Craig Sandercock stated on tuesday night that we would be running with 32 full-time players in 2012. By my reckoning we now have 28 announced players if we include George Griffin.
I would imagine that Dave Peterson will get a new deal plus i believe that Dave Scott and James Green have been given deals. This would leave us with one space, and conveniently one non-fed space, for the expected arrival of Shannon McDonnell.
So unless Misi Taulapapa or Joel Clinton leave our squad is complete.

With this in mind how do we think we measure up compared to the class of 2011 and what are our early thoughts on where we will end up in 2012?

I think the squad as a whole is an improvement, we have brought in some good players and kept some of the experience that's required.

I'm looking forward to seeing the progess of cox and Taylor under CS.

The biggest issue for me is how we go about replacing Newton; specifically the right second-row spot.

There's a few players who could play there including Griffin, Lovegrove, Taylor, Cox but Newton leaves big shoes to fill even though he probably had his poorest few months at the club the back end of last season.

To me though I think with signing of Paea (effectively taking up cap space left by err Willie Mason), O'Hara (to replace Vella), Withers (to replace Fisher) and a rejuvenated Joel Clinton (not to mention our other young front-rowers), then I think we're gonna be far stronger in the middle which will finally enable us to get the best out of the rest of the team.

Wire & Wigan will probably be top-two and I expect the rest of the top-eight to finish in the top-eight next season but in different positions. If we get a good start and steer clear of serious injuries I think we can finish top-four but if we finish top-six I still think it would be a good season and give CS a chance to develop his squad the way he wants next off-season.

I'd like to see Taylor given that right side role, he's wasted at prop. Got good feet, decent ball handling and runs intelligent lines.

I think it makes it even more difficult to make predictions about next season simply because of the wholesale changes. For starters, the old team played under a different coach and to a different gameplan/system. We don’t know what to expect under Sandercock, except he has stated categorically Rovers will be a much improved team - defensively.
However, if we are going to compare the new to the old, what stands out to me is how the new guys ‘statistically’ are marked improvements on who they are replacing. The exception to this is Newts. He is a one-off and of all the players who have left he is the most difficult to replace.
Assuming that the new players can reproduce their statistics for Rovers, and provide the extra 2 - 3,000 metres (per season) the team has been lacking, and Sandercock is able to implement significant changes to the defence, then I think 5th or 6th is achievable. I also predict Bradford Bulls will make the play-offs at the expense of Castleford Tigers.

Too heavy and slow for second row. Sandercock has already put him in the front rowers group for pre-season training.

I think that the front row is probably where his future lies. We do have a lot of front rowers though. Have any of last seasons props (eg Lovegrove, Netherton) been moved into the backrowers group for pre-season?

Yes Rhys is training with the second rowers through pre-season. As he is a left sided player and all our back rowers are 80min players we have some strong competition back there. Galea is a shoe in IMO but could be utilised much better from the loose man position with Rhys going in to Bens spot.

Either way you look at it there is healthy competition for most positions barring full back.

Don't really know anything about Griffin so of the options available, I think Lovegrove is best suited to duplicating Newton's role because Lovegrove is exceptional strong, will make yards all day long, break tackles and has decent pace for a forward. His defensive positioning may need improving though.

Nick you say Rhys is a left-sided player but from memory he plays the ball with his left hand so wouldn't his natural passing motion be left-to-right which would suit him playing right-second-row passing right to his centre or winger?

Totally disagree about moving Galea to loose-man - our left side looks absolute class with Dobson / Galea / Welham / Hall so why tinker about?

I think we now have some real power in the middle so I think we should play to our strengths and use 13 as another prop; especially to start games. If we started with Paea, Clinton & O'Hara and bring Watts, Taylor, Wheeldon Cox etc. off the bench we'll definitely get on the front foot more often than not and our half-backs and centres will do the damage.

i hope lovegrove is moved to second row i always thought he was wasted at prop even though he was often our best prop yardage wise

I'd support that, we need to do some radical work with his defence, anyone with any sort of agility will waltz round him with ease.

Beat me to it. Bulked up too much imo. Not mobile enough for 2nd row.

We may have 32 full time players but the top 25 of them can earn £1.6m between them whereas the other 7 can only earn £0.05m (£50k) between them.

So really anyone outside the 25 will be a youngster earning peanuts and I don't mean the likes of Watts, Taylor and Cox who I expect will all now be part of the 25. They will be kids who may or may not get the odd game during the year depending on injuries and their own progress.

Why would Misi leave when we've only just signed him?

He was a bit boring, so we told him to sling his hook.