So I had a major update from my source tonight as I asked over the weekend was there any update with recruitment after the Sivo deal was announced I asked about are we looking to bring in another forward.

Ian Blease has reportedly enquired about singing John Bateman for the 2025 season.

Now I was told that Blease contacted West Tigers about a season long loan for 2025 with West's contributing towards his wages and if Bateman was to be a success in 2025 we would look at taking him on permanently in 2026. He's wanting to try meet with Bateman now he's in the country playing for England so that could happen in next couple of weeks.


It's been quite public that West Tigers are looking to offload Bateman after apparently falling out with their head coach Benji Marshall. So I could see West being interested if their isn't a mass amount of clubs chasing Bateman.

I was also told the club is very happy with the recruitment ahead of next season and are only looking at 1 more signing if the right deal came about so if this Bateman deal happened we wouldn't be bringing in another forward/ signing such as Liam Byrne etc.


If the Bateman deal happens I can however see this that he'd get the 11 shirt, Mcdonnell would get 12 and then Bentley would move to 16 and act as middle/ back row interchange like he was playing under Arthur at the end of last season. Having a rotation of Bateman/ Mcdonnell/ Bentley & Gannon creates healthy competition between them all.
My only slight concern would be that the 4 players I've named above are all in the same mold smaller back rowers with a high work rate it does lack a bit of punch for me but we did ok with JJB & Ablett as our back rowers for nearly a decade and they we're workman like backrowers.

Overall if this happened I don't think it's bad business and smart business as well from Blease as it would only be a loan and we wouldn't be stuck with Bateman if he had a poor season and didn't perform like we would if we bought him from Wests.

[quote="Frosties.":2uzffpfw]Cross - Hull FC Ormondroyd - Castleford Sneyd, Shorrocks - Leigh Watkins - Leeds These are five moves I think are likely. MacDonald, Lafai, Nikorima, Stone, Wright, Lewis, Marsters will get looked at elsewhere but unless quota spots open, only Wakefield, Castleford, Huddersfield and Catalan can look at them.[/quote:2uzffpfw] Unless things have changed it was reported that no cap dispensation would be given, which allegedly rules Leeds out.

[quote="ArthurClues":19g9lmm7]Unless things have changed it was reported that no cap dispensation would be given, which allegedly rules Leeds out.[/quote:19g9lmm7] Leeds are very good at finding ways and means, they will find wriggle room and it starts with the fact that part of Watkins salary would be off cap due to being club trained

[quote="ArthurClues":2oayozpm]Unless things have changed it was reported that no cap dispensation would be given, which allegedly rules Leeds out.[/quote:2oayozpm] I don’t think we’ll be fully up to the cap, I reckon there will be s way to get him in

[quote="Frosties.":1qbfgoxi]Leeds are very good at finding ways and means, they will find wriggle room and it starts with the fact that part of Watkins salary would be off cap due to being club trained[/quote:1qbfgoxi] Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see him back at Leeds, just wouldn't want us to get ourselves in a position where we have next to no cap space for 25, especially when you bear in mind that Kal will be 34 later this year. I could just see Wire ( with their elastic cap) fitting him in. Guess we'll know soon enough.

Did Watkins leave on good terms. I know it wasn’t bad terms but was he pushed out a bit at the time?