1. Briscoe
2. Fox
3. Hall
4. Webster
5. Colbon
6. Green
7. Dobson
8. Vella
9. Fisher
10. Watts
11. Newton
12. Galea
13. Murrell

14. Cockayne
15. Mason
16. Clinton
17. Lovegrove

Its a massive weakspot in Rovers overall make up and IMO it is more down to poor defensive technique particularly from the middle men. Ironically i think the worst culprits are the aussies Vella,Lovegrove and Clinton. Netherton,Watts and Wheeldon generally attack the ball and more often than not hit the target slowing things down at the ruck to 5-6 second ptb's. Clinton is the poorest defender of all the props imo and his passive leg tackles are by and large pretty ineffective resulting in ruck dominance for the ball carrier and speedier ptb's.

It is an area that undoubtedly needs improving and hopefully a full off season together will do this, thats providing the aussies are here that is .

Picture the scene, a smokey board room in a corner of craven park. the scent of stale ale and cheap aftershave fills the air. A bead of condensation tickles down the side of a half drunk pint of mild, when into the room walks a young, upcoming prop, ready to start contract negotiations.
"take a seat Scott" mutters the Chairman of the club in his dulcet Hull accent. "we've bin thinking, and despite your brilliant performances in the last 'alf duzzun games of the season, we're gonna offer you a couple a years more, just coz Rad-dud didn't sign forruz. Alright lad?"
The contract is passed across the table in a flicking motion, and slides across the barely polished surface as if it were a curling stone, thrown by a champion scotsman.
The young prop, who has now been joined by his agent, begin reading the text. Tho opening line of the contract states the the offer being made is only owing to the fact that the club had failed to sign Rad-dud, and that otherwise there would've been no deal, our intrepid hero carries on regardless, as such things are commonplace in contract negotiations, that is to say other players being discussed.
Suddenly the chairman slides back his chair, making a dreadful screeching noise on the slate tiled floor. He stands up quickly, and leans across the table thrusting a shiney metallic object towards the face of the young prop, "'ere, use my pen to sign the bloody thing, then bugger off!"

I take it that's about how it went Ash?

Thats how he dreamt it i reckon. If that was the case Rovers would have offered him a one year deal as They'd be actively looking for a replacement for the following year. But Instead we offered him a two year deal why is that Ash?

Ins (visas permitting): Mason, Green, Hall.

Outs (excluding club-trained): Cooke, Walker, Mills.

I suspect that we may release another non-club-trained (nct) player, as Hodgson is too old to qualify as club-trained now I think. You can only have 17 nct players in the top 25 earners, so I wouldn't be in least surprised that we went back to Wheeldon when the Radford deal fell through. I'm happy enough with how things turned out, but I don't think there would have been much sense in having both and we (HKR) clearly wanted Radford.

Thinking about this isn't Blake Green going to be our final quota player?

Anybody who is U-21 is club-trained, but to be club-trained for life it is 3 years in the system now (it has been rising from 1 to 2 to 3). Morgan has said we're done with overseas recruitment and I think we might now be done altogether - depends if any contracted players are moving on, I guess.



Yeah, I think so.

A wink doesn't stop it being defamatory, MR.

And I am almost certain that any contract would not have a 'further information' box stating that the contract is a direct result of Radders telling Rovers to bog off

Welham is a better player than Hall at the moment, especially in defence, I doubt Hall will get a starting berth at centre until JM has done a lot of work on him.

Andy Raleigh, Season long loan.

Anyhow.

1.Briscoe
2.Fox
3.Welham
4.Hall
5.Webster

6.Green
7.Dobson

8.Vella
9.Fisher/Hodgson
10.Watts

11.Newton
12.Mason
13.Murrell

14.Lovegrove
15.Galea
16.Cockayne
17.Clinton

Edited for accuracy

It's quite difficult to pick a 17 really isn't it.

1. Briscoe
2. Fox
3. Whelham
4. Webster
5. Colbon
6. Green
7. Dobson
8. Clinton
9. Fisher
10. Vella
11. Newton
12. Galea
13. Murrell

14. Hodgeson
15. Mason
16. Watts
17. Lovegrove

18. Netherton
19. Wheeldon
20. Cockayne
21. Hall
22. Cook
23. Taylor

Will be good to have quality right through the squad.

We only offered Radford a one-year contract originally but missed out on our targets - he then signed a two-year contract. It's not exactly hard to believe.