of this season

Aye you're right, I had 7 in my mind, I forgot about the reduction for next year.

Much as I rate Cusack I tend to agree. Although I guess it depends on who else is being retained/released among the forwards.

Think Moa has been badly mishandled TBH.

I'd be tempted to see if a NL club will take him next year on loan for a year, us pay his wages so there is an option for him to come back when Cusack retires.

I very much doubt the league would allow us to sign up a player who will take us over the overseas allowance, even if we were going to send him on loan for a year.

From the moment we signed Cusack, it was clear that Moa wasn't in Agar's plans for next season.

Good point , Although Cucack has been one of the better performers this season . You get a similar job from Dowes . We could have used Cusacks quota spot to better use.

A 4 prop roatation of Dowes, Yak, Shrek and Hame has more balance to it than replacing Yak with Moa.

If we had have signed Kite not Shrek i would agree with you that Moa would have been the better option than Yak, its all about the balance of the side.

Whilst not as good though, I think Radford at prop would offer the same balance and have still allowed us to retain Moa to compete for a place. If Radford is to continue masquerading as a back rower with Fitzgibbon and Tickle, I still think our balance will be a bit off personally.

It's also about long term plans, and Cusack will retire at the end of next season while Moa or Cordoba could be here for the next five years.