Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu May 21, 2020 3:33 pm  

KingRoss11 wrote:

Doesn’t Currie play on the left? Last thing we need is another left sided second rower who can’t play on the right and he ain’t better than Farrell

Had a flick through some YouTube highlights and he looks to have played both sides at points in his career. It was interesting watching the season review of 2010 when Faz first came through and he spent plenty of time on the right side as well.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 12:46 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

He's 6'1" and 16st 1lb, taller and heavier than our current second rows and bigger than than John Bateman was.
I'd swop him for Greenwood in an instance.

I would have him too. We should be interested in any good players coming off their contract. If nothing else we should be pushing Wire into paying more than they would like to retain him, £1 more spent is a £1 less they will have available under the salary cap. We will have some serious money to invest at the end of the season with Lockers, Tommy, Flower, Escare, Burgess, Hankinson and Shorrocks off contract. We need to spend it wisely.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 6:41 am  

Sweaty Betty's wrote:

I would have him too. We should be interested in any good players coming off their contract. If nothing else we should be pushing Wire into paying more than they would like to retain him, £1 more spent is a £1 less they will have available under the salary cap. We will have some serious money to invest at the end of the season with Lockers, Tommy, Flower, Escare, Burgess, Hankinson and Shorrocks off contract. We need to spend it wisely.

Bit worried the the "serious money" might well be used to balance the books after the financial disaster this season is going to be. If it saves the club who can argue with that . Couple of lean years v continued existance ???

Regards EW

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 8:15 am  

Edinburgh Warrior wrote:

Bit worried the the "serious money" might well be used to balance the books after the financial disaster this season is going to be. If it saves the club who can argue with that . Couple of lean years v continued existance ???

Regards EW

Absolutely. If we see only exits and big exits (Lockers, Leuluai, Hastings, Gildart, Flower etc) and sign nobody for 2021, I don’t think anyone can complain. It would be nice to bring in one or two players but ultimately if signings risked the existence of the club then don’t make them. We wouldn’t be the only club in that boat and we’ve got a top class academy to call on.

Say those five players left I mentioned above, you’d probably say we definitely would need a halfback but we could cover the others from within. You’d be looking at something like the side noted below and it’s still pretty competitive-

French
Manfredi Hardaker Bibby Marshall
New Signing Smith
Bullock Powell Partington
Isa Farrell Smithies

Subs
G Burgess Havard Greenwood Clark

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 9:48 am  

Kallum Watkins 3 year deal to Toronto.

Glad we missed out on him to be honest. Need to tie Gildart into an extension though.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 9:52 am  

Making sure the books are balanced With the money saved is certainly the most logical approach. With teams over the dark side pleading to have the cap lowered, I can’t imagine any other teams will be bringing in real quality signings so it’s not like we will fall behind again if we don’t spend big.

Romantically it would always be great to get a couple of top signings in but will completely back the clubs decision if they choose not to throw money about unnecessarily.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 9:53 am  

It’ll be interesting how contracts will work under the current circumstances. If our season runs until January 2021, I wonder what happens to the lads off contract before that? Hastings will be an interesting one given his get out clause and Gildart possibly another. If they’re to be in the NRL in 2021, with their season finishing in November, will we still have them through to Jan 2021, if our season runs that far? I can’t quite get my head round the Hastings situation regarding that clause and if this could be a good thing or a bad thing for us.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 9:56 am  

Bateman's been granted permission to talk to other clubs by the Raiders apparently..

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 10:54 am  

ho chance will he leave the NRL, he will be the most sought after forward if he is offered

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri May 22, 2020 11:25 am  

bateman has squashed that rumour, pretty definitively this morning