The move was more to the South East rather than the South West. Lee Smith may well have needed a bath by the time he was rescued from Wasps though.

Bad day at work

Brisbane Broncos - Rohan Ahern, Dane Carlaw
Canberra Raiders - David Milne, Matt Orford
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs - Michael Lett, Junior Tia-Kilifi, Gary Warburton
Cronulla Sharks - Paul Aiton, Andrew Clayton, Stuart Flanagan, Kose Lelei, Johnny Mannah, Scott Porter, Tim Smith, Siosaia Vave, John Williams, Broderick Wright
Gold Coast Titans - Greg Bird, Marshall Chalk
Manly Sea Eagles - Matt Cross, Liam Foran, Jason King, Vic Mauro, Tim Robinson, Terence Seu Seu, Dean Whare
Melbourne Storm - Jack Afamasaga, Sione Kite, Todd Lowrie, Sika Manu, Elijah Niko
New Zealand Warriors - Shaun Berrigan, Shaun Metcalf, Bill Tupou
Newcastle Knights - Korbin Sims
North Queensland Cowboys - Isaak Ah Mau, Michael Bani, Shannon Gallant, Blake Leary
Parramatta Eels - Pele Peletelese
Penrith Panthers - Yileen Gordon, Masada Iosefa, Arana Taumata, Tim Winitana, Michael Worrincy
South Sydney Rabbitohs - Shaun Corrigan
St George Illawarra Dragons - Adam Cuthbertson, Nick Emmett, David Gower, Jake Marketo
Sydney Roosters - Cheyse Blair, Willie Mataka, Jason Ryles, Todd Carney
Wests Tigers - Mitch Brown, Junior Moors, Matt Utai

Sika Manu would be good

Personally, without the bad attitude, Todd Carney would be brilliant, rumoured to have signed for Catalans earlier in the year, but now rumoured to be going to the Gold Coast Titans/Cronulla Sharks.

Looks as though the Adam Cuthbertson to Leeds is dieing down a little, could sign a new deal with St George if it is more than one year, if not, could follow Wayne Bennett to Newcastle.

He's fought back before. He was somewhat out of favour in the middle of 2008, and the rumours doing the rounds on here was that he was being offered to Wigan. He settled down, and got himself back on track superbly. No reason he couldn't do it again

*deleted, wrong thread*

I hope you're right. But a loss of form in 2008, a good 2009 culminating in a departure to Wasps, followed by a rapid return, apparent struggles with fitness and conditioning with no subsequent signs of anything like his previous form suggests to me that there probably are reasons why he can't do it again.

Stevie Ward, Brad Singleton & Liam Hood are promoted to first team squad and given first team numbers

Seen that. But out of interest. Wasn't all 3 of them promoted to first team squad last year? I seem to remember pretty much the same announcement just a bit later on in 2010.

Not sure Ward was

It might have been just fulltime contracts, and training fulltime with the first team. But I just seem to remember something pretty much the same last year.

Sort of correct, but they werent in the top 25 at the club. Stevie Ward was not involved in the announcement due to colllege and was still PT.

And, for people wondering, Stevie Wards contract is a 4 year one.

So far for next season we have 28 players, and they are not ruling out another signing.

By my reckoning we have 6 players who have left the 25 - Senior, Buderus, Lauitiiti, Cross, Burgess, Amor. Now, assuming that Hardaker will be in the 25 next year, 6 people have taken their places - Hardaker, Hood, Ward, Griffin, Moore, Singleton. For anyone else to come in somebody would have to move out, perhaps in exchange?

I am gonna assume we are gonna go with what we have unless someone special becomes available, looking at ins and outs and new deals etc I would think we still have a fair chunk of cap space available. Would be happy to not spend to cap and go with what we have, only see the point in buying if they are an improvement. No point just spending up for the sake of it

We had a total of 31 last year FWIR. Add Callum Casey and Michael Coady to your out list from the 31 last year, and regards to the player in exchange, I can only see it being Lee Smith thats if its an SL player. Also, Luke Ambler didnt have a squad number at Leeds last season IIRR.

I reckon we could be going something like:

1. Webb, 2. Jones-Bishop, 3. Watkins, 4. Hardaker, 5. Hall, 6. McGuire, 7. Burrow, 8. Leuluai, 9. McShane, 10. Peacock, 11. Jones-Buchanan, 12. Ablett, 13. Sinfield, 14. Delaney, 15. Moore, 16. Bailey, 17. Kirke, 18. Griffin, 19. Smith, 20. Hauraki, 21. Clarkson, 22. Singleton, 23. Hood, 24. Pitts, 25. Ward, 26. Ambler, 27. Stewart, 28. Briscoe

As already said, this is three players down from last season, so expect a few more promotions. I cant see where another signing would fit into the squad without Pitts or Smith dropping out of the top 25.

Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922

Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" I think if we stay how we will possibly line up with: Webb; Jones-Bishop, Watkins, Hardaker, Hall; Sinfield, McGuire; Leuluai, McShane, Peacock; Jones-Buchanan, Ablett; Clarkson. Burrow, Griffin, Bailey, Delaney. Props: Moore, Kirke, Singleton, Ambler Second Row: Hauraki, Pitts Hooker: Hood Loose Forward: Ward, Stewart Utility Back: Smith, Briscoe

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" I think if we stay how we will possibly line up with: Webb; Jones-Bishop, Watkins, Hardaker, Hall; Sinfield, McGuire; Leuluai, McShane, Peacock; Jones-Buchanan, Ablett; Clarkson. Burrow, Griffin, Bailey, Delaney. Props: Moore, Kirke, Singleton, Ambler Second Row: Hauraki, Pitts Hooker: Hood Loose Forward: Ward, Stewart Utility Back: Smith, Briscoe

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" judging by the opening paragraph that article should be taken with a large dose of salt

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" judging by the opening paragraph that article should be taken with a large dose of salt

Completley agree with that!

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" icon_lol.gif I'm more of a fan of MUMOOWM than most on here, but I think this praise is a little OTT. He does a specific job for the team, and does it well, but I don't think he's much better than he was 3 or even 5 years ago

Quote ="rhinoms"Hints that there may be one more arrival at the bottom of this article.. www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... _1_3881922'" icon_lol.gif I'm more of a fan of MUMOOWM than most on here, but I think this praise is a little OTT. He does a specific job for the team, and does it well, but I don't think he's much better than he was 3 or even 5 years ago

Now Hardaker has come in and done well. I am however caught in two minds as whether he should be our mainline centre next season. On the one hand I'm a believer in the mantra that if you're good enough youre old enough. ON the other hand though, I think it adds a lot of pressure onto the lad. He's had a meteoric rise, and I think there is huge pressure on him. Now, he may rise to this pressure, and he certainly has done so far, but we have seen lots of very promising youngsters come in make a big first impression then fade away, the likes of Gibson, Tansey, William spring to mind.

Hardaker needs to learn the game, learn the position, and learn how to bounce back when he's more of a known quantity. If he can do this he will be a cracking player. If opposition coaches study his game, and start to exploit weaknesses, then being our frontline centre option could be a bad idea.

Callum Casey signs for Halifax, link on first post.

Leicester - not sure what weaknesses you might be referring to WRT Hardaker. He played a GF and the qualifier the week before against two of the best attacking sides in the competition, and neither got anything much past him. Given his complete inexperience in the role you'd have to bet that both Tony Smith and Simmons would have targeted him to an extent.

He may suffer a bit from 'second season syndrome', but that's going to be in attack. Personally I think he's got the raw ability (including an ability to read the game which showed in some of his GF defence) and physical attributes to make a very good centre. When you compare to Gibson for example, I'd say he was both bigger and faster. He hasn't yet developed (or perhaps not shown?) the handling skills that he needs to be top notch, but given that most of his career to date has been spent on the wing, that's understandable.

In any event, unless there was a world class star elsewhere (which Welham for example isn't) I'd prefer to chuck him the shirt and tell him to learn on the field.

Think if someone is good enough they should be playing. Think in the case of hardaker and Watkins they will develop and learn more in the first team rather than in the reserve grade