Yeyyy.

Wouldnt have minded Boyle had we kept Burge though.

Well it is Thursday tomorrow.... and we do quite often seem to announce things on Thursdays!

I was just thinking that.

Has Anthony Watmough been re-signed at Manly? Last I heard he might be a free agent, or maybe Manly would release him early and he would make a good quality replacement for Sam. Given the Manly connection we'd surely be in with a shout? And what about Matt Orford, isn't he off contract too?

Watmough said he would leave Manly now for the right contract, he knows his next contract will be his biggest, and he wants to set up his family for the future. We should offer him £1m over 3 years, the same as we were offering Craig Wing. At the moment Watmough is the best forward in the world. He also came to watch one of our games whilst over for the WCC with Hall and L'Estrange.

That rules him out then

Not sure he's the best forward in the world, or even in the top five, but I'm not sure wee Robbie Burrow would like to be facing him again



Sure he'd be a welcome addition though.

Damn!

Signing Watmough would imo be one of only very few signings that could actually make me forget about us losing Burgess. He is an awesome player that would walk straight into any SL side.

Never going to happen though, obviously

problem is you can have the strongest pack in the world and not get anywhere if the backs are weak. We need to sort backs out before thinking about spending big money on a forward imo.

Watmough is without doubt the best forward in rugby league at the minute.

Next seasons foprwards need fixing up far more than the backs.
Our first choice pack as it stands is nowhere near good enough. It wasn't last year, and the loss of Newton, Burgess and Morrison will further compound that.

It depends what you expect to our club to achieve. If you're just hoping to get into the playoffs, then I would say our pack is certainly adequate enough.
The main thing holding our team back is the half backs.

Getting a new 6 or 7 in HAS to be the main priority for SM otherwise we'll just see a repeat of this season just gone.

I'm wanting achieve getting into the playoffs. This season's pack wasn't good enough, and I can't see how a ffar weaker pack next season will be good enough either.

Yeah but it wasn't our pack that stopped us getting there. It was our halves

Oh no it wasn't. The half backs had no platform to work on. They were playing behind a beaten pack for most of the season.

Are you for real?

Now come on...you know the answer to that!

Errm, Yeah. Take a look at the ladder if you need help understanding it.

If he signs for us I'll be happy to agree.

To spot a repeat of this season the defence has to be improved. This is the first time in the summer era we have had a negative points difference.

Adey I see you were backing our absent friend from on here on the T&A site.

Correct, for most of last season (and quite a bit of the previous one) I said that the halfs are the main issue, and therefore needs to be the main area to be addressed in this off season. However Sykes' form at 6 at the back end of the season (and some glimpses of the old Deacs it has to be said) toned down my view from "absolutely imperative" to "seriously needs looking at". Kearney signing to play 6 could be McNamaras answer to this one? I wouldn't say no to someone like Orford, Brough, Pryce

or even Ratchford though. (I feel like doing a bit of wishful thinking

)

I can only hope SM has a different opinion to you. Because if he honestly believes that Deacon and Sykes are good enough to be our first choice half backs then we might as well wave goodbye to the 2010 playoffs right now.

Deacon has been a running joke throughout the entire SL, including many of our own fans, for as long as I can remember now. He is simply not good enough anymore.

No he isn't.