There has been talk in the past that Catalans pay crap wages to their French players as they know they have them bent over the barrel if they don’t fancy moving to the North of England, that might change a little with Tolouse in the Superleague.

Very positive all around, esp with the new signings coming early.



Let's just hope the "medics we trust" aren't the ones who did the medical for Burgess.

Let’s hope so. I’m a big fan of us having the French clubs in the league but they really need to start producing more homegrown players for the national side. I’d love to think having two in will help facilitate that and make sure the financial incentives are good enough to tempt better players to stick with Rugby League. The bigger goal has to be that we get a much stronger French National side. A future of big games against the French would help make up the shortfall from final appearances Catalans make (or Toulouse in the future), where the crowds are 15-20k down on the usual levels.

It’s positive in that it suggests he’s definitely coming back but you do sense it’ll be another delayed arrival and that’s not ideal. Let’s just hope it works out better this time. As Rogues mentions, the reserves fixtures should help and hopefully a bit more luck on the injury front elsewhere will mean we don’t feel the need to rush things.

What do people think about a move for Tyrone May? I've not seen that much of the lad (even tho he's played 50+ games). HB, who can cover a few positions in both the forwards & backs.



By the looks of it, he got into some trouble a few years back & recently brought it all back into the public eye with an post after the GF.



He might benefit for a year or two out of the NRL bubble, kinda like Hastings did.

Yeah very true.



One of my biggest worries for next year tho is this - whilst I understand it's a marathon and not a sprint, Peet will be up against it from a section of our fan base. I really want him to be successful and a good start will massively help that. French is a key player for us and critical to how well our season goes.

French is a key player as above and as current things stand having him unfit at the start of the season for a number of games would put us on the back foot from the off, very much deja vous of 2021.



Jai Field would need to start the season flying but he's very much an unknown, now whilst the the club state he's "fully fit" I can't help but have him in the 'Luke Davico' bracket, hope not like.

Our fans will criticise literally anyone, but if they blame him next season then we have bigger issues than I thought

Haha I was miles away with that one sorry.

I’m sure he will have asked for a release rather than the other way round.



He will be guaranteed game time at Toulouse which I’m sure we couldn’t give him similar assurances and he has always said he needs to be playing at his age.



I’m guessing he may have been part of the plans but to be fair to him the club agreed to the move. I just hope the space freed up from the move is reinvested into the squad.

The fact that Thornley hasn't been confirmed yet gives me hope of at least one decent additional player is to be signed.



If the club announced today 'We are pleased to announce the return of Iain Thornley' then social media would go into a meltdown.



If in the next week or two the club came out with 'We are pleased to announce the arrival of *Player X from the NRL oh and by the way Iain Thornley is also returning as cover' then supporters would lap it up.



*Assuming Player X is quality player in a position that currently needs strengthening of course.





That's the way I see it.

Thornley mentioned with Miski on the Jai Field update as ready for day one of pre-season

Is that in the Manchester Evening News article? Not seen anything official as yet.

It currently seems the club won’t be “announcing” Thornley.



Given he is already being mentioned in despatches by the Chairman and club I’d say now it’s just assumed everyone is aware.



Bit harsh and a kick to a players ego if that does turn out to be the case, to be fair though it’s a no win if they do announce him too given the level of grief they will no doubt get.



Sometimes damned if you do, damned if you don’t!

Yes, that's the one, right at the bottom of the article

I bet Thornley's delighted the club seem embarrassed to officially announce him, and need some "good news" as cover.

The Jacob Miller deal dead and buried according to Matthew Shaw. I thought that one may still come off tbh, so looking increasingly difficult to get one in. The report does say we’ve moved on to other targets mind.

We are full on quota spots so unless it’s one of the English lads playing in the NRL or we are going to release one of our current quota players to make room it’s unlikely.

I wonder if those targets are now for 2023.

It sounded like they’re looking for 2022 but we’ll see. It did mention that Miller himself is out of contract at the end of 2022, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they go back in for him then.

If the standard of HB we’re after is Jacob Miller I’d rather we not bother.

If we are waiting for next year I would rather that we pushed the boat out.

We should push the boat out and go after Jordan Abdul

Only if we get rid of Smith. No point having 2 organisers on the pitch.



This for me was why we were interested in Miller as he’s a strike half.



Miller was outstanding when Wakefield paired him with Liam Finn. Finn did all the organising and Miller just did his thing often tearing teams apart with his direct illusive running play.



I think he could have been a great addition similar impact to Blake Green, who really wasn’t too highly thought of outside of Hull until he joined Wigan.



Moving forward I agree though that we need to move on and plan big towards a top quality half signing for the ‘23 season.

I agree and I’ve said it a few times. Right now it looks like we’re signing for the sake of it, which if that is the case we ought to step back and wait for the right half. That may or may not be Abdul mind.