We've a coach who's leaving, a coach who's joining and potentially 12-14 players off contract. Cant blame anyone for wondering, doesn't mean I don't want Jason Clark to score under the sticks at OT to win us the GF

November 21:
Akauola
Austin
Ashton
J.Clark
Dean
Doro
Hill
Kibula
King
Lineham
Inglis
Mamo
Roebuck
Walker

November 22:
Brand
Butler
Charnley
Cooper
Davis
Hughes
Longstaff
Mulhern
Ratchford
Robson
Thewlis
Widdop

November23:
D.Clark
Currie
November24:
Philbin.

We need to keep King for absolute certain he would be very, very difficult to replace. Ashton and Dean I would like to see given contracts as I think they both have bags of potential that I would like to see under Powells guidance. If hill wants to stay i would definitely be giving him a year deal, if he wants to go to leigh to finish his career then he should be allowed that choice.

Lineham and Mamo I would keep personally but the rest I wouldn't be too upset to lose from a first team perspective.

To go - Inglis, Sita & Clark .. I would be very surprised if they are given new deals. I would anticipate all three to return down to Oz. I would expect Kibula to leave as well given his lack of opportunities and recent long term injury troubles.

Austin, Hill and Lineham I’m quite undecided about.. a lot will depend on whom else we are in for in the market, form of the players given their age and our salary cap restrictions. Plus, they may get better/longer deals elsewhere... we know Leigh have being eyeing up the return of Hill for quite some time.

Ashton, Dean, Doro, King, Mamo, Roebuck & Walker I would expect all to be retained given their youthful ages and hopefully under Powell will get more exposure to first team action. (This doesn’t relate to King & Mamo obviously!)

Austin can go for me, if Widdop goes aswell i'd make a play for Trueman or if that's a no go then Theo Fages is off contract with Saints this year and a handy half.
Peter Ma'atautia straight in for Inglis.
Keep Hill, King obviously (4 year deal), Ashton, Mamo, Dean and Walker.
Lineham if he could stop being an idiot i'd keep in a heartbeat, BUT like someone said elsewhere he's missed something like 28 games through suspension so for me let him go.
Cooper and Mulhern starting, with Philbin and Hill off the bench next year with Butler, Doro and a new prop would be good.
Hughes to 13 with someone else at 2nd row, robson maybe?
Luis Johnson is being played in his actual 2nd row position at Hull KR and is looking good. So again screams what the hell are our coaching team doing, and why are our player getting worse?
I can't wait for Powell to come in and assemble a new backroom staff.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... kr-5377817 Sorry if link doesn't work. Basically KR showing an interest in our Toby.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... kr-5377817 Sorry if link doesn't work. Basically KR showing an interest in our Toby.

Honestly though why would Toby go to KR? No disrespect but why KR?

Sack full of a money, in a short career, also play with his brother again, playing for tony smith.

Also, wages of that magnitude would also suggest that they're hitching their wagon on him being a top player, does he get that love in our current squad?

I think his next salary needs to recognise that he is one of the best centres in SL now, we have plenty of cap space available so let's hope we don't try to do things on the cheap.

Have we had a list of off contract players released yet? One normally gets released round about now I think, sometimes players have signed but no official confirmation, if his name is on the list though, he's testing himself in the market, which you can't blame him for.

Money. They've already offered him over £140k.

Surely we can match the money offered!

Not if the club don't think he's worth that.

If Wire can fore fill the promise and make finals regularly and win again, I would suggest he would make far more money at Wire with final appearance and final win bonuses.

In a salary-capped sport, we might see it as too much of a gamble.

I imagine KR won't have the same cap worries.

Spot on. It all depends what he wants from his career.

He can sign for Hull KR for 3 or 4 years and earn more money than he can demand anywhere else, but knowing he's likely to win nothing and not even being challenging for honours, or he can take less money and stay with us (or another trophy challenging side) and be part of a side likely to be in finals and winning cups.

It's certainly not an easy choice. There are positives and negatives for both choices and you also have the third alternative, which is the NRL one, which is all dependent on there being any interested parties. Certainly, if there is, that is one that has to be seriously considered if you are a young player looking to play in the best league and to improve your game.

Personally, while it would be good to keep him, I don't think busting the bank on him is necessary, as I don't think he's anywhere near irreplaceable.

Put simply, if money was no option then you keep hold of him. In a salary capped sport, where spreading your wages around sensibly is vital, then I'm not sure a centre is where you splurge a large part of your budget, unless he's a Inglis-at-his-peak standard of player. And King isn't.

Atleast we have a manager who will be able to do what he wants with the squad.
What type of rugby does powell want to play next season will decide on who we keep and who goes.
If powell wants to keep widdop. Let's get him on his last contract and get his apprentice in next year why we keep ratchford In the halfs.
Austin. He can go for me. Austin and widdop can not work together. And widdop for me is controlling the squad more as the preferred half back.
At the end of the day. Let's just see who Powell wants to keep and who Powell wants to get rid of and who Powell wants to bring in.

From a different angle, could we find a centre of King's quality for much cheaper? It would be extremely difficult.

You run the risk of needing to pay even more money to get someone else in, who might not even work out.

If we can fit it within our budget, pay the man.

I'd be shocked if we couldn't. He's a good player, but come on, he's not an Inglis/Meninga/Jonathan Davies gamechanger, is he?.. He isn't even a Keith Senior or Gary Connolly for that matter.

I do like the lad and would prefer he stays, but his status in our team probably highlights how limited & poor our attacking game is, under Price, and it's why he stands out so well.

We can't get better than King without spending a lot more money IMO. It would have to be NRL because I don't think there is significantly better in superleague.

I agree King is playing brilliant and we cant afford to lose him. Maybe thats why were offering up Austin to make way for some salary increase. I think we would be daft to let him go - unless he wants to go.

And there aren't many significantly worse either. Let's face it, our league isn't blessed with many backs who you would get excited about going to see play?

Most SL club's fans would argue they have a centre who can match, or even better, King's abilities.

He's not a superstar, no, but 140k isn't superstar money. It's about whether we can get better value for the money. I don't think we can.

Out of interest, and mainly because I often see figures bandied around on here, but do we actually have any confirmed figures on what individuals at any club are being paid, or is it just guesswork on the part of people who post on here?

I mean, what is 'superstar money' and what's your average SL player earning?

I hope that we can sort something out with King and that he stays but tend to agree with your point. He's a match for most first pick centres and up there with the likes of Naiqama/Percival, Gildart/Hardaker although probably just behind Percival and Gildart for me.

There are two questions IMO,

How far in front is he compared to the likes of say Tuimavave/Griffin, Wardle/Leutele, Tupou/Lyne who are decent Centres across the current SL spectrum and will Powell play to Toby's strengths? I'm not saying he is a one trick pony btw but my impression of Powell's Cas is that it goes through the air a bit less (awaits the correction from any Stato's out there

)

Pretty sure none are confirmed.

But the cap is £2.1m. Divided by a squad of, say 25, that equals an average of £84k. Then there are dispensations for marquee and club-trained players.