Gareth Ellis has been granted an early release from wests to return to England at the end of this season, interesting to see where he goes.

It certainy will. This was the very reason why I questioned the new contract for Delaney the other week. I said at the time, I would be very pished if we missed out on a possible return fort Ellis by giving this new contract.

I assume Mr Hetherington and co.have known about Gareth's decision for some time. He has always said that we are in a position to sign a marque player if we get the chance.
Could this be what he had in mind ?
Gareth has stated he wants to finish hie career at Wakey.
He will probably do that,in about 4 years time !
Obviously not nailed on that we sign him,he could walk into any super league side.But we surely must be favourites,would be a fantastic addition to the squad.
C'mon Leeds get the deal done and dusted !

Peacock, Webb, Leuluai, Bailey, Pitts, Ambler, D. smith OOC and cap space available, could we see him return as a prop?

Why would that happen? He is a million miles ahead of all our other backrowers. That's not a put down of our existing lot, just that Ellis is much better. It's like getting Cameron Smith in and playing him on the wing.

We know Lealuai is hanging up his boots and apparently we are under the cap this season, which I can believe. That could leave enough for Ellis. We have JP, Bailey, Griffin, Moore, Kirke, Singleton, Ambler(assuming the OOC sign new deals) all competing for prop next year, so Kylie doesn't necessarily need to be replaced with a signing.

Are you in Nantwich? He's a back-row plain and simple.

Thought Ellis was on record that he wanted to go to Cas?

I'd love him to return here but hasn't he said he wanted to play for Cas or even Wakey?
Saying that Morley always said he'd love to come back or play for Salford.

I think you must the irony of Frosties post which was very much tongue in cheek pointing out that we have lots of props out of contract but no high profile 2nd rowers do where would we fit him in. Yes he's world class but 2nd row is not a position we are weak in. The only way Ellis coming back would seem logical to me is if we hadn't just announced Delaney's contract extension

Not sure we're *that* strong in the backrow. If we're considering Sinfield as a 6 now, and bearing in mind the trend for battering-ram 13s, we have JJB, Delaney and Ablett as front-line back-rows, and Hauraki and Clarkson on the side. There's room in that rotation for Ellis, assuming a) he wants to come, and b) we haven't earmarked Stevie Ward as starting 13 from 2013.

IF we sign Ellis expect Hauraki to depart imo.

I wouldn't cry if that happened

He will end up at Warrington - they will be able to get him under the cap

Let the bidding war start!!

Would be good to see him come back,

when is haurakis deal up?

And this is probably the reason we wont get him. IIRC he signed for Leeds on less money than other were offering him. Likewise, when he went to the NRL he'll probably have taken less money than he could have got over here.

He comes back a player in the absolute top bracket, and will command top dollar. He probably has a good few years left in him, but I would guess his best years are behind him too. We all know that GH can be as rigid as a girder in contract negotiations, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him at another club, now would I blame the lad

have we spent the cap this year

Ellis will be 32 next year, and I expect will want a three year deal. No thank you.

But I suppose he would fit in well at Wire or Leeds.

I hope we don't consider signing him. He will be 32 next year, he's coming back early for his last big payday. He joined Leeds to win trophies, he went to Australia to test himself in the hardest league there is. He's achieved a great deal in his career, his next move will be to the highest bidder.

I'd question his ambitions and motivation, plus hasn't he suffered more injuries over the last few years.

Nah, I'd let our rivals take the chance and offer him a very expensive 3 year deal.

Leeds "most likely" destination according to foxsports over here. Sincerely hope so, he's the best performing English import to NRL ever. Nuff said

I'd like to see him back but wouldn't be too upset if someone like Warrington threw huge money at him.

Yeah he's not well versed enough in injuring the opposition to fit in Wigan. Better off at a team that passes the ball every now and again.

It would be good to see Ellis back in a Leeds shirt once more as he was a top notch key player for us. However as others have stated his best years are behind him and IMO in the 4 nations he looked slower and a shadow of his former self.

I am morgan freeman ....no sorry... I am more than happy with the way Delaney has settled into the 2nd row where his performances and work rate are on a heroic JJB scale. These two plus Ablett are currently the best rowers in the SL and with Clarkson and Hauraki we have good cover.

If we could be sure that Ellis would offer us a couple of years of his previous younger man form or if he would move up to prop the way Morley did and retain the same workload then it is worth consideration as Leuluai is set to retire and JP cannot go on forever at the same level. Morley returned to SL when he was 28ish but Ellis will be 31 this year. I guess the NRL has taken its toll and last season he had an ankle injury which restricted his appearances.

So on balance it would depend on his fitness and willingness to move up to prop and of course the cost.

32, expensive, past his best, lots of miles on the clock, a bit injury prone, and plays in a position we have a lot of depth and a few youngsters with great potential. I'd only consider signing him if we let Huraki go.

having spoken to his old man early indications are "he'd like to go back to you lot" that is the response i got. and it was his dad who told me he was going to the NRL long before it became common knowledge.