Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Apr 19, 2020 3:11 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

We have 4 centres, 3 of whom are not as good as Watkins.

This

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:06 pm  

Whatever happens with his rugby career I hope his dad pulls through.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:56 pm  

100% Warrior wrote:

This

But all 3 under contract?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Apr 19, 2020 6:34 pm  

[Gareth] wrote:

But all 3 under contract?

Maybe so but doesn’t detract away from it. FWIW I don’t think it’s very likely he’ll be signed by us.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 8:11 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

We have 4 centres, 3 of whom are not as good as Watkins.

Gildart, Bibby, Hankinson and Hardaker makes 4 at my count.

I don’t get this Hardaker isn’t a centre line. He played all his junior rugby in the centres, and started his SL career as a centre.

It was only through injury to Brent Webb did he move to full back.

We have a full back who is having a greater effect on games than he did in French. So what do we do with him? Can’t simply get rid. Same for the other 3.

Let’s not forget the salary cap and also the financial impact of the current situation.

Just because we believe a player is better than what we have doesn’t mean we should automatically sign them. We have to look at the make up of the squad and where best money needs to be invested.

We are good at centre with 4 options.

All signings are a risk but to then compound the fact we have 4 players who can play there by bringing in a player who has hardly played in a year, and was struggling with injuries and form prior to that would not be sensible. He was moved into the pack with little effect for Leeds in his last season.

I’m more than happy with Gildart and Hardaker. I think the latter has shown some positive signs moving back into the centre and it will take him more than we have had so far for him to fully get to grips with it again so looking forward to seeing him go in the latter part of this season if it ever happens.

Even without the cap and the fact we have 4 lads all capable of more than holding their own in SL at centre I’d personally still stay clear.

I hope though he goes well at Toronto seems like a cracking lad and a good club man but for us much rather we hold on to our money and be patient rather than knee jerk sign a player simply because circumstances sees them become available.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:41 am  

jonh wrote:

Gildart, Bibby, Hankinson and Hardaker makes 4 at my count.

I don’t get this Hardaker isn’t a centre line. He played all his junior rugby in the centres, and started his SL career as a centre.

It was only through injury to Brent Webb did he move to full back.

We have a full back who is having a greater effect on games than he did in French. So what do we do with him? Can’t simply get rid. Same for the other 3.

Let’s not forget the salary cap and also the financial impact of the current situation.

Just because we believe a player is better than what we have doesn’t mean we should automatically sign them. We have to look at the make up of the squad and where best money needs to be invested.

We are good at centre with 4 options.

All signings are a risk but to then compound the fact we have 4 players who can play there by bringing in a player who has hardly played in a year, and was struggling with injuries and form prior to that would not be sensible. He was moved into the pack with little effect for Leeds in his last season.

I’m more than happy with Gildart and Hardaker. I think the latter has shown some positive signs moving back into the centre and it will take him more than we have had so far for him to fully get to grips with it again so looking forward to seeing him go in the latter part of this season if it ever happens.

Even without the cap and the fact we have 4 lads all capable of more than holding their own in SL at centre I’d personally still stay clear.

I hope though he goes well at Toronto seems like a cracking lad and a good club man but for us much rather we hold on to our money and be patient rather than knee jerk sign a player simply because circumstances sees them become available.

I do actually agree with your summary. I too am happy with Hardaker and Gildart as centres and I’d also like to amend my previous comment agreeing Watkins is better than 3 of our 4 centres; he’s better than 2 out of 4.

I have seen rumours of French remaining in Australia (before anyone jumps down my throat I don’t believe them either) and in those circumstances signing Watkins would have made sense with Zak likely to flip back to FB.

He’s going to Toronto anyway so this debate as it were seems pointless.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:53 am  

For the right price I’d have been happy with Watkins for 2021 ‘if’ Gildart leaves but the timing looks off. We certainly don’t need him for this season and I’d like to think we don’t need him for 2021 either. Gildart is a player I’d love to see stay and you’d think there’s a chance. I can’t see a place for him at Canberra with them having Croker and Scott in the centres. There’s plenty of other teams but his close group of friends are at Canberra and that along with the financial worries everyone faces makes me think we could retain him.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:07 pm  

Canberra have also probably re-signed Jordan Rapana, so I think Canberra would be one of least likely places Gildart would go.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:41 pm  

I thought I remembered Penrith being interested in Gildart.
However, if I was him and in view of the uncertainty, I'd be looking to stay put until all this virus business has been sorted.
Who knows how the NRL and SL will come out of this.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:19 pm  

If you think Bibby, Hankinson and Zak are better centres than Watkins then I don't really know what else to say as your RL knowledge is clearly rather poor.