Its not going to happen, but someone I'd like to think we might have gone for;

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/08/michael-maguire-wigan-warriorsKyle Eastmond[/url

[i"Warrington, who have agreed two-year contract extensions with Chris Bridge, Ben Harrison and Adrian Morley – meaning the England prop is now signed up until the age of 35 – are also ready to move in for the St Helens scrum-half Kyle Eastmond if he is unable to agree a contract extension."[/i

We have cap space, we're in need of a fresh start at 7, we should be looking at prospects like Eastmond [iif [/ithey are available.

But, He'll go somewhere like Warrington (although how many half backs do they need??) or Union if he doesn't manage to get a pay day from Saints, which i suspect he will. Either way I'm not sure we'd pay the going rate for a rising star like Eastmond anyway. Nice thought though.

would be the most exciting use we could make of the burgess money imo. However he has a year left at saints and they will tie him up long before end of his deal imo.Its basically offiah stirring again to get his client an over inflated deal. Where the hell does wires elastic salary cap come from though - dont RFL check theres or something.

[url=http://viewtopic.php?p=14607493#14607493Someone thought of this one as well![/url

If we have the cash then we should definitely make the inquiry, after all we have ample cap space when you consider we never spent the Greg Bird money, now have the Sam Burgess transfer cash and also have yet to use up the cap space freed up by Burgess and Solomona.

Whether we can actually afford to use up the cap space is another matter but if this kid is available we should make an inquiry.

I'd disagree, I think he's rubbish. Has the occasional flurry of doing something decent, but generally doesn't look good enough for the Co-Op Leagues. We should find out anyway as I'm sure I read that Duport has signed for Toulouse for next year.

Ah, so you did, well done... funnily enough I agree with all that

I would be upset if we didnt at least make the enquiry, we should be in the market for lads of this potential. If we get them or not is an entirely different matter, but we'd surely be interested?



Yes, it has the look of tactics before an annoucement next week from Saints as to the huge new contract extention for Kyle Eastmond.

Back to the Matt Utai rumour, surely he would be worth signing, 71 tries for Canterbury in 124 games is not bad and 2 in 4 for NZ. Utai is only 5ft 6 and 15 stone and is compared to Marcus Bai. I'd rather sign him than Chris Walker anyway.

I wouldnt. utai used to be top notch player but is very much past his best. he's been playing in toyota cup for canterbury. Walker, whilst having off field issues in the past, has calmed down at tigers and offers more both skill and age wise. however I doubt walker would get a visa and I suspect this is why hoods denied we're interested.

Duport signed for Toulouse for 2010.

Could be something in the Richard Moore coming back to you guys, thats his preffered option

Welcome home Richard

I have this feeling that Moore and Rearden sre coming back, both are home grown, and Moore could be used to come on from the subs bench, with his weight and strength.
Then just one overseas signing, and adding such as Lillycrop and Burgess to the squad from the academy side.. If our present record of signing continues I cannot see us signing any major players.

I wouldnt be too surprised if that turned out to be correct. provided we arent scared of giving whoever comes up from academy gametime and the overseas is a classy then i wouldnt be too upset by that scenario. plus dont forget crookes is back in the frame next season so thats like another new player after being out of contention most of this season.

I assume the cash from the sale of Burgess has not been made available for recruitment? There has been no mention of funds being made available unlike when we sold Fielden. Now whether that means the money is being banked or the club are just not going to go public saying they have money to spend etc and risk paying a bit more, I'm not sure.

I expect a fee would be payable for someone such as Moore given that he is under contract and it is doubtful Wakey want rid. I expect Moore would do a decent job but it certainly wouldn't go down well with a lot of fans. Replacing our star forward with a slightly above average Prop isn't going to bring back the positivity to the terraces.

I'd actually prefer the club to sign someone like Matt Orford to partner Kearney at 6. But that isn't going to happen and I expect we will hear news on Walker's arrival in the coming weeks.

Doubt Wakey would let him go easily......we would want some cash, but more importantly we would need someone to replace him.

We will be strong in the forwards, but as it stands we only have 5 props with one of them being Bibb, and the jury is out on him and there are rumours he might go.

Kear would not start the season with only 4 props. Ideally l think he would want 6, but might make do with 5.

King to wakey, Moore to Bradford?? Just guessing, might not happen. I think we are looking at a few options of available props or props who might be available for a small fee. Not too many of these around this off season that are fed trained and of a proven SL standard.

Whats the current situation with Danny Sculthorpe? Anyone heard where he's off to next season? Or Thackray for that matter.

Think Sculthopre will stay at Huddds.

I hope we're not looking at Sculthorpe or Thackray, we really would be scraping the barrel of rejects then. I would say Moore could do us a job but not the other two. I'd rather we just worked with Crossley this pre season to give him the best possible chance of breaking through.

Why is Richard Moore even being discussed. Is it just a name thrown in to a forum discussion as a "for instance" or is it a rumour.

I just can't see Wakefield letting him go. He is under contract, we need him,
and he isn't worth (to Bradford) the extreme money that Wakefield would want for him at this stage, given they would then have to go replace him. It would cost Wakefield more than his value to replace him as there aren't that many of his standard around (English players I mean). They wouldn't want to reduce qulity so would have to get someone better. Bulls might as well do that themselves.

Fo your own sake, don't even discuss Sculthorpe......it might turn from a rumour to a fact and you DON'T want that!!!!!
Thakray, maybe, but the young lads Bradford produce would be a better option if you ask me.

I agree they're both unsettling influences by all accounts and you only have to watch how easily Catalans took care of him, Greg Bird in particular, to realise he's all mouth with very little to back it up. Thackray has pace and runs hard but he's way too much of a risk. There are very few quality fed trained props out there at the moment, which is why losing Sam is such a blow, however Moore is hard working, a good off loader and has shown plenty of courage and commitment to build himself up again after getting Chrones disease. I reckon he'd be a good choice.

I suspect we are [ilooking [/iat any available fed trained prop. Doesn't mean we'll sign any of them. And like you, rather than spend a fair bit on dodgy players like Sculthorpe and Thackray I'd go with our youngsters.

But, that would leave us very light and inexperienced in the front row and we'd have to except a bit of a learning curve for the new lads. But we all know that fans want the team competing from day one, so bringing in an experienced SL prop is probably what the club will look to do and hopefully bring through another 1 or 2 young props during the season, doesn't mean the plan will come off as intended though.

Bit of both really, and he's regonised as being a prop who can make an impact of the bench, has improved over the years and was with us as a youngster, but like you rightly say, it seems a long shot.

But even that long shot looks a better option from this end than some of the other choices available.

it all depends where we're planning on using glenn hall really. when we originally signed him ait looked like were going to use him at prop alongside scruts,lynch and kopczak. at that time we were using sam as a 2nd row mainly. since then we moved sam into props exclusively and have lost morro,cook and solomona from our 2nd row options. we've also obviously lost sam from our prop options too.
given that we need to be giving donaldson and whitehead game time in 2nd row next year, then I suspect we're going to stick with using hall in the props but playing him a bit like we did peacock and dropping him into 2nd row when lynch and scruton are both on the pitch.

as starting props lynch,scuton,hall and kopczak looks pretty strong. only problem area is backup in case of injury where at the moment we only have crossley. Dont know if we have any other props ready to step up this time. may be year too early for george burgess?, RER could probably comment

So ....

[uOuts[/u
Tupou
Sam Burgess
Ben Jeffries
Terry Newton
Glenn Morrison
Semi Tadulala
Matt James
Matt Cook
David Solomona


Ins
Hall
Kearney
L'Estrange



That must amount to some huge spare cap space.

Plus we had the money for Bird.