Anybody think that Potter might be planning on using young Southerwood there. Obviously he looked tiny when he played, but a good pre season could see him put some muscle on.

Didnt Medders say the original plan was too use him this season?

Obviously not all the time too.

I think we'll see much more of him but I do think we need another player as cover as he's bound to get targetted and will tire over the course of the season.

Anthony Thackerey maybe?

I'd still rather get a new stand-off, but if there isn't one available, then I'd hope we plan to use Southernwood, Addy, Sykes & Kearney but with the last 2 covering for when the first two need a break.

I would imagine that Addy is going to feature there for a lot of the season.

Perhaps Anthony Thackeray is the type of young British backs that Old Faithless thinks we should be signing.

Don't think anyone would complain too much if any of southernwood,kearney,addy or sykes play standoff alongside orford. The problem is whilst they are all good supporting players none of them are creative enough to play halfback in the event of orford picking up another injury. Southernwood may be the long term solution to this, but in the short term we'd look a lot better if we had a creative standoff on the books. Difficult balancing act for potter, having sufficient strength in depth without blocking the path of the likes of southernwood/addy too much.

Also depends who's available. Some cover is a must though!

Whilst im happy with the signings so far i agree a stand off is a must,but do you think its possible that if we are to spend the full cap & with who has come off the wage bill so far we may be targeting a top British stand off ? cant think our current new signings will be commanding that much.

I've been wondering the same thing tbh. If you take the figure we were rumoured to be under the cap last year of 200k to be accurate then we have the followings in/outs. then speculating wildly as to wages we have following.

nero out - he was on a decent deal so I'd guess his wage would cover walker ( say 90k, who will be on a lowish deal due to his injury) and ainscough (again lowish deal due to age) combined.

menzies out - ( say 100k , again a high wage earner. would guess money freed up from him leaving would cover elimas wage plus upgrades to kopczak and finnigan.

then we assume reardon (say 20k, low deal due to injury) and sheriffe (say 30k, again lowish deal) are leaving freeing up another 50k. giving us about 250k of cap space to play with. Out of that we have to factor in langleys upgrade, so say 230k to play with. plus any more money freed up by anymore departures. So I'd guess we're looking at either one top notch player plus a couple of squad fillers or 2 fairly decent signings although not in top bracket.

Seeing as we are taking a punt on some signings with 1 year contracts, i would take a punt on Anthony Thackeray from Widnes. Let Orford run the show and do the bossing about, and let Thackeray take the line on with his speed and side step.

I won't pretend to know numbers of what people are earning, but I'll be absolutely amazed it Langley's pay rise was only 20k a year.

Firstly I wouldn't dream of estimating salaries, so I have no idea if you're close or miles away with your estimates.

However, it should be mentioned that you haven't factored in Worrincy as a possible leaver. Also, I'd be surprised if Sykes hasn't sacrificed a little bit of salary for the security brought by a 3 year deal (that would certainly be the case in any other contract employee environment).

On the other hand, if we give deals to Addy, Crossley and Wardle, we would surely have to factor in upgrades for them now that they have broken into the first team.

I know none of us know, but I'd guess Nero was nearer 100k and Beaver was nearer 125k.

Whichever way, we do have alot of space to play with, even after the signings we've already made.

I'd say if we were 200k under, plus 100k Nero, 125k, Beaver, 30k Sheriffe, 30k Reardon. Say thats roughly 500k (And i'm hoping Sculthorpe will be gone too). 50k for Ah Van, 30k for Ainscough, 40k for Walker, 80k for Elima then new deals for Langers & Koppy. We should have at least 200k left, probably a bit more.


I'd imagine we still have a fair few signings to come.

You reckon it will have been more?
20k a year is alot of moeny in rugby league, I don't imagine we'll have given Ainscough much more than that.

I reckon it will be closer to 10k on top of his last deal.

I do reckon it will be more.

Bear in mind that he's very very important to our club, due to his home grown status. How many home grown players do we have at the club that are international quality? If I was his agent, I for one would be using that very much to my advantage.

Whitehead will be by next season

So...
no quota spot left? We need a stand off? Need a stand off that is home grown?
A home grown stand off who likes playing under Potter?

No, I have no idea who is coming in...

I hope you are right.

It may be a case of putting 2 & 2 together and getting 645 though.

the Pryce rumour doesn't seem to be going away and I have been given some very detailed information about a deal between him and the bulls that seems to have something behind it but to be honest I have no idea if it's true or not so shall keep it to myself as there is no point creating a storm over what could be nothing at all

Errr... you've lost me there.

Basically

"I know something but I'm not telling you because you'll cry"...

roughly translated...

"I know nowt"

aha sorry hows that?

yes I'm pretty much saying I know nowt as I don't know if I can trust the information

I hope i'm terribly wrong, but I cant see us sighning a uperstar stand off. Just good solid players this year. Which is vital if we're to improve.