Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 1:39 pm  

you must have missed the bit when I said we'll know more in time

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 2:23 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

Yep, the obvious was sorting out the spine. Box emphatically ticked. They've got Goudemand, apparently Hudson, and now appear to be in the process of clearing some cap to bring in another prop. Strategy looks bang on to me.

Yeh Goudemand a real superstar and absolutley massive and whats the other guy achieved . We still have an ordinary pack in other words

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:01 pm  

ploinerrhino wrote:

Yeh Goudemand a real superstar and absolutley massive and whats the other guy achieved . We still have an ordinary pack in other words

With likely one more to come. But fair enough, feel free to have a moan, like many did about our failure to recruit spine players. How did that turn out? Or you could just give them just give them the benefit of your ongoing doubts.

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:04 pm  

Said a couple of times I think Holroyd will be better for longer next year. He looked like he hit the wall last year.

Would definitely prefer to have Hudson + one more but it’s not as dire as some are maybe making out.

Last year was the first time in however long we’ve not been bullied by saints pack wise, so they could definitely do it. Like the rest of the team it was consistency they struggled with.

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:58 pm  

If Oledzki with a full rest and pre season can regain his previous form, plus we get the sort of second year improvement from Lisone and Sangare that might be expected, then perceptions could be very different.

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:39 pm  

My issue isn’t so much with the capability or potential or Oledzki, Holroyd, Lisone or Sangare, it’s what happens when 2 or 3 of them are out at the same time. You need 6 decent prop options in your squad and we have 4 (at best).

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:39 pm  

batleyrhino wrote:

My issue isn’t so much with the capability or potential or Oledzki, Holroyd, Lisone or Sangare, it’s what happens when 2 or 3 of them are out at the same time. You need 6 decent prop options in your squad and we have 4 (at best).

It’s really a decent first choice 4 props. Personally I think we missed Sangare - he has mistakes in him but he is a bartering ram and does a lot of the tough work.

Of course we can’t handle more than 1 injury to any of them without a significant drop-off and that’s why another prop would be ideal. We have more cover in the backs than the forwards with the young lads so releasing Olpherts to subsidise another prop makes sense.

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Mon Oct 30, 2023 9:47 am  

tad rhino wrote:

you must have missed the bit when I said we'll know more in time

Ha i did

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Mon Oct 30, 2023 9:56 am  

Simmo71 wrote:

Walters, arguably our best forward in the second half of last season.

I don't get this at all. I agree Walters did some eye-catching stuff mid-season (especially in some of those wins against the top sides) but I fail to see how he was our best forward by any stretch of the imagination. The show-pony stuff was great but where was the graft or punch in defence (legally I mean!). He still has tons of mistakes in him and some of those mistakes contributed to those narrow losses mid-season (I'm thinking of his tendency to over-play and select passes that weren't on at crucial moments - IIRC he did this in the narrow loss to Saints at Headingley).

I preferred him used at prop in the back end of 2022 (despite the odd defensive lapse), but he evidently doesn't want to be a prop and wasn't used as much as one in 2023, so it's a bit pointless including him in this discussion of our front-row rotation.

As a wide-running back rower, I'd much rather see more of Gannon, and there are other rough diamonds coming through like Ruan who look capable of doing the more eye-catching stuff given the right development.

Mid-season the Walters to Wigan news was very depressing, but he lost form and didn't seem like a big loss towards the end. I would say across the duration of the season that Cameron Smith, Holroyd and McDonnell were far better and more consistent, and Lisone also came through much stronger in the final months.

Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour thread V4 : Mon Oct 30, 2023 10:21 am  

Given it's unlikely that we'd have known the full cost implications of replacing all those spine players, I'm really glad we didn't promise the world to Walters early if it meant jeopardising those more important signings. He definitely carved open defences on occasion but realistically he was only such a standout because others were offering so little. In other words, it would have been nice to keep him but we had far greater issues to address.