Tony Puletua was our best forward during the second-half of last season. Just consider he hasn't played all year and therefore isn't likely to be match fit but given his experience and hunger to be back on the pitch I am more than confident he'll put in a good shift.

Best of luck Tony P!

If this was the case, I'm not doubting it by the way, then why was he left on the outside this season? I'm assuming it was all to do with cap space and quota spots as with you're recent injury / suspension status I would assume he'd have been used.

Yes, signed too many overseas players and Puletua still had a year left on his contract. Poor management by the club, of a great servant to the game. I hope he enjoys his time with Hull KR and finishes his career in the right way.

I believe dave is a decent poster,and I dont recall having a go at him,but im sure you will point out where i did.

In my opinion for what it is worth I believe TP is a good signing for the rest of the season until we get some bodies back at least he will add some wanted size and experience. With regards to young lads coming from under 19's to first team the real problem and I have been saying it for years is lack of reserve grade to help them do there apprenticeship theft do not learn of accadamy coaches what it's like to go in to battle against men you need some experience to show you the ropes.
I am led to believe they are bringing back reserve grade teams in the NRL next year so maybe we will follow suit. It has been stated it costs £100k to run a reserve team if we have 5 overseas players knock £20k off each one and run an a team or get the RFL to pay half of the cost if they are thinking about a Marquee player they should also seriously consider a team football, do away with under 16 & 19 let the youth setup look after that age group and just bring the cream from the top through a teams it worked before Superleague it will work again

NRL sides already run reserve sides in the Queensland and NSW cups

Totally different competition

Given our current circumstances, it's not a bad, 'bad' acquisition. Cox stills looks short fitness wise, so if we can spell him with TP then we should be ok. Minutes from Green and Greenwood and suddenly we've got the luxury of 4 man front row rotation. It's hard to imagine any foresight been able to predict how hard we'd be hit in the front row this season, but if there's been one good thing, it's the development of James Green. The additional responsibility and time on the pitch, has kicked his development on light years. Been impressed with him. I really hope him and Walker are leading our pack in the coming years.


I also hope our incoming football manager next season looks to target the front row and get the building blocks in place to find the right formula to move 'forward'. As on a wider issue be it poor recruitment/bad luck/lack of development/other ... our front row evolution has been very hit and (mainly) miss in recent years and we've certainly lacked any cohesion in the front row. We just seemed to have patched up the cracks every year ...

This could turn out to be 2015's "Jason Chan" moment. Welcome aboard TP.

Not going to comment on the bicker-fest that's gone on while I've been away. It's a well-trodden path whenever a player arrives.

Not buying any of this faux outrage coming from anyone that Rovers have had to dip into the loan market. Weyman, Bailey, Walker, Allgood, Tilse, Burke all gone from our front row and people think that that should be sustainable because our academy recently got rated 'good'?
No academy in the league has the strength in depth in their 19s to sort that dilemma out. Throwing in kids to the front row who are physically unprepared for the strains of super league football would be hugely detrimental to their development.

Spot on, and faux outrage sums it up perfectly. Dress it up how they like, it's just inter club point scoring. With the injuries we have and the difficulty in finding any SL quality forward at this stage of the season we should be very happy with this signing.

Well said.

At the risk of repeating all that's been said before including by me, our current front row crisis is unprecedented and our back rowers are below size by SL standards.

We have no props who can make the step up from the U19s at the mo. So TP is and will be a good acquisition and we have to be grateful that Salford have cocked up on their overseas signings this year.

Finally, well done to Dave K for getting us to almost 10 pages on this thread. Shame you're a Derty berd, though. You need some re-lobotomising to get rid of your dark side tendencies.

As much as I'd like to see A teams brought back, it could open a right can of worms salary cap and running costs wise.
Would there be a limit on salaries paid in the A team? If not would this enable the richer teams to run with bigger squads, or would money paid to "A.N Others" count on the main cap.
It's all sortable, but looking at the way the clowns in charge run our game you've got to wonder.

I think this could be a good acquisition by Rovers .....Being the consummate professional that Puletua is, I don't think he would like his last year within the game to be tarnished with the dispute he had at Salford. I think he would like to go out with a bang and finish his career with memorable performances, so, hopefully, Rovers will benefit from this giant of a man within his twilight year .....Fingers crossed!

I personally believe that Rovers should be thrown out of Superleague over this heinous behavior.

In addition, I believe that the Magic game should be changed to 4pm Sunday.