Re: Recruitment and retention : Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:59 am  

from the video online, he looks more like a full back. Very strong with decent feet, but not very quick, and the tackling is very poor. Will see how he goes

Re: Recruitment and retention : Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:20 pm  

Wilde 3 wrote:

from the video online, he looks more like a full back. Very strong with decent feet, but not very quick, and the tackling is very poor. Will see how he goes

That video is from a few years ago and I think is mostly junior highlights which explains the poor tackling. You can see a few clips of him tormenting the Aussies in there, he was the best prospect in the France U18s team that beat Australia and England in 2011 and was top try scorer in the French league as a 20 year old for Catalans reserves before attitude problems led him astray. He then spent a few years floating around, playing for his local village team and some time in RU before he resurfaced at Carcassonne last year and scored 21 tries in 17 matches to finish as top try scorer in the French league again. I always thought it was a matter of time until he ended up in Super League, hopefully his off-field problems are behind him and he can make the most of this chance as he's very talented.

Re: Recruitment and retention : Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:03 pm  

Let's hope he's more entat than solal

Re: Recruitment and retention : Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:28 pm  

Not a surprise but won't see Hadley again this year as we are letting him play tonight.

Re: Recruitment and retention : Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:59 pm  

Dave K. wrote:

Not a surprise but won't see Hadley again this year as we are letting him play tonight.

disappointing, even more so if radders lets him play against us next week, we all remember how loan signings played against us before v bradford! bit us on the 'arris

Re: Recruitment and retention : Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:08 am  

PCollinson1990 wrote:

Have we uprated Kelly, or is that an assumption?

we resigned him already and will have paid handsomely to retain his services, or do you think we could offer him a low ball lifeline deal to escape the championship for this year, especially as his stock has risen massively due to his performances before the new deal was penned?

Re: Recruitment and retention : Fri Jun 16, 2017 6:05 am  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

we resigned him already and will have paid handsomely to retain his services, or do you think we could offer him a low ball lifeline deal to escape the championship for this year, especially as his stock has risen massively due to his performances before the new deal was penned?

Depends what we agreed with him, which we have no idea about.

Re: Recruitment and retention : Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:11 am  

I'm happy with the Washbrook & Talanoa re-signings. Washy has been valuable in his utility role since he joined us, and there's a noticeable difference when Talanoa is out there. I'm a little worried about the concussions he's had though.

Tommo is a funny one. At times he can be our best player with ball in hand & has excellent footwork and acceleration for a forward. Other times he can be completely ineffective. His defence still needs a lot of work, he seems to get caught out of position quite a lot, mainly at A defender close to the ruck. He is though still only 25, so has a lot of improvement still in him. If he can churn out performances like he has recently more regularly, happy days.

We can only speculate as to how much cap space we have for next year:

2018 we'll have; Abdull & Hadley potentially back from loans back on the cap, it's fair to assume Kelly's deal has been upgraded, new winger, new forward, any other contract upgrades.

vs: A raise in the overall cap, Ellis leaving(?), Fonua leaving, any contract downgrades (perhaps a couple of the older ones).

Re: Recruitment and retention : Fri Jun 16, 2017 6:36 pm  

Armavinit wrote:

"Shovelling concrete ALL day" come now Graham.

Well, a bit of shovelling but mainly looking at the talent in the office block.

Re: Recruitment and retention : Fri Jun 16, 2017 7:18 pm  

Could we afford to lose all 3 of Fonua, Michaels, and Naughton? That would leave us with just Talanoa (missed a lot through injury over the last 2 years) and Rawsthorne (inexperienced). Even with a new signing (who we don't yet know the quality of) that still looks a bit light. I suppose Griffin could also do a job if injuries necessitate it but he is also the back-up centre.