[Bullseye]

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:05 pm  

I was wondering the same Nothus.

Maybe Roger might know? Of maybe "Peter Hood" if he's not on a night shift and has time to post.

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:00 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

I was wondering the same Nothus.

Maybe Roger might know? Of maybe "Peter Hood" if he's not on a night shift and has time to post.

Hello Bullseye

No I haven't heard a dickie bird about anything

Completely off topic, I went to Dewsbury on Sunday for Sheffields friendly with them. Making his debut for Sheffield was Mark Mexico who I believe we were rumoured to be looking at a couple of year ago, if I'm not mistaken it might of been me who started the rumour. He's a very direct runner and a very big boy as well, should go well

[Bulliac]

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:15 pm  

You starting rumours Rog? Perish the thought.....

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:17 pm  

roger daly wrote:

Hello Bullseye

No I haven't heard a dickie bird about anything

Completely off topic, I went to Dewsbury on Sunday for Sheffields friendly with them. Making his debut for Sheffield was Mark Mexico who I believe we were rumoured to be looking at a couple of year ago, if I'm not mistaken it might of been me who started the rumour. He's a very direct runner and a very big boy as well, should go well

Yeah I noticed that Sheffield had signed him. It was just after the world cup when we were linked with him I think. There might even have been some newspaper articles about it so it was more than just rumour. I seem to recall Mark having some visa issues though, and in the end he joined a PNG club.
Should be interesting to see how both he and Offerdahl go next season.

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:24 pm  

Nothus wrote:

Yeah I noticed that Sheffield had signed him. It was just after the world cup when we were linked with him I think. There might even have been some newspaper articles about it so it was more than just rumour. I seem to recall Mark having some visa issues though, and in the end he joined a PNG club.
Should be interesting to see how both he and Offerdahl go next season.

It was indeed just after the world cup. When the likes of Gaz Carvell had left us in the lurch (with arguably good reason) and we had about 1 and a half props, so we were desperate for recruits.

[Bullseye]

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:41 pm  

Mexico is a good strong runner. Not sure about the rest of his game.

One things for sure. He'd make more of an impact than our current overseas bench prop.

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:44 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

One things for sure. He'd make more of an impact than our current overseas bench prop.

The PA bloke doing the "We Will Rock You" during the game makes more impact than him.

Re: Landed a new half back? : Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:49 pm  

I am reasonably happy with our signings this season. We look to have ditched the idea of taking risks on unseen players and have signed players from here who we know which makes sense. Some of those forwards I believe could be good signings. A couple of props from this season may feel the pressure if they don't lift their game.
My gut feeling for FB is that Campbell was signed for that position before wing. Agree with above about having too many players who "may" turn out to be this or that. We need more players who are clearly good enough quality for a particular position. More specialists rather than utility players. A few utility players are needed but not 15 of them.

Re: Landed a new half back? : Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:04 pm  

The main stumbling block to the pre season rush to mop up all the good or available players is the "what if Factor" ie 'what if the star player we signed was lacking any form for the forthcoming season?' (hypothetically of course) or suppose he sustained a season long injury in the first friendly (it happened to your Dad Mitch) also how does the coach know how any of the lesser known players are going to live up to a reputation that was only on heresay and the evidence of a few vids.?
In essence I am saying that the coaching staff can only know after the first few games?
Not the most enviable positions when a new side has to be built?

Neverthe less I'm looking forward to the new season!

Re: Landed a new half back? : Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:25 pm  

I have to agree, the squad looks a bit more balanced than last year with fewer unknown elements.
I saw somewhere that Lowes said that he's going to be rotating the squad more this year. Hopefully that's the case as players like Sidlow, Clough and O'Brien were, IMO, asked to do far too much work last year while other players were seemingly allowed to slack off but get picked every week while others were just left dangling along without even a reserve team game to at least maintain some level of match sharpness.

As I've said elsewhere, the core of the squad is strong and has had the benefit of no major off field off-season shenanigans that we've had in recent years. We are only missing 3 players from the MPG and those 3 players were absent/not signed for most of the season. The 2 unknown players that are coming in are doing so on a trial basis and hopefully can show their quality both in training and in the friendly matches (although, I'd be tempted to only give them both a 12 month deal with a club choice option of a second year).

But I still think the weakest link in the chain is Lowes. I do not believe he has the tactical skills to get us promoted nor does he have the man management skills to get the best out of his players on a weekly basis. He also lacks the basics of media handling as we saw all season long culminating in that little meltdown after the MPG.