Dalton Grant signed on for next year

Lol - I see what you did there.

Is it a punishing defence.

Whipping those around him into shape?

Not been impressed with him to be honest. But playing outside Ashley Gibson possibly hasn't given him the chance to shine.

Are you signing Jy ?

Well certainly wouldn't say punishing but he doesn't miss anything, and having Johnson there against York showed how much difference his defence made.

It is his attacking play that surprises me, he has a cracking try scoring record in SL for sides who struggled at times while he was there. Maybe it is because we don't play that much towards his side

Given Gibsons already re-signed seems likely that partnership will continue. Gibson and Webster will almost certainly be first choice (assuming Smith isn't retained). Possibly an argument for pairing Gibson with Ryan as he tends to score more of his tries from kicks over top as opposed to passes from his , which Gibson never gives.

That's a bit unfair. Johnson is a second rower, not a centre. Defending one man further out makes a huge difference.
It's not enough to have a centre who can defend but not attack. I refuse to believe we can't find one or develop one who can do both. I'm also scratching my head as to why John Kear is not going ballistic with Gibson, Garside and Hallas over their infuriating tunnel vision when they have ball in hand.

I really do hope we sign Jy on a permanent basis. His balance, speed and finishing power would make a hell of a difference to our attack next year. I think JY is good enough to be playing Superleague but he takes up a valuable quota spot and most Superleague clubs want a higher profile signing. This was proved when Cas didn't retain him even though he put in some great performances for them before his injury.

Oh I wasn't being detrimental to Johnson. More just pointing out the difference. I rate Johnson and think he has had a bit of a rough going this year. Very much has a try threat about him and has good hands.

Plus I agree with the ball being stifled with your mentioned players. Personally I would like to see Johnson playing over Garside, although don't know if any info came out after he went off last week

It's nothing to do with a higher profile signing. None of Cas's overseas signings were high profile at the time of their signings. Jy has bulked out significantly which has improved his game but his over-enthusiasm means there are always going to be errors in his game. He is not good enough generally to make up for these. Certainly not top 4. The fact we can replace him with Clare & Minikin, who i think are our weakest other players, shows Jy's level. He is Widnes or decent C1 level, with no disrespect meant to him.

So we all agree, he'd be an excellent signing! To be fair he's looked good at our level.

It's the Kear game plan anybody who expected free flowing rugby was misguided.

TBF on Kear that's not true - he put a very attractive team together at Wakefield from 2007-2010.

However that's not what he's there for at your place. What you need is a team put together on a small budget that can bludgeon it's way up two divisions and for that Kear is your man.

Hand on heart, do you want free flowing RL that will look good in the lower divisions but will ultimately get you nowhere - or - do you want an effective team that will eventually get you back to SL no matter how ugly they play?

Unless you've seen a fair few of our games this season then you probably don't know how unorganised we look with ball in hand.
I'm not wanting us to be the harlem globetrotters but some basic attacking structure and set pieces would be nice.
Right now we either muscle our way over the line, Flanagan dummies his way over or Ryan gets on the end of a kick. That's pretty much it.

We do get a few nice lines run by Minchella off Keyes that result in a fair few try's

To be fair, we've scored some spectacular tries this season, often with off the cuff stuff, after our main play has broken down it's true, though from what JK says, he encourages the team to show their skills when it's appropriate.

I'm sure, and I agree with the tactic, that defence is the priority though. Promotion has been the main aim of the season and if you don't concede, you don't lose and we've lost too many games due to some junior level defending over the last few years. To be honest I'm glad those days are gone.

An announcement on a signing at 6.30 apparently.

What do we think then? A new signing? A re-signing of a current squad member?
I'm going for a new signing. Possibly a new prop.

Hytchcox maybe?

I think it's expectations - you were spoilt from 1995 to about 2010ish so watching the kind of players you get in Div 2 is bound to be a disappointment. You're simply not going to get the levels of professionalism and skill you were used too.

Dear will imho build you a team to get you up the leagues but as I said it won't be pretty and it will take time.

Jon Margrin signed. Wasn't expecting that!

Hope hes improved 10 fold since last year.

1 year deal. In fairness last year was a disaster he should go better with a bigger, more experienced pack around him, a decent signing IMHO.

Agreed. Peltier, Crossley, Green and Bustin are all better and i wouldn't have him in my first choice 17, but we'll need at least 6 decent props for next year and Margrin will provide some much needed depth.