That is what we need to avoid,let Hinchy do the 80 minutes at loose if he can,but as I said Leeming is a development project at 9,but then we got rid of someone like Kyle Wood who could come in and do the acting half scoots if Leeming was struggling in the playmaker role at 9.

agree Hinchy has to be at 13, let him do what he does best just graft. make his tackles and carry. He's not a creative 9 having said that neither is leeming do we have another coming?

We were spoilt wiht Lunt,Robinson and Faiumu a few years ago!!

yeh the hooker role is a worry for next season i feel

as is the full back role if mamo deal not done.

centre spot also up for grabs if wardle goes other way as expected, murphy, sam wood, gaskell, mackintosh all could claim that , id go murphy with ormsby on the wing

Not to mention the props.

Got to hope for the best from Nathan Mason,some of the other youngsters signed up in the past with big hope and expectancy seem to be struggling to cut it at first grade.

You need one home grown prop coupled with a top overseas prop to win SL,check out 'Peacock and Leuluai' at Leeds,in their peak controlled the upper body of the first up drive,then the other defenders piled in to slow the ptb leading to winning rugby league.

I like Rapira but he's a grafter not a dominant.

Despite this, under Stone's coaching very confident we will be challenging for play offs not worrying about middle eights.

It looks a loved up proposition,but from past experience we get the best out of Australian coaches in the first 2.5 years before they start going mental,as in 'orr yer look mate not enough sunshine mate' Tough call for Sir Ken as ever to sack the Australian when the whinging starts about the weather - as we know it inevitably will.

props we have

rapira and ikahihifo

and bench maybe of

clough and smith

mason back up along with taai who can fill in when needed. dickinson a young prop to maybe make the next step up in that role

wakeman rumoured too but no luck yet, if we did get him then we are ok for props

I play Mason over Clough any day of the week.

Id go with Rapira + Smith with Ikahihifo and Mason off the bench.

Dickinson looking like a big unit in the preseason photos!

He definitely has filled out but is quite short in height but hopefully that won't be an issue.

6ft 1 according to the Giants site - that's taller than Clough, ikahihifo, taai and rapira.

Clough is extremely small for a prop.

Stand him next to Taai - no way is he taller.

He is going by the stats published by the club by 1cm

Amazing what you can do with photoshop.You're looking a little shy recruitment wise.Possibly Stone has the answer!Or possibly not.

If we go into the season with our current props we will get dominated in the pack like last year. Young lads (rarely) have the mentality to mix it with the experienced superleague props no matter how big they are. If we don't sign another good prop we are in real trouble in this department. I admit Smith is an unknown quantity but i very much doubt a lad coming back from a years absence is going to be tearing it up in the first few months. Rapira is good, we would need another to go with him.. but NOT Ryan Bailey!!

The longer all this uncertainty and the sound of nothing but silence coming from the club goes on, the more concerned I am that we're going to run out of time and have to resort to desperate measures.
Ryan Bailey.
God help us.

I would expect a player coming back from a years injury to absolutely be tearing it up! Id imagine he will be desperate to get stuck in!
But Ryan Bailey good god no!

the shannon wakeman rumour has gone very quiet

Im beginning to think that it was made up by league express in the first place.

We have to be honest with ourselves - what are the actual chances of getting new players in now ready to play for the season to start? id say we have till this time next week for something to come to fruition, otherwise I cant see anyone coming in till the season has started.

well its a risk going into the season light on numbers again for sure

but if no more signings come in then we will have money to spend if anyone becomes available during the season

We arent light on numbers though, maybe Rick a man with a pedigree of developing youngsters will do just that by playing some of ours. Not one of those young lads will fare any worse than some of the showings of last season. I reckon he will trust them and play them unlike our previous 2 coaches. We have Sam Wood with SL experience, Darnell Mcintosh who didnt look out of place in the pre season against Catalans last season, not to mention England captain Matty English and Jacob Wardle amongst many others. People seem to want to see a name they recognise and assume they will be better players, let's remember players like Jonathan Thurston and Sam Burgess were not born superstars, they were given a chance and rewarded with gametime when they took that chance building week by week upto the players they have become. Squad we have now is fitter than they were last season and that was a massive issue in alot of the games i saw last season imo.

we will be fine on numbers if we dont have injuries

of they strike again we will struggle agan

the club has done the right thing though by trying to stop some of that risk with a new conditioner

Going to be very interesting who plays left centre this year with Wardle certain to leave this week.

Lee Gaskell, Sam Wood, Darnell McIntosh or Aaron Murphy?

One injury to Brough or Brierley and Gaskell will be going straight in the halves so I personally can't see him playing in the centres that much given the fact he will also be first in line to play Full Back if Mamo gets injured too.

i wouldnt mind going with the combo of murphy and ormsby...

other options but think this one if the safer option

then again i do like murphy on the wing!!

i though gaskell was being signed to play centre for us at the time mind.

sure stone has a better idea seeing them train, pre season games will be the time to see what the best combo will be

issue is fullback the ausi if he comes is out injured who the hookers are going to be leaming and who else hinchcliife should play LF possiblty they might use brough but with only 3hb in the club again a risk we are very short of cover in the spine of the team

We only have 2 pre season games though, we could do with an extra couple to evaluate combinations.