I think we have lost patience with Hurrell's defensive lapses and I don't think he will be offered a new deal.

The frequency with which he drops the ball is directly proportionate to the number of defenders (often 3 or 4) in the tackle trying to dislodge it. How do you think Newman, Sutcliffe or Broadbent would cope with that kind of attention? The worry is his lack of mobility in defence, which won't improve at this late stage. You either live with it or you don't. Interesting decision.

You could also use the same argument with Tom Briscoe.Didn't Harry Newman come up with a bad error late on too.Hurrell's having a loss of form at the moment on the back of covid and injuries.I would rather have Konni in the big matches where he has performed.My point is I would have cut him some slack as I would Newman and Briscoe.What has Austin got in his armoury,a side step that most teams in SL have worked out,and the ability to put up high bombs.

Hurrell is done his errors with the ball dumb penalties & poor defence are not worth retaining on any deal.

The more attacking options we develop, the less important hurrell becomes. But he managed to be a genuine threat when we got the ball wide quickly

Loss of form he hasnt struck form for two games on the trot.I can only think of the Cas game where they were dire where he has played well.

Agreed

The thing with Hurrell is that you’d rather have him than not.
But you have to accept the defensive weaknesses and errors.

But the fact is, we have brought in Austin, as we needed a 6.
And we have to release an OQ to make space.
King is big and presumably cheap, so I could see him staying.
Thompson has another year, so is not an option really.
Martin has improved recently and is the best goal kicker in the league.
So I think Hurrell is the most likely to leave.

My choice would be Thompson, but that doesn’t look like an option.
He doesn’t really give us anything we haven’t already got.

Very much agree.

I guess Thompson and Austin coming off contract next year gives us more wiggle room if we needed it. It looks to me as if the club does want to release at least one of King, Martin and Hurrell / put a fire under their bottoms.

Oledski being injured is Kings big opportunity.

The other thing that might be a factor is Martin’s just started a young family he may want to go home

I think everyones choice would be Thompson.

That's a good point Christopher. Though looking at what going on in Aus at the moment with the mega lockdowns i think i'd stay here for now

Yep, in hindsight, poor decision to offer him 2 years?!?

And if only we’d have waited a bit longer before signing him he wouldn’t have counted on the overseas quota

Why he's from New Zealand what difference would waiting have made?

Very poor bit of business that.

If Thompson is told he can leave as he wont get another contract and is well down the pecking order he may choice to leave if he can get a longer deal elsewhere, then maybe he can be moved in. Thats our best chance.

Left field but I like Thompson and think he’s a good pro to have at the club....

Would have been exempt IIRC with Wolfpack going t1ts up

He was playing reasonably well when he earned his two year contract.I suspect the club signed him fairly cheaply as his options were quite limited. Last season he went okay but certainly didn't stand out.This season seems he has struggled to hold down a first team place due to injuries or none selection.He does give his all but looks a player in decline.I suspect next season he will only make the team if we are savaged with injuries.

Because 1 or 2 months later when Toronto became defunct, other clubs signed their overseas players and were given special dispensation for them not to count on the quota. We appealed to the RFL to get the same dispensation for Thompson but it was refused as when we signed him Toronto were still alive, albeit the writing was on the wall.

Yep forgot about that.Unlucky for us.

There were two fundamental issues with this: one was the length of contract. The other was tying up a valuable OS quota spot in order just to get a bargain at the time.

No problem with Thompson, he can be quite handy on his day but this was a poor decision a la Crosby and some others we've made (in between some very good ones recently).

At the time I didn't think it was a bad decision but now with hindsight it has turned definitely into a bad one. I said earlier I don't expect him to play much next season. Both Gannon and Walters should be first in line for the backrow if injuries hit. They are the future and shouldn't be held back from a player who's in decline.

2 years was always a bad idea for an OS squad filler. My guess was that a 1 year deal wasn't enough to tempt him and we needed some depth this season as has proven out. Unfortunately that's the price of allowing the team to fall spectacularly, your have to pay over the odds for low quality images just to be stable.