That wasn't the info I recieved and that was from a players father.
Look at Barkers face on the SKY footage that isn't the picture of a player happy about winning a GF and looking forward to SL.

Dwayne Barker deffo knew before the game because he gave a speech in the dressing room at half-time telling the rest of the players it was his last half of rugby for Rovers.
Not sure about Ellis and Garmston but if i recall correctly James told Rovers to stuff it because they wanted him to sign a contract but go out on loan for a year. He told them that if he left then he left for good.

Maybe he should of listened

Without a doubt.

The likeihood is that they already knew but they got told officially on the day Rovers had the civic reception.
Look at the footage of that day and you see the exact same body language

Maybe so but I know for a fact that they already knew and had it confirmed before the GF.

Well if thats what you happy to believe im not getting into a disagreement with you.
I was on the open top bus that day and know what i saw and heard from insiders at the club so we will have to beg to differ.
I hardly think they were told before the grand final however as if Rovers had lost that game they may well have been retained.

They were told, there was an article in the paper with Dwayne and he even stated as much. Plus Dwayne wasn't even on the bus and certainly didn't appear at city hall on the balcony

Im sure he was, will have to dig the DVD out.
Phil Joseph wasnt there but i think Dwayne was.
And i know that Ellis and co were taken aside at Craven Park before the bus set off and told they would not be offered a SL contract.
Had we lost against Widnes however i reckon Barker and Ellis would have got a deal to play in NL1.

Not a big fan of stats taken in isolation as they can be very misleading, but i thought rltheserl were quite interesting.

Looks like Frankie is really enjoying his role as right sided second row and i know for a fact that Johnny Queer thinks he has a massive future in the game.

Worked out brilliantly for him, glad he has gone with that attitude. Being loaned out was a great thing for Watts, he looks a certain international of the future.

Well done to him.

Nice to see Welham topping the tries as well and considering our position its nice to see two other Rovers players featuring in the top tries.

Played well against Leeds, doesnt look out of place at all so far

If Wakey go down we may put in a cheeky bid to bring him back parhaps.
Homegrown squad player with SL experience.

I don't know why Morgan let Frankie go, sure Mason, Galea, Newton, Cook and Taylor were always going to be tough to break in front of but would John Kear put any of those in front of Frankie now he's cemented his spot in the side?

With Galea set to leave at the end of the year and the fact both Newton and Mason are the wrong side of 30 come the end of June we should be looking at having Taylor and Mariano as our back row with Watts and Lovegrove as our future starting props. We could have loaned Mariano out for a season, his wages were hardly a strain on our club considering he could have earnt more being a joiner!!