My Christmas wish is Fax hit the ground running and we don t play catch up as the past couple of years.
As has been said we have fliers across the park, just hope other teams are scared of our backs and the forwards dominate.
Looking forward to a great season.

There are several others who have played 2nd row in the past who no doubt could do again if needed - Larroyer, Tangata and Fairbank - with Maizen signing I'm now pretty happy with the numbers and quality of the squad. In fact when everyone is fit Grix is going to have a challenge keeping some very good players happy who are not getting in the 17, in both the forwards and backs.

Let me digress my thoughts, we have finished 3rd on two consecutive seasons on the back of a rebrand and new coach , my feeling is that Dave Grayson and the new board have spotted a window of time where fax have an opportunity of success ( my personal opinion is that if Simon doesn’t achieve superleague with fax within the next 2 seasons he will be snapped up by an existing super league club perhaps Warrington given his affiliation with that club) I genuinely believe Grix is one of the best young out and out coaches in rugby league, when I look at other coaches in the championship and some of the super league there is no one I would rather have ( side note craig lingard appears to be an exceptional coach certainly at this level, Rohan smith another ) The takeover to me coincides with the process of licensing, Dave Grayson as said the reason for the consortium was to give more funds to Grix , the championship will be a lot closer than previous seasons, as far as I am concerned now is the time to challenge for promotion, a quality 2nd row and half is what we need to challenge.

If we role play last season into this our injuries early season we’re , woodburn hall , gee , Knowles , worthington , we were lucky in the halves compared to Robinson and Harris the year before, do we have the quality to replace them at the same level with the current squad, I think not , that is the basis of my reasoning.

think loan signings can cover any emergency

We have twice finished in third place on the back of slow starts. That's where we need to improve. We have the players and coach to do just that. Up The Fax.

I suspect I met you today briefly in the dusty miller in longwood , as you say up the fax .

You did indeed. Nice to talk to you. I said to the wife I knew your face, but didn't know your name.

I couldn't agree more the drop off in quality in who would fill in the halfs role if we were to lose a first choice halfback to a long term injury would seriously harm our chances for promotion. And the only problem if we went down the loan route would be the player getting recalled which as happened to most sides. All in all it will be interesting if we do bring in a few more players as to what positions they cover and are they on loan or not.

Not sure there's a realistic solution to the extra half back problem - we had 3 really good halves on the books last season - I'm sure when Corey Aston signed he would have believed he'd have a good shot at being one of the starting halves. Problem now is we're going into the season with a very successful established half back pairing so any new signing would be coming in knowing probably his only chance of playing would be injury. It was great having the luxury of Cory as backup last season, but I don't think the club can afford the luxury of having one of their higher earners sitting on the sidelines for most of the year. I know sods law means almost certainly one of halves will be crocked on day 1 - don't like loans in such a pivotal position but that may be only alternative

You make a valid point and it is a bit of a conundrum. I see the options has

1 keep it as it is and rely on existing players to cover ( woodburn hall , wood and inman )

2 Bring in another half possibly a young half who is hungry and ready prove himself and challenge for the jersey.

3 We know Grix likes versatility so maybe a player that can play in the halves and fullback ( Keyes did really well last season and played nearly every game but the he was injured a bit in previous seasons, woodburn hall always looks one step away from a muscle strain )

4 Duel reg / loan , as already stated this wouldn’t be ideal for multiple reasons.

Reading between what Matt shaw said and Grix intimated after the departure of Martin there could be room for one more ( I believe the maizen deal was done before Martin left ) so isn’t relevant .

Shh

Don't mention DR, I was hoping everyone had forgotten about that.

I think we're about there with the squad and really think we can have a great season. Lindley Liberal Club, Rat Brewery, The Snowrat 4.5% Mmm! Up The Fax!

So Arundel has departed,no great loss never looked interested for whatever reason..can we use this and the Martin saving to find a new south sea islander,the new Tuilagi...someone who can bulldoze to add to the undoubted pace we have in the backs.

I was hoping Joe would improve this year but going on last years form he is not a big loss but from a squad point of view will need replacing. He seems to have struggled with the transition from full to part time rugby which is fair enough. It does say in the Christmas message from the board that they will be backing simon to bring in further quality players over the next season so as far as replacements go we will have to wait and see.

Its been rumored for a while now and I got the impression when he or a close family member used to post on here things were not going smoothly. I imagine he would have been on decent money and its not unrealistic to think we could bring someone else in cheaper without losing anything in performance. Hopefully he can turn it around wherever he ends up.

While he definitely improved towards the end of the season, if everyone fit and on form think he would have struggled to get in this season. That said having lost both first choice centres from last season, plus perhaps even more importantly Ed Barber think we do need some cover in the backs- ideally someone with potential like Tibbs prepared to bide their time until inevitable injuries kick in. Glad we've still got Mcomb who offers great cover at centre and wing.

Aye, although I haven't seen that he has gone it's not a great disappointment. He looked very anonymous early on, and although he did improve slightly he wasn't of a standard to help take Fax to a higher level. Let's see if we bring anyone else in. Up The Fax!

Pretty early on it looked like he wasn't fitting in with the SG mould which know doubt was pointed out to him during the year and inspite of a late improvement it still wasn't quite there so not surprised to see him move on.
His departure and that of Joe Martin will have us looking for another back.
Maybe with Scott being at Leeds there may be someone come available such as former Siddal player Levi Edwards who was on loan at Batley in 2021 and York last year as a possibility linking it in with the "pecking order" at other clubs reference from SG.

On the Bulls pages they recon Arundel is going to sign for them. If that is true that says to me we have let him go as apposed to him finding it hard becoming part time. The Bulls are part time so what would the difference be. Maybe our training regime is more intense and harder

Yes mick gledhill put a tweet out saying that Arundel ‘ might’ sign for Bradford . He also mentioned on the full 80 minutes we have a signing lined up to replace joe Martin but it’ll be sorted in January, he also mentioned that IMG have said finishing in the top 4 this year will help in getting a higher grade and this has led to a few championship clubs going back into the transfer market ( including fax ) given the fax xmas message, Grixs’ recruitment comments on arundal leaving and having a squad of 24 I suspect a couple of more additions in January, I’d prefer permanent signings but given the wording from Grix one may be a loan signing from a superleage club as faxcar mentioned .

What ever happens as long as we get 3rd or above in the league I’ll be happy.

3rd minimum

Owt below 3rd would mean we are going backwards. Go for the top and see where it takes us. Up The Fax!

Arundel now confirmed at Bulls - no huge loss based on kast years form

Whilst Joe didn't individually exactly set the world on fire he wasn't a liability or passenger either and the size of the loss will depend on who if anyone we get to replace him because as a whole the squad overall looks a bit light in the backs compared to last year.

Top four League position has now been confirmed by IMG as one of the boxes to tick but we don't know with what weighting and many of the other boxes are still to be decided upon.

Whatever they decide the game is changing, progress in 2023 and beyond will depend on how each club adapts to the changes.

Other things besides where a team finishes in the League will play a big part in this so as long as we get top four and tick more boxes than our rivals I'll settle for that.

As an example I'd rather finish 4th and tick 7 out of 10 than finish 2nd or 3rd and only tick 5 out of 10.

What every club needs is a clear pathway and as stated above as yet they haven't got one.