The Mighty Merrin

Think I will reserve judgement on Merrin til he actually plays for us. I hope he's everything people make him out to be.

For me it will be dependant on where Furner plays him. If he plays him at prop because of your lack of options I would seriously question why bring him over. For Leeds to get the best of him he needs to be at 13 for me. With you going for O'Loughlin it says the club want a real leader in a pivotal position. Merrin at 13 is that player and should be your captain if his reputation is anything to go by in the dressing rooms and on field

Couldn't agree more. Hoping Furner agrees too

With Cuthbertson, Singleton, Crosby, Oledski, Peteru, Mullally, Holroyd and Ormondroyd to choose from at prop, there is no reason we can’t play Merrin at 13.

Like many others I thought we needed to sign a prop, Furner and Sinfield obviously have faith in the ones we have. With the rest of the squad significantly strengthened, I’m willing to give them a chance. Oledski and Holroyd certainly have the potential to become internationals, we didn’t see much of Peteru last year, hopefully he comes good this season.

To list Ormanroyd as a prop is way wide of the mark he's a BR & not a SL one either.
Mullally is garbage that leaves a 34 yr old who thinks he's s 6 2 very young lads albeit with a lot of potential a work horse in Singleton & then Crosby who for various reasons has had 3yrs of missing games or not playing that good.

That's a fair summary that.

I'd also add that Cuthbo is a busted flush. He was garbage last year and I can only see him playing at a similar level, or worse, for next season and the following season

Going to be intresting this year in terms of props. With the new rules and less substitutions, bigger minutes are going to be expected from front rowers and maybe we are heading back to the more mobile rather than larger guys we have seen the last few years.

Will we just end up with loads of big second row forwards?

Well thats what prop used to be anyway, lots of great props stated in second row. Kevin ward, lee crooks, andy platt, Morley, Peacock, etc etc.

I think we will get front rowers that can play for at least 40 minutes not 20-30 like recent seasons

I think at full strength our bench will be 2 props, 1 back row and 1 hooker. This would allow 4 prop subs, 2 back row subs, 1 hooker sub with 1 still to spare.

Trent Merrin averaged 66 minutes game time in the NRL in 2016, this was lower in 2017 and 2018 but at 29 and with the lower intensity of Super League, he should be playing long minutes if not the full 80, as will Stevie Ward.

Ward doing 80 mins? Maybe over the course of a full season.

With Merrin (who really should play back row IMO), Eard, Ferres, Smith, Ablett, JJB... maybe now Sutcliffe and Trout in the mix (Donaldson?)... Cuthbo and Peteru arguably more BR than props... We only have Singleton and Crosby, plus Oledszki and Holroyd as real props for me. We’ve lost Garbutt don’t forget.
The longer minutes argument won’t drastically alter our need for, and lack of, real metre-making front rowers.
We have had one lanky prop which worked (Peacock). Even he wasn’t a great impact prop but more of a warrior of attrition. Neither Singleton nor Crosby are in that league.
How we have arrived at having IMHO about 8 back rowers and two workman props is beyond me. Being mobile can’t be an asset if you’re on the back foot constantly and losing the energy battle. We have a lightweight hooker with a game made for broken play, which the pack has been unable to provide, so he’s wasted too.
Hall also used to take a big load off the pack early in sets.

In an ideal world I want a big front rowers too, and still think one will come in. However, the position described above, Wigan won the GF last year with hardly anything great in the prop roles. I look at the Cas squad, and again, out and out props are very much on the low side.

As long as the rest of the side are playing above themselves, ala Wigan last year, it can be managed. This is where the coach comes in.

Both Teams mentioned still get more impact from their props throw in Wakey Wire & ST'S that puts us way behind.

I think you put too much emphasis on the coach.

Ormondroyd started at prop for Featherstone today, although hopefully we won’t be seeing him play for Leeds as IMO he’s our 8th choice prop.

Josh Walters narrowly missed out on getting mom in the Twitter vote collecting 31% of the vote.

Maybe Walters has found his level, but was not the Fev side pretty much a second string fringe player side.

Agreed, Walters is a Championship player, so is Ormondroyd.

its ok saying we need to sign a prop but realistically who is available? i'd rather see us struggle this year and then use the cash generated by players coming off contract to get a quality guy rather than take a punt on someone new that we will tie on a 3 year contract and them not be up to scratch
we are expecting a full clear out which realistically can't happen in one off season but its a great chance for the fringe squad players to try and up their game to earn a new contract

I agree.

All quality players will now be tied down. Should one suddenly become available it is likely because we have thrown a load of money at it which we don't appear to have or something has happened between player and club which should raise questions about whether we want them.

On that basis I suspect we are done for notable signings. Donaldson may come in but I don't count him as notable.

We shouldn't lose track of the progress made on this off season and of they all settle well we have a clear view of what needs to be done this time next year.

Bit of a mix, we (Fev) are still waiting for the 3 Papua New Guinea imports and have the likes of Delaney, Wheeldon etc out injured.

There was talk about Fev possibly taking 2 Leeds players on season-long loan and maybe Walters & Ormondroyd playing today suggests it might be those two. Judging from this forum that would make sense to most on here though from a Fev point of view it's the spine where we need cover -we are short at full back, wing, and hooker, and also cover at half back. But I can't see Golding or any of the Briscoe/Handley/Newman trio being released on season-long loan, nor McLelland or Corey Johnson.

I think we will use more Leeds players this year if they are made available on DR, in particular I think whoever doesn't start at 5 for Leeds out of Handley/Briscoe/Newman will be very welcome on a regular basis at Fev.

This could easily have been avoided had we not given contracts out to has beens & never will bes.

If you assume we're pretty much up to the cap now (maybe including Donaldson), we probably need to consider that 2020 will be without: Ablett, JJB, Mullaly, Walters, Ormondroyd, Ferres?, Sutcliffe?/Golding?/Handley?, Cuthbo?, Parcell?... could easily be looking at as big a turnaround in personnel for next season as this. It says a lot when I reckon we could shed just about all of these players without it affecting the starting squad too badly. Of course, another thing we've done is sign our marquees on long-term contracts, so we're locked in to paying any new props/other players £150k max is it?
It isn't easy balancing a squad under the salary cap, and it's right the club shows loyalty because that's a big part of the culture which has previously brought success, and hopefully will again. However it's fair to say that the club has made quite a few poor calls over several years now and made the inevitable transition harder than it should have been. The project signings haven't paid off on the whole; the "tall and mobile" forward model hasn't paid off and it was a mistake not to use marquee funds previously.