Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:59 pm  

Maybe they’ll change my mind this season and I sincerely hope they do but I’m not sure I’d feel confident going in to a season with Thornley, Bibby and Halsall as our three centres. I guess Pearce-Paul could be a raging success at centre and put a couple of those in the shade but as things stand a new centre would be high on my list of priorities for 2023.

Dependant on who stays/goes and if we have any quota spots, the club will get 12 months to look at a couple of centres in the Championship who are surely superleague quality in Nene MacDonald and Joey Leilua. At least one of those won’t be promoted to superleague next season and if they’re settled here, staying out of trouble and playing well, they may be reasonably easy pick ups.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:07 pm  

Whilst not a superstar by any stretch of the imagination, I wouldn't mind having a look at someone like Kurt Mann. Experienced guy, with a little left on his career.

Predominantly he's been a centre over the last couple of seasons, but can play 1, 6 and potentially as a ball playing 13 too. Looking at his contract, he's signed up to Newcastle until 2023, but I can see him being in and out of the starting side. Maybe a bit of a longer contract & security might tempt him over?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:55 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Maybe they’ll change my mind this season and I sincerely hope they do but I’m not sure I’d feel confident going in to a season with Thornley, Bibby and Halsall as our three centres. I guess Pearce-Paul could be a raging success at centre and put a couple of those in the shade but as things stand a new centre would be high on my list of priorities for 2023.

Dependant on who stays/goes and if we have any quota spots, the club will get 12 months to look at a couple of centres in the Championship who are surely superleague quality in Nene MacDonald and Joey Leilua. At least one of those won’t be promoted to superleague next season and if they’re settled here, staying out of trouble and playing well, they may be reasonably easy pick ups.

Don't forget Gildart more than likely will be back next season

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:53 pm  

Smalls wrote:

Don't forget Gildart more than likely will be back next season

That really wouldn’t surprise me.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Feb 08, 2022 4:01 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

That really wouldn’t surprise me.

It would me. I think Gilly has the potential to do well in the NRL. Whilst there are some absolute freak athletes in the NRL and I am not expecting him to compete with them but I think most weeks he has the potential to more than hold his own.

He looked to have stagnated last year and injuries obviously didn't help and maybe he had one eye on the NRL but I think the move is what he needed and I think he will more than likely (unless he gets homesick) do at least the duration of his contract our there and maybe 2/3 more too.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Feb 08, 2022 8:22 pm  

jonh wrote:

It would me. I think Gilly has the potential to do well in the NRL. Whilst there are some absolute freak athletes in the NRL and I am not expecting him to compete with them but I think most weeks he has the potential to more than hold his own.

He looked to have stagnated last year and injuries obviously didn't help and maybe he had one eye on the NRL but I think the move is what he needed and I think he will more than likely (unless he gets homesick) do at least the duration of his contract our there and maybe 2/3 more too.

I hope he does. The last thing we need is another player coming back a shadow of his former self.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:37 pm  

If Gildart fails and comes back to Superleague I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. His form last season was nothing short of a disgrace.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Feb 09, 2022 7:11 am  

bazdev wrote:

If Gildart fails and comes back to Superleague I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. His form last season was nothing short of a disgrace.

And the season before that.

When was his last good season? Was it 2020 or 2019?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Feb 09, 2022 7:28 am  

I could see Williams none return being a line in the sand sort of moment when it comes to player returns. That group of mates (him, Gildart, Burgess, Sutton and Bateman) have all been over to the NRL now (or are there now) and hopefully it’s the end of the disruption for a while.

I’d never say never on a player coming back but Gildarts injury problems of the last couple of years would put me off and in a funny way, probably even more so if he plays week in, week out at West’s during his time over there.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:56 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

I could see Williams none return being a line in the sand sort of moment when it comes to player returns. That group of mates (him, Gildart, Burgess, Sutton and Bateman) have all been over to the NRL now (or are there now) and hopefully it’s the end of the disruption for a while.

I’d never say never on a player coming back but Gildarts injury problems of the last couple of years would put me off and in a funny way, probably even more so if he plays week in, week out at West’s during his time over there.

I have to say this ... I also don't think his attitude was great.

There were plenty stories that he underperformed for us because he was already on the plane. There were some hints of that with his good mate, George, too.

None of this is provable, I'll admit. But Gildart seemed to miss an awful lot of his last two years to me, and did nothing of note on the few occasions he was on the field.

If he ends up wanting to cut his Aus adventure short, I'll be more than happy if we give him a miss.