I’d take Satae & Connor, but more chances of Putin pulling out tomorrow.

Re Connor, We’ve had more than our fair share of risky.

Agreed, he's a top player on his day but he can be an absolute liability too.

If he was any good, realistically, he'd be at Leeds now

Although my viewing time is limited, Connor's not for me.

He seems to swing from unplayable to liability which might be OK to a degree, but not in the same set of six. I'm also not convinced where his best position is.

Connor doesn’t seem like the player of choice for Powell, bearing in mind how Daryl talks a lot about taking on ‘leaders’. As well as being a bit cocky without consistently backing it up with good performances, he seems to get rattled a bit easily. And that’s something Powell doesn’t want, and possibly the reason we didn’t push hard to retain Hill.

That's my take on Ratchford, but he's more consistent than Connor, who is the better rugby player but just not often enough. I still think that Thewlis is the natural fullback for us. He ought to play there rather than on the wing, even if it means moving Ratchford. Ratchford has demonstrated that he can play in other positions, and for me, that is now his value.

Bit harsh on Hill imo

There’s a saying, it’s better to offload a player a season or two too early, than keep him a season too long.

That's true RD the flaw in your argument is two as that would have done us depending upon the terms.

Or one with an understanding that Leigh has the benefit of year two.

That may or may not have been on the table but was probably what the majority thought would happen

Wasn’t meant to be a flat out insult to Hill, who’s been great for us and was still consistently delivering the goods when he left.

I just think that Powell felt he needed to move him on to create the clean sheet needed to change the mindset of the rest of the squad. No hangovers of the past and no negative vibes when things don’t go our way. I think that’s what Powell is all about.

A fair response and you may be right given that Powell has definitely weighed up the squad he was inheriting including their perceived weaknesses

I'd have thought that Hill's strength on the field as a prop outweighed his weakness (perceived, or otherwise) as Captain. There's a post regarding another year at Wire and then a farewell at Leigh, which I and most on here would have bought into, as we didn't appear to bring in a replacement of the same calibre. I get RD's post about sentiment shouldn't get in the way of success, but here and now I believe the time with Hill was not quite right. The other factor is salary cap and money, which may well have affected things with Hill's move to Huddersfield, more than anything else.

Dudes got 5 kids and a side business, he's going where the most money is for the time being

Excellent malapropism FC

Stupid typo

I wonder if when Roy Orbison wrote Only The Lonely, that he could picture Fartown while doing so.

Just ask him to use a condom mate

Wire offered him a deal and he rejected it. He wanted more money even if that meant near zero chance of winning anything. Simple as that.

I think Hilly dropped one, the contract money plus the very real possibility of final bonuses staying at Wire, would Shirley have been a better deal. Perhaps not as much as completing 2 season at Giants, but very nearly the same minus the expenses throughout those 2 seasons, compared to one at Wire. He’d then be able to have talks at Wire for an extension or find another club.

From what i've seen, read and heard he just wanted to move on anyway so could have thrown loads of money at him and he might not have stayed anyway.

I think the timing was about right for Hill, just a shame about the replacement which was rather underwhelming.

I'm quitely happy with Bullock so far and i think he can still improve further, but yeah definately not a replacement for Hill. But i think we're hard pressed to actually find an out and out replacement for him?

Put it with half rice half chips and it's lovely.