So it's all gone a bit quiet on the recruitment updates for me it makes sense with Blease coming out this week saying recruitment is pretty much done, my source did say to me the club planned for Brodie Croft leaving but they we're bery firm on Croft was only free to leave if the Dragons met our demands so fair play to the club playing hardball with our own players hence why St George signed Illias from the Rabbitohs instead.

Leeds drafted a 3 man shortlist with incase Croft did leave apparently it was between Jackson Hastings, Jayden Sullivan & Anthony Milford but it seems nothing will come of these as Croft is reportedly happy to see his contract out with us.

The Bateman deal I posted a little while ago seems pretty much dead he seems a difficult character to strike a deal with. West Tigers seem struggling to even find out if he wants to stay with them or leave. We are still looking to bring in another forward if the right deal can be struck but Arthur is more than happy with his current roster.

I expect us to announce our squad numbers in next week or two leading upto the boxing day game. I'm gonna say our squad will look like this.
1. L.Miller (OQ)
2. M.Sivo (OQ)
3. H.Newman
4. J.Connor
5. A.Handley
6. B.Croft (OQ)
7. M.Frawley (OQ)
8. M.Oledzki
9. A.Ackers
10. T.Holroyd
11. J.Bentley
12. J.Mcdonnell
13. C.Smith
14. J.O'Connor
15. S.Lisone (OQ)
16. K.Palasia (OQ)
17. C.Jenkins (OQ)
18. M.Gannon
19. J.Sinfield
20. (Free if another forward is signed)
21. A.Edgell
22. T.Nicholson-Watton
23. R.Lumb
24. N.Mccormack
25. R.Hall
26. B.Littlewood
27. T.Warren
28. M.Simpson
29. J.Smith
30. P.Cassell
31. M.Qareqare

I've nothing but positives to say about Gary Hetherington. Might be past his use by date as thr head of a club, but as a person he's amazing. I've spoken to him on a number of occasions about support for fund raisers and he's nothing but supportive. And you always feel like he remembers you. A great human being at a time when there's doesn't seem to be a lot of them around

I’ve been really busy with work etc so not had chance to catch up with my source until yesterday. So Blease & Hetherington are really pushing to sign Watkins but it all depends on dispensation on the cap as we have no wriggle room at all apparently which is a bit of a shock considering we’ve released 10 players and only brought in 5 signings however I think this shows that a fair chunk of our squad is on top money and some probably overpaid for what they produce. If Watkins was to resign for Leeds 50k of his wage would be payed by the RFL due to being club trained. The Harvey Livett Signing seems unlikely now as Leeds are fully focusing trying to get the Watkins deal over the line. Finally injury report and it’s the usual case of us been told Jarred O’Connor- likely return between round 3-6 Alfie Edgell- no return date yet from fractured jaw Ned McCormack- knock unknown how serious Ben Littlewood- knock unknown how serious Jake Connor- knock not thought to be serious and should play this week Lachie Miller- return to play round 1-2 We’d have to have some serious rotten luck if we lost all 3 fullback options to injury.

Didn't Littlewood have surgery on his hamstring in December?

[quote="JRhino1":3o9acc5j] So Blease & Hetherington are really pushing to sign Watkins but it all depends on dispensation on the cap as we have no wriggle room at all apparently which is a bit of a shock considering we’ve released 10 players and only brought in 5 signings however I think this shows that a fair chunk of our squad is on top money and some probably overpaid for what they produce. If Watkins was to resign for Leeds 50k of his wage would be payed by the RFL due to being club trained. [/quote:3o9acc5j] Isn't the club trained dispensation capped at £100k per year, and we are already at that limit? I'm also confused about the lack of cap space. Blease has said publicly several times that we are still in the market for another signing, if the right player comes along. Is he wrong, or simply making it up?

[quote="Leeds_Luke":2mb3uz2a]Isn't the club trained dispensation capped at £100k per year, and we are already at that limit? I'm also confused about the lack of cap space. Blease has said publicly several times that we are still in the market for another signing, if the right player comes along. Is he wrong, or simply making it up?[/quote:2mb3uz2a]We have some cap space but not enough to sign a player on a large contract such as Watkins.