Perhaps they'll do the decent thing and let us have Ricky Leutele and Lachlan Lam, as well as there quota spots.

I’ve heard we’re not signing Croker. https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... l-27190782

I’ve heard we’re not signing Croker. https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... l-27190782

I quite like Fitzgibbon, but don’t we have Nicholson and Currie signed up to long term deals?

Yes, they are both on long term deals, but Currie is very fortunate to have been offered one IMHO and is another major mistake by the club.
He offers no help with the hard work required by a forward and his defence is very suspect.

Now that McGuire has left there is a vacancy for Fitzgibbon to play loose forward for us.

Has he ever played loose forward?

Lachlan Fitzgibbon signed yesterday for next season. Not sure on the length of the deal yet. Don't know when it will be announced.

We'd also agreed terms with Wakey for Jai Whitbread for an immediate transfer, but Warrington pulled out yesterday due to player injury.

Currie can play loose if he’s lucky enough to be in the 17. Anyway we’ll leave it to Holbrook to sort out the mess Powell has left behind. Justin will be livid when he sees we’ve got rid of Clark and brought Dwyer in.

We've spoken to his agent over the past couple of weeks, but I don't think anything will come of it.

Matautia CAN play loose forward, whether he, or Fitzgibbon should is a different matter. Surely at this stage of the recruiting for 2024 we’re looking at cornerstones to the squad, not fillers with the remaining cap.

Powell has already recently said in one of the Guardian articles that he likes Currie on the left edge, and it’s settled and stable. So it’s either Nicholson is no longer in vogue, or we’re picking people out of position in Plan A.

Yeah all this talk on here of him signing a 2 year deal and it being announced in the next couple of weeks is premature.

What the club doesn't need is aging imports who are injury prone & will take up a hefty wedge of lucre & a quota spot . Commitment & effort is what the "scouts" should look for in incoming players & not blokes who are constantly longing for a tinny on Bondi Beach with a suntanned Sheila .

I think Nicholson could make a pretty decent 13 tbh.

No idea about Fitzgibbon as don’t follow the NRL. Hoping he’s a strong running back rower?

Wigan saw him as a 13. Think he’s keen to get to the NRL as soon as possible though.

Big strong solid runner, can break the line. Actually a decent signing for once.

Fitz is a very clear no 12 in the NRL

He is a good player. But aren’t we fixing problems that aren’t there? You’d imagine the coach has signed up players for a reason, so unless someone is going from the back row, why invest in that area for a starter? Unless he sees Nicholson as back up, regressing from his starting spot since being with us?

There should be a relatively fixed base, the whole squad is new or re-signed. The starters should, in theory (if we’ve got the recruitment right) be: Dufty, Thewlis, Wrench, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Vaughan, Walker, Dudson, Currie, Nicholson, BLANK.

So instead of filling the blank with an out and out loose, we sign a second row? Are we rebuilding the rebuild already?

Not unless we see Nicholson as a 13 longer term as per NSW’s comments.

We have big gaps in the centre also and ideally I’d like to see a top level prop signed. I’m sure discussions are ongoing with several targets across several positions.

Maybe so, but I wonder what has changed with Nicholson to turn him into a loose since breaking a finger.

Couldn’t care less if we were signing Nathan Cleary,I’d like a new coach and CEO before that.

It won't matter who we sign. Our problem is not lack of quality. We had enough squad quality to comfortably beat Castleford. Thats not the problem.

Couldn't agree more... No point buying more pieces of a Hornby railway... If the feller in charge can't put it together so it doesn't just run off into a dead end!

I watched Nicholson play loose-forward for England
last year & I think he is as much a loose-forward as a second row. I'd have no worries there.

Shame about Whitbread. Seems a great player with a good engine and a good character. Presume his injury must be bad for the club to pull out of a deal. Are we in for him for next year?

Just says Groin injury for Whitbread so not sure how bad it is, but it must be pretty severe for us to pull out of signing him. I assume he'd be out for an extended period for us to back out. Genuinely can't see anyone coming in this year, so think we'll have to make do with what we've got.......which on paper should be nore than enough......but isn't for some reason.
Also don't we need him anyway for next year if we are dead set on a new prop, so shouldn't we sign him anyway. Unless were waiting to see if Wakey get relegated to pick him up for free?

There's no point buying loads of parts to build a high performance car if you don't have a mechanic who's capable of putting them all together and tuning them so they perform to their full potential.

We don't need more bits, we need a better mechanic.