Wouldn't all these players be ideal for the reserves? Can't see us being able to cobble together a reserves side at this rate...or more importantly being able to adequately cover for injuries which are definitely gonna happen. Trust in Tony I guess eh.

A good point,hall had a poor finish to the season,but as you say will need players to step in when injuries strike.

It seems a strange one maybe they are going to bring in more players then what we thought has you say we have to have a reserve side so more have to come in strange

We do need some more players, even more if these potential loan moves come to fruition. Where they’re coming from will be interesting.

As for the reserves, I think it’ll mostly be young ‘uns recently graduated from the 18s, who haven’t yet merited a full-time deal, local amateurs, maybe a couple of veterans from the coaching staff, and the odd fringe first teamer filling in here or there. I really can’t see us running with 40 full-time pros on the books. I think the thing we’ll need to do is see it positively as a step up from what was the 19s, rather than expecting it to be close to SL or the top end of the Championship.

I would have thought somebody as experienced as hall would have been ideal as 1st team cover and to help the youngsters through with his experience, in the reserves.

But would he perform 100% given a demotion? I doubt it.

Arguably from a Rovers perspective, but is that what he signed up for under Sheens? At 31, with probably a couple of good high-end Championship years left in him, he’s likely not at that stage. I saw it suggested that Ben Cockayne might turn out in the on-field mentor role, somewhere I think.

We need to be finding and developing future professionals via the reserves, rather than signing up blokes who are already pros to fill out the team. Mainly because that is its purpose, but also because the money is better spent elsewhere.

I find it quite bizarre that you have (Basically) released Craig Hall....a potent attacking force, even though his defence isn't great.
Well done Tony Smith.

Hall and Keinhorst are odd decisions, if recruitment was not all outside backs and some much needed halfs and another decent forward, sure they would stay. Hall was overall good and had some great games, Keinhorst had a nagging shoulder injury that was operated on immediately after the season, still gave 100% and defence is not something we should be letting walk out the door, will see where the chips fall

isnt great is a bit of an understatement reads the game really well going forward but but cannot seem to get to grips with it the other way, craig is 31 and a championship player, super league is defensively beyond him now but good luck to him hes a decent guy

Is it a concern that virtually every player you have signed is with Mcguires best mate Craig Harrison?

It reminds me of when Mcrae use to only use Howes as an agent to buy players

It’s not too near the top of my list. Harrison has a lot of players, I believe, and i’m confident Tony Smith will have plenty of input moving forward. Some of these were probably done or in the works before he joined, of course.

We’ve announced 9 from SL/championship so farcurrently look a bit thin - I hope/assume there are a handful more, even after Parcell is confirmed. If Lannon ain’t coming back, it’d be good if we could get Murray. Trout did okay in his few games I thought. Then I feel like we need a half and another high end signing to complement all the lads who are 22 to 24, hopefully on the cusp, but still a little bit green.

Got to hope that this new broom will do a better job of fixing the mentality of the team than some previous recent attempts. Quality and depth wise I think we need to do better than break even too.

Litten, Hadley, Ryan, Minikin, Rawsthorne and Maher are with Harrison I know, not sure on the others. I know it's tough to recruit in the position you get yourself in, but are the likes of Abdul, Minikin, Ryan better than Drinkwater, Shaw and Keinhorst.

I'd also question the need to use your last non fed spot on a winger/centre when you need 1 maybe 2 half backs.

Hadley Litten Maher Minikin Ryan all under his agency..So is Ryan Hampshire

Cheers - and to Jimmyfivebellies too.

It’s a tricky balancing act with the quota/non-fed, definitely. I’m not sure how we’ll use SKD and how that’ll effect the structure of the squad - e.g. if TS sees him as a centre, will Linnet play more in the back row? We’ve lost a fair bit of experience and ‘pedigree’, with McGuire retiring and Tomkins departing, so I think SKD is a good signing in prospect, and part of what we need.

Halfback is a concern though, having lost McGuire, Drinkwater and Atkin and only gained Abdull. Mikey Lewis seems to be highly thought of but even so there’s a void to be filled.

I think the high turnover is about rejuvenation to some extent, and creating a blank slate on which TS can hopefully build a different collective mindset. More than dramatically or even significantly improving the quality in the short-term, which isn’t really feasible. We need to raise our sights, whoever takes the field and I think, despite apparently working hard, a few played themselves out of his long-term planning in the final weeks.

I struggle to find the right words to describe what I think (from the outside) was wrong... a sort of gentle resignation, or subconscious acceptance that we weren’t good enough. And to be fair we’ve been largely building from the discard pile for a while, and relegation set us back significantly, but other teams in similar situations have done better. It wasn’t so much that we struggled but that we seemed to expect no better. Sheens, who I think deserves great credit for 2017, and getting us over the line in 2018, started this year talking about top 5, but was soon saying our aim in each game had to be to stay in contention into the closing stages. Cling on and hope for the best was how it sounded to me. First year after promotion, fair enough - but after that not so much.