I know it's a long way off yet but what would you change about the current squad for 2013? I'm just interested in your thoughts.

Personally I would get rid of Sibbit, Walker and Jeffries (all off contract at end of 2012). Cover these losses by playing Olbison, Addy and either McAvoy/Murphy more.
Sell Sykes to Wakefield.
Keep Platt for his last year.

I would also bring back Briggs and Southernwood back from their loans and let Gale, Sammut, Briggs and Southernwood fight for a place in the team. Starting halves obviously Sammut and Gale.

Sign all other off contract players up ASAP. Except Pryce (let him prove he wants it first).

And last be not least sign Potter for 2-3 years.

Probably agree with most of that

keeping Sammut will mean losing Nas. Still not sure who I want to keep more. Impressed with both.

If briggs can come back and do the job we hoped he would then I would keep Nas. Either player will get snapped up by someone next year though.

We should keep Manuokafoa, our pack is starting to look pretty good. That would mean losing Sammut, but so be it. The players i'd let go would be Walker, Jeffries, Sibbit, Ainscough, Joseph, and Sammut. Then sign a 6, maybe try a season long loan deal for Lee Gaskell, another forward and a centre/winger.

What makes you think any of these players would even want to stay at bulls???

Well they look to be enjoying playing with one another for the Bulls at the moment. There may be the odd exception but the squad looks pretty happy to me right now.

Briggs is out of contract too and will be very surprised if he gets a new deal.

I agree, don't think we need to change to much to be honest, 2/3 really good signings IMO. I'd look to keep Manase as it is now, so if we could get a really good stand off with some pace and the ability to get some ball to the three quarters that would be a massive step in the right direction. I'd like to see us sign a couple of really good wingers, Crookes has been good this year and I'd like to see him get back in the side to show us what he can do, but if we could get some lads similar to Luke George and Josh Charnley then with 2 good wingers and a really good 6 we'd be well on our way to being able to trouble the likes of Wigan, Hudds and Wolves.

Our fringe young backrowers, Olbison, Donaldson, Addy have been around for a good 4 years or so now are more than capable of coming in and doing jobs so I see no need for old heads like Walker, Sibbit, Joseph etc etc any more. Hopefully get rid of PLatt and Sykes too.


Then theres McAvoy and Murphy and Ball, all in the 1st team squad aswell. Then there's Southerwood and Briggs(maybe, but unsure) too. All in all, providing we get our young lads signed up for next season and and beyond then weve got a young squad with lots of potential. It's safe to say that I'm really happy with how this squad is developing to be honest.

1. Brett Kearney
2. Elliot Kear
3. Adrian Purtell
4. Keith Lulia
5. Jason Crookes
6.
7. Luke Gale
8. Craig Kopczak
9. Matt Diskin
10. Bryn Hargreaves
11. Olivier Elima
12. John Bateman
13. Jamie Lanlgey
14. Heath L'estrange
15. Tom Burgess
16. Manese Manuokafoa
17. Elliot Whitehead
18. Nick Scruton
19. Danny Addy
20. James Donaldson
21. Adam O'Brien
22. Cain Southernwood
23. Tom Olbsion
24. Liam McAvoy
25. Jobe Murphy
26. Alex Ball
27. Karl Pryce

Anybody have any idea of some lads that are available at the end of the year or which lads could come in from our academy and look to put some pressure on the players already here?

Agreed, we definitely need to move away from big turnover of players each season. And from what we've seen so far this year a big clear out isn't required anyway. I suspect we might need to reduce the depth in the squad to bring in a couple of quality players. But I also suspect we might be paying some pretty average players more than their worth.

Potter has on the whole made some shrewd signings, but without a quota spot likely to be free we need to keep hold of people like Elima. The decision on Manase v Jarrod might well depend on which replacements are available if both players continuing playing well.

What about Gary Wheeler for stand off. Saints have Hohiha and Gaskell, and it looks like Nathan Brown wants Jordan Turner to play centre for them.

i can't see gary wheeler coming, he's only 22 and saints wont want to get rid of a young lad, its like us getting rid of whitehead, it just wont happen.

1. Kearney
2. Kear
3. Purtell
4. Lulia
5. Crookes
6. Briggs
7. Gale
8. Kopczak
9. L'estrange
10 . Manuokafoa
11. Elima
12. Whitehea
13. Langley
14. O'Brien
15. Hargreaves
16. Bateman
17. Burgess
18. Scruton
19. Olbison
20. Platt
21. Pryce
22. Ainscough
23. Donaldson
24. Joseph
25. Addy
26. Murphy
27. McAvoy
28. Ball
29. Southernwood
30. New Signing

Yeah I'd like to see something more than Kyle Briggs at 6.

Joseph and PLatt, not sure there's any need for them here anymore.

Unless we get a massive cash injection from a wealthy backer at the EGM, which appears unlikey, if we are in superleague next season I'd be astonished if we were paying anywhere near to the cap limit like we are now. We will need to spend what we earn....i.e not much. If we factor in some likely upgrades, or at least offers to some of our up and coming players like Bateman I can see us having to let some OOC players go without direct replacement, especially the overseas guys. So I could easlly see us letting all the following go;

Walker, Sibbit, Jefferies and/or Briggs, Ainscough, and unfortunatly at least two of Sammut, Elima, Manuokafoa.

To be replaced by who knows (probably kids from our and other academies), but we can't spend at the full cap if we don't have the income, if we do get out of this mess we can't let ourselves get back into it by spending money we don't have again.

Hopefully I'm wrong and we get the funds to carry on spending at the full cap, in which case I'd like to see Elima and Manuokafoa retained as priorities as the pack is showing real potential, and I'd love to see it develop further.

It will be a real shame if a lack of finances damages our squad now, for so many years we've had a decidedly average team of players. Now we finally look like Potter has assembled a good, solid team of players it would be a cruel twist of irony if we had to break it apart for financial matters.

Fingers crossed we can avoid having to do that, I'd like to see the Sykes loan deal become permanent and also managing to offload Platt, Sibbit, Walker and probably Joseph.
I think, based on his peformances so far, Pryce is probably worth retaining, if only for cover in the backs. Still not sure about Briggs, I just don't think he's cut out for SL unfortunately.

I am looking forward to the Lulia/Crookes partnership for the next couple of years

Not sure on briggs... But for me players to go would be:
Pryce....Never seen a winger/centre stand still as much
Platt..... Carried the water bottle more than a rugby ball this year
Walker.... Picks up too many injuries
Joseph.... Not super league quality
Langley....PASS the ball....PLEASE
Sibbit.....As above with the injuries
And if i had to choose over Manukafoa or Sammut.....gotta be Sammut to go for me.
Sorry Sammut but Manukafoa is IMO the next BIG JOE!!

Plus Backroom staff...I.E Conditioners, surely they gotta look at the injuries we've sustained this season and address this for next year

If we can afford to let Briggs go I would keep Jeffries. Jeffries and Gale in halves. Id rather have Briggs but if we NEED to then Jeffries and Gale with Southernwood as main backup half. No matter which half gets injured Southernwood goes to 7 and the fit half to 6.

Why shouldn't we be spending the full cap next year. We have been told that the mess we are in is were caused by unexpected causes not the day to day running.

We've been told lots of things, some true, some only true from a certain point of view IMO. I don't belive its just a couple of unexpected causes thats brought us to this point. And anyway, unexpected costs happen to all businesses, we need to budget for them to a degree because different ones will happen to us again, and we clearly have very little margin for error on our current day to day running.

I hope we can spend full cap, I really do, and events might well change my view in the next few weeks. I'm just saying ATM my gut feeling is we won't be next year, (and shouldn't be if we can't afford to) , unless something changes, and that will be reflected in the recruitment and retention policy.

Agree with all that.

Either you're joking or you don't know much about rugby.

Ewwenorfolk is 100% correct, Langley is essential to our team because of workload.

I think given our current squad, and cain coming through, it should be sammut we dont retain, even though I think he has done extremely well since joining. As for signings, im hoping cain s can develop into a strong 1st teamer so wouldnt want to see another hb unless they were top top drawer. We could certainly do with another prop and my number one choice would be a quality winger, although I dont see how we get these without a quota spot unfortunatley.

Id let walker, sammut, ainscough and joseph go, and think kp has a decent amount to prove for another deal

With the Sammutt/Manu situation, it is a difficult one. I have been impressed with both of them, but you have to look at who would be easier to replace without a quota spot. For me that's Manu. There are plenty of props playing in the lower grades that could make the step up IMO.

James Lockwood at Featherstone is tearing up trees. I'd love to see him get a go at Super League with full time training and a good pre-saeason behind him.

Another is Alex Walmsley at Batley. He's naturally a very big lad, without an ounce of fat on him. He's only gone semi-pro this year and has gained many MOM awards in his first season. I do feel that he may be a longer term project though and may need another year in the Championship on loan/dual reg, so maybe not a direct replacement for an outgoing prop.

Think you may be disappointed on that score. Crookes to hull was pretty heavily rumoured even before our financial problems came out.