Aspinwall isnt a flashy player but he does the hard graft. Tackles well and makes some good yards when he has the ball. Played well last year for us and i would have kept him on for another year at least.

Aspinwall is not the marque signing expected, he is however a good signing and one I welcome. The changes required are not going to happen over night Pete has inherited a squad and he has to work with it, not easy. He has a cap that also has for a greater extent been spent for them by the previous regime. They have to work within these restrictions and I do not expect miracles next season or even the season after. What I expect is progress I can see on the field, a team playing for each other with commitment and I know with Bomber around it will be there.

In 2005/6 we had got there we where the real deal and very shortly after the management sacked the coach and the decline really kicked in. I know fans have high expectations after the spin years we are running short of patience, but its going to take time. I want to see open attacking rugby with the ball moved around when the conditions permit, I do not mind losing if I enjoy what I see with a team giving more then 100%.

I am looking forward to a new season for the first time in three years with hope another year of the last regime would have killed this club.

I know,considering in most peoples opinion the only thing holding us back last year was Agar. He's gone,we've made some good signings in areas needed and it's still doom and gloom.

nice to see supporters from hudds and cas giving aspinwall a good rap, maybe a good signing for us after all, time will tell,

Not necessarily true, what if two of the youngsters come on really well this season? If O'Meley and Moa leave and the youngsters are ready why sign anyone? We would already have replacements!

Can you tell me if AP said that all these ‘top signings’ would be in place for this next season?

I am a bit surprised with the signing of Aspinwall, but not overly disappointed.
As others have said he is more of a stop gap, and I can see the longer term value in that. We need to concentrate next season on the youth development for our strength in depth.

I recon 2013 we will have a smaller but higher quality main squad of ‘specialists’, with the youth providing depth of cover. If we can’t or don’t get the youth development right, then we will have to suffer more utility type players who will do an ok job.

How have the club all over Obst? A deal was already agreed for him to go back to Wakey and Agar on him trying to get one over on us. Because he had no club to go to his severance package had to be altered.

Obst was happily playing for Wakey and had been for a few seasons. Wakey get into financial difficulty so we jump in as we had no half backs and swing the deal with Obst by giving him two years. With only half of that deal gone we then have a surplus of halfs so need to offload him to help strengthen other parts of the squad. Obst agrees to go and we sign Aspinwall which is hardly strengthening leaving Obst clubless when he could of still been happily playing for Wakey. Thats ting all over him imo. Christ i bet Obst could of done as well in the back row as Aspinwall will do.

Were going in slightly undercooked in the prop stakes for next season imo, never mind 2013.

[iIf,[/i and it's a big if, we have just one of our kids ready to start for 2013 then we'd still need two recognised frontline props for the season after next.

If Ogre and Moa go,

2013
Lynch
O'Carrol

Get a grip of yourself. Aspinwall or Obst at the backrow.... and you think Obst would do a better job. Stop having such a downer on things, if you don't like it don't get a pass simples.

The way I see it is that we have taken a first team player from another SL club as back up for us. That is a positive for me and gives us the experienced depth that we haven't had in a while, gives competition for places and will be fairly cheap for the year.

Like i said previously ive been very positive till our latest two signings. They just wasnt what i was expecting.

Pathetic

Every signing cannot be a world beater. Aspinwall gives us much needed cover in the backrow and Martin gives us more options in the position. Recruiting players is an ongoing job and half of the players signed for 2012 by clubs will have already been sorted at the beginning of 2011. When you start looking to recruit in August your already behind your rivals, hence why Widnes were given the go ahead early last year rather than the end of the season.
More realistic to look at our signings for 2013 than the ones made for 2012.

My wife told me about this signing as I was walking out the door this morning. I immediately said "wait 'till this one hits the Forum!"



A surprising signing and not one to get the blood racing, but as others have said it's a one year deal and adds some depth and experience where we need it. I expected it to take some time for the mistakes of the last few years to be rectified and we're at least making steps in the right direction. I won't write Aspinwall off before I've seen him play for us, and neither will I give up on next season before a ball's been played.

didnt think this signing would go down well with a certain section of our fans

,ill give the guy a chance before i make judgement,at the end of the the day this signing plus tony martin have only been given one year deals not realy the end of the world,people need to get behind the new coach and the team,gentle wasnt the aussie assistant just for the fun of it,im realy looking forward to 2012.

Also people going on about pearson bringing big name players to the club,did he say it would be for 2012? the changes that have been made from players to coaching staff is massive and we arent going to become world beaters over night,its going to take time,we needed to bolster the squad and this signing plus the martin one have done that,i also believe if gentle thinks the likes of green,kent,crooks etc are good enough then they will play,we have been screaming out for long enough for changes from top to bottom now they have been made people still find things to winge at

Well said


the most worrying thing on this thread is the fact that despite the new owner ony being in place for a short while, inherriting a club and team, a new coach only landing in th UK this week, our DOR again inherriting the same as eems most are already laying into them andwriting off the club as usual ,
WTF is wrongwith you all ?????????????????????
Martin and Aspinwall could well trn into guysthat are dream team players next season based on their coming season at FC and no one on here knows wether they will or not so come on give all a chance to even get within sight of kick off before you all write the club off again !!!FFS
A completely new regime will take time to get where it wants to be and will take longer than one season ..

what ever happend to roaming the range together eh????

Why didn't we just keep Washbrook? He's a backrower and probably better than Aspinwall AND that's from someone who thought Washbrook was deadwood.

For all those Hull fans that bombarded the Wigan board a couple of week's ago re: Lauaki.......


backatcha!

Washy got a 3 tear deal at wakey didnt he? he was never gonna get that from Hull




Enjoy your 3 YEARS of Lauaki

Was talking to a site manager who supports FC this morning and we were discussing who you might be getting, he assumed that with Obst going you were going for an overseas player and the names he had 'heard' banded were recent SoO and test players. Wish I was back on site tomorrow

Why would Washy have accepted a 1 year deal at FC when Wakey offered him 3?

People seem to be forgetting that both Martin and Aspinwall are only here for next season at the moment. Strikes me that they're intended to tide us over - something that Washy and maybe even Burnett wouldn't have been happy to do.

They might still. I can't believe Aspinwall will be on what Obst and Radford were combined. But there'd have to be a bit more than that available to tempt a top antipodean in the current climate. It's getting late in the recruitment cycle too.

It look like he is building a team were if he has to he will play the youngsters.
Gentle has stated if a kid is good enough he is old enough. I wasn't expecting a big name
signing I still think there is one more signing to come .Only a opinion

In an interview posted on the BBC Sport Website dated Friday 22nd July 2011 AP is quoted as saying:

[i"We need to bring in one or two top players and try to push on. We've got some good targets in mind to bring in."[/i

Now if fairness to yourself he doesn't say this would be in 2011 so maybe he meant intends to bring these onboard in 2012, unless he considers this has already been done with the one top player being Andy Lynch.

This is of course unless AP/Bomber consider Tony Martin or Martin Aspinwall to be top players, in which case I would beg to disagree.