I’m not sure why it’s pathetic and unnecessary as that’s just my opinion, like most on here who have a witch hunt against Bentley. Oledzki is just a plodder and a bit of a big pudding for a man his size. Same with Holroyd, every season people say ‘big year' but he’s another one that’s amounted to nothing.

Lisone is not great shakes, but he’ll fly out and try put a shot on or skittle a couple of defenders at least.

I'll be invested to see how Lisone goes following on from Brad's much-vaunted preseason beasting. The makings are there but he's definitely been keeping the spirit of Konrad alive up to now.

The whole pack will look completely different with a very different attitude/gameplan. The passive defence made all our forwards look soft. I don't know why people keep trying to deny it was a thing - the Leigh game, when the whole team was pumped, our defence was stood still in a line waiting for attackers the whole game through. It was also partly why when Arthur tried to change it up they couldn't sustain a more aggressive style for long, because they just weren't fit enough.

An off season focused on increased fitness and a completely different mindset among the forwards will show us which of the forwards are up to it and who isn't. I'm not entirely convinced on Oledzki, Holroyd or Lisone, but would be more than happy if they all take a big leap forward next year.

Given the look of our backline, we're also likely to have far more structure next year as well. Hall and Sivo could score a lot of tries if we can create openings, but that requires field position, as neither will score from a distance, and moves intended to create overlaps.

Mik's a genuinely lovely lad. Lives near me so bump into him a bit, and my brother-in-law was, according to Mik, one of his favourite teachers. And he has nothing but nice things to say about him. But that might have held him back a bit. Didn't McDermott say about him needing to realise that he's a prop and what that means? He seems to lack that aggression about his play. Not foul play, but the extra punch in his runs and tackles.

I think it could come down to a number of factors because he has all the physical attributes to dominate. But he came through at a time when our pack was getting weaker. And at a young age became our pack leader expected to do big minutes. Throwing yourself into collisions doesn't lend itself to doing big minutes.

It's also a really tight line to walk now disciplinary wise. Anything mistimed and you're looking at a ban. When he's carrying so much responsibility, I wonder how that affects his game.

And, as a club, we seem to have fallen so far off transitioning young players into the 1st team. It's hard to think back to the last academy player to come through and be top class. They all seem to plateau and never quite reach the heights we'd hoped they would.

Hopefully, with a better coaching team and more support up front, we'll see Mik kick on. He's still got age on his side. I think the reason he gets more of a free ride than others is because he's given so much to the team when we've been e. And we'd all love to see him be able to share some of that burden and start to go up through the levels.

Are there better props in SL than Mik? Yes.
Would our pack be improved if we had 3 other props of his calibre? Yes. For me, putting him first in line for criticism simply doesn't stack up.

Interesting comment by Arthur regarding Littlewood a player who he seems to rate highly."Ben is my sort of build for a back-rower.He his tall,rangy and once they start to fill out they are hard to tackle especially when they can off load the ball too.
"Bens nearly two metres tall and when he puts on some size he'll be better for it.Certainly he's a player with potential for the club going forward.
With Bentley off contract this year he hardly fits that bill.

For me we should be looking at getting Mik signed up long term before the start of the next season.

Excellent player and pro. Hes only just turned 26 and some seem to forget he was our POTY back to back in 21 & 22.

Mik is not crap.
Nonsense to suggest he is.
Granted, he's had a couple of below par seasons.
But he's struggled with injuries as a result of being flogged to death carrying the pack for the previous 3 years.
A stronger pack and more rotation in the front row will help him get back to the Mik of 2021-2022.
Not totally convinced we have that yet though....

Arthur's comments on Littlewood are interesting. I assume Gannon fits the bill as a big second row as well.

I think we saw last season what role he may have in mind for Bentley - a Victor Radley/Brandon Smith type up the middle. Or it could be that he's more in competition with O'Connor/Ackers. If Arthur thinks we need size its hard to see two of those three on the bench. We might see some very interesting reshuffling including Bentley, and I wouldn't be surprised if Cameron Smith is asked to play very differently as well, even if he keeps the 13 shirt.

I can't see Smith losing the 13 shirt, but I can see him playing less minutes at greater intensity. I may be reading too much into the co-captains thing, but perhaps that's in anticipation of having Smith on the field less.

I've said it before, but I think a big problem with Cam last season was he was in great cardio shape, but he lacks explosive power to really punch through the line or put big shots on in D. I'm hoping they'll change his conditioning to allow more impact.

Tall rangy back rower, didn’t we have one of those !
Mik is a decent prop but has played and carried an underweight pack for the last five years, with the look of this pack he can play 20 mins hard and get off for a rest.

Time to get over this, he's gone for over a year now and if you look on the Wigan chat, they wouldnt be bothered if we took him back. He is not the messiah!

Bizarre how much Walters was revered by some, he's gone and hasn't exactly stood out at Wigan

I would have him back tomorrow, not the messiah but entertaining and always tried and was basically the only brightness of a bloody awful season of 2023.

I'd rather have Dupree back, or Mulhearn

Letting Walters go was an error, as was letting Dupree go. As for not doing anything at Wigan he broke his collarbone in preseason. Lets see how he goes next year.

BA has been super impressed by Oledzki in preseason. Crazy to think some don't rate him props who can make 100+ metres on a weekly basis are worth their weight in gold. I will never understand how people can watch us and think the likes of Cam and Mik are an issue.

We didn't let him go.

Okay then you can say that technically. However, the club regretted it as they thought they could low ball him. Regardless Rohan/ club messed up because they went back in with another offer but it was too late.

Tough luck on Walters at Wigan.
Broke his collar bone in a pre season game and was out for months.
When Willie Isa broke/dislocated his ankle Walters would have been the natural replacement.
Being injured they got Nsemba from the reserves.
Once Junior was in the team Walters couldn't hardly get a start.

Vic - my only issue with Oledzki is that he's a bit one-paced. What we need is a pack as a whole which can stand up to big, aggressive opponents - especially early in games, when we've had a tendency to get blown away at times. I expect this is something we'll see next season, as our defensive approach will be very different up the middle.

As for Cam Smith, the problem is what role he plays. There's a good player there, but not as a ball handler in every move. He is much too slow for that. Assuming he can change his fitness to focus on shorter but more dynamic involvement, we could see a far superior version to the Cam Smith who has frankly looked a bit lost at times.

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

Skillful for a forward, as someone described him earlier, is correct but he's not needed as an extra half with the defence in front of him. He needs to be getting his nose through the line more. Hopefully he'll find that easier if we find ourselves with a pack that works over defences in a way we've not really done for some time.

Unlike last season , when we all knew the least worst 17 , there is genuine battle for places, roll on next year.

To be fair there was huge optimism about our new signings last year. Arguably the Croft signing and the prospect of Miller (etc) were generating a lot more excitement than those in place for 2025. But maybe the absence of similar hype this year, combined with general confidence in the way Arthur wants us to play is a more stable position to be in.

Did anyone live up to expectations last year? Arguably only Miller (in both good and bad ways) and Frawley (mostly bad) did. I hope we get more out of Ackers and Croft in 2025.