Re: New Signings : Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:56 am
I spoke to Blake Solly a few months back on this, and yes it is true it will be 5 overseas players and £775k.I think we'll lose about half the squad and three quarters of the top 25.
Some of the backs will go back across the world I would think as they have barely played and I wouldn't think an offer will be tabled.
There are some players of an established Super League standard who would not drop down like Cook, Vea and Moore.
Then there are crown jewels like Caton-Brown and Dixon who would have been on Doctor Kockrash's list regardless of where we finished.
Then there are British youngsters who are contracted but would represent almost a risk-free low wage investment to a Super League club like Macani, Lovell & McMeeken that we might be able to retain but it depends on how keen SL clubs are to exploit our situation by taking the sorts of players they could plausibly produce themselves, you know big second rowers, pacy backs, but not likely to be world class.
If these sorts of players go we'll probably never come back to Super League. I sometimes wish for Catalans situation where they have only lost a handful of Frenchies they want to keep in the past decade.
I'm reckoning from the existing squad we'll be left with something like this list -
Macani, Burnett, Farrar, O'Callaghan, Solomona, Drinkwater, Keyes, Krasniqi, Bishay, Dollapi, Slyney, Griffin, Wallace, Woodburn-Hall, Everett, Wicks, Herold, Lovell,
I am hopeful we are prioritising a Prop (to go with Krasniqi, Dollapi and Slyney), a Hooker or two and a Halfback (so Farrar can play in the Centres) as external signings. Youngsters will bulk out the squad so we need to make sure that anyone who has big potential has a multi-year contract and if we're not beaten in the forwards and have a good kicking game we should go ok.
Cheers
Mark