Started as prop for England in that friendly this year.

He's a middle with an above average pass, he's far from a running ball handling 13

True but like you say he's a good passer too. He's a long way from either Jason Clark or Joe Philbin really isn't he?

Above average, for a middle, clark hasn't got a bad pass on him. I don't like him doing it though.

Nor does he. He likes to run it in and take the tackle then get a nice and slow play the ball.

16 pages in, and were non the wiser as to who our new prop is. Best to file this one under m for myths.

It's Bullock and Harrison who is unfortunately going to be out for a good while. I'd imagine we are done now to be honest. Most players will already have contracts in place for next season and there won't be many good players available for 2022 now.

I'm optimistic about playing style but the squad isn't quite good enough I don't think, plus Darryl Clark and some of the new signings (Harrison and Minikin) aren't likely to be available at the start of the season.

Does anyone know when Powell will be in officially? I'm guessing pre season will start in December for most of the squad.

The only hope may be an Aussie import who can't find a squad place at home, with their club part funding his wage.

Worked out ok with Latu, didn't it?

Haha well if that doesn't raise optimism levels through the roof then nothing will.

Think I've convinced myself we'll be ok, and that Powell will want us to be more mobile rather than a straight up running down the middle approach.

Yeah I agree, I'd take an improvement in playing style with the quality we have in the halves and hooker that should see us win more than we lose.

Just going off other clubs ins and outs and looking at ours.saints are the team to beat..no doubt Leeds and Wigan will look to improve.catalans will still be up there and don't count out sir Tony's kr they.ll be sniffing around the top 6 with us..hope I'm wrong

I feel ill…..

I agree with you that i also thought we were done with regard to next years playing roster. However, this thread, (also by somebody who thought we'd completed our squad) threw up a couple speculative posts in reply. However, I still believe that's it on the new signings front, too.

If we are making no further prop signings, who do we think Powell might be able to take up a level to help us out from Philbin, Butler and Bullock. Butler had a bit of a non season last year but came with a really good rep in the Championship, Bullock doesn’t run his weight according to wigan fans and Philbin plateaued at just below average last year.

They all have the potential to step up a gear. I don’t know why Philbin didn’t seem to progress last year, that’s up to the new coach to work out, but these things do happen and he may pick up next season. Bullock may benefit from a change of scene, but no guarantees. Sometimes players flourish with a change, sometimes they just continue to disappoint but in different colours. Butler was unlucky with the covid situation last season resulting in no reserve grade competition.

With Price gone we have a clean slate with Butler and Doro, and a change of club for Bullock. We had Hill & Cooper as first choice and major minute props, without anybody that looked able to fill their shoes. With Hill gone, there's a fair bit of stepping up to do for Mulhern, who hasn't been a starting prop for us on a regular basis, and for other three being able to fit in as starting prop, should anything happen to Cooper and Mulhern injury wise. A very difficult task for Powell to get right in 2022, as a number of posters on here have already commented on, having to cover for Chris Hill's regular contribution. We seemed to struggle at times with both Hill and Cooper in the side, with the go forward to dropping when they were spelled, now we may have a problem with the go forward from the first whistle. Hope that I, and liked minded folk on here are pleasantly surprised in '22.

Shaun Wane has picked Philbin (and Cooper) in his 20 for next week's match. So, he obviously has no problems with Philbin.

Thats good for Philbin. Found him underwhelming for most of last year so will watch his performance with interest. Would love to see the barnstorming Philbin of a couple of years ago back.

We have cooper Currie n Clark from the forwards who are in the top 10 earners at Warrington possibly philbin but we've certainly commited more of the cap to the back line and had to make do in what forwards we can fit in under the cap. Letting jbclark go to get a prop will result in another latu or sita. When does Cooper's contact expire I think it makes more sense to see if cooper extends or use his n j Clarks money on s prop and promote longstaff up the ranks.

Hopefully Powell will decide a plan to utilise the backs better and not be as reliant on a dominant pack. I don't think we will be bossing packs about but I don't think we have for some time being defensively solid and having a high level of fitness has kept us in a lot of games. If we can do more with the ball then I think we will be ok over the season.

I'm trying to remain positive about the situation but it is frustrating when I see Leeds Wigan hull n others bringing in decent props

I don't think this is the squad to win us a grand final but there's been a good lot of ins and outs for Powell to now get a season with the squad and asses who he does not want and who he wants to replace them with.

I'm not sure who the decent props are that Leeds, Wigan and Hull have brought in.

I am not sure at all that Powell will bring us a title, but I'm happy to be proved wrong. If the current squad is it, then we need to trust him to work his magic and get players working as a team as more than the sum of its parts which seems to be his main selling point. If he does that we do have some good talent as seen by the way individual brilliance has brought us many tries.

I'm really disappointed that Harrison has suffered his serious injury as I had a feeling he was going to be a big one for us. There's time for that in 2023.

Anyway, time will tell as ever and I'll have to get over my dislike of Powell.

Not sure from Wigan but Oledski, Tetevano, Satae, Mau’u and Savelio all walk into our squad.

Ah, I thought he meant this year. And I wouldn't trust Savelio. He's another Westerman to my mind. Wasn't Oledski a Leeds junior?

Westerman was decent for us and has been very good for Wakefield since joining. I’d have him at 13 over Hughes any day of the week.

Westerman was ok for us without ever justifying the transfer fee I felt (although assuming we got the money off Toronto before they went pop, we should have made most of that back).

As a player I would take him for a 13 role, big, mobile and a good set of hands, however, he's had his issues and they seem to follow him about. In a recent interview he claimed he was much more focused on RL these days so maybe he's sorted himself out and that has resulted in his upturn in form for Wakey. He always looked to have great potential.

On the other players mentioned, Oledski obviously came through Leeds academy, Tetevano is on marquee money I believe ( I think we were linked to him before wage demands put us out of the picture?) Mau'u is a back rower and not had any great impact at Hull. Similarly Savelio is a back rower, and given his reputation, I wouldn't be keen to see him back - again though, great potential.

Satae and Sao however have been great acquisitions for Hull from relative obscurity - it shows there are players out there, if they get Taylor back fully fit they have a solid pack for next year.

I'm praying Powell doesn't see the same things in Hughes that price obviously did! A back row of Holmes, currie and longstaff will do me just fine.