I'd definitely take bailey if it was an option, only 31 and just showed up well in a grand final quality team. Not sure he'd drop down, I'm sure he could get a gig in sl still.

On olbison I guess it depends what other options rs is looking at, if there is an upgrade in the back row available and we need the funds for that then I'd trust Rohans judgement, if there are no obvious alternatives then I'd resign olbison on a 1 year deal for the squad depth. It's one of those decisions that probably won't be clear until we see the completed recruitment, but we are short in the pack still at the moment.

Are the huds 3 gone yet or are there signings subject to the various "injuries" being cleared up?

Fair questions Duckman.

Looking at the Hudders board they seem less than enthused about getting our three lads. None of them fill an obvious gap in their side as they see it.

Seems like they were recruited by Anderson rather than Stone. I don't know how cast iron those deals are. One things for sure, their contracts here have expired and I expect they represented a big amount of salary.

Based on some rough figures in my head I'd say the exodus of players probably took about 500k of our wages bill at least.

Or, will do in January..

Not much of an Olbison fan here either.

Seen some really feeble defence at times and doesn't make any impact going forward.

Not sure on ryan bailey, does he have a mental health issue? His time at hull kr and castleford were well documented and the guy needed help. His time at warrington playing in a top super league side may have helped him focus. A drop to our level could lead to disaster for both parties

Does Bailey really fit into the philosophy that RS seems to be running with the squad so far? He doesn't really strike me as someone who would be willing to go that extra mile for the love of the club.

Also, he's a complete and utter bell.

Hard to disagree.

I'd sooner sign Phil Bailey. And I mean of Earth, Wind & Fire fame, rather than the ex Wigan back row.

I suppose beggars can't be choosers though.

I know it was one bad injury but if Dodds was looking to stay over here love us to look at him. Bear in mind his last NRL game was the grand final v Cowboys

He's a complete and utter bell... who can play hard tough rugby. We need that in the Championship.

Tbh, I actually reckon he's too good for us (never thought i'd hear myself say that!!!)

Barring an injury crises, I would suggest anyone chosen to play in the SL Grand Final is probably too good for a Championship side.

Rumoured to have signed Blake Leary from Manly.

Back-rower who can play hooker

Haggerty rumoured to be retiring to take up a coaching role at Toronto.

Nice if true.

Hmm, retiring eh? at 27? I'm sure he'd like to better his coaching CV but I can't see him retiring at his age.

We all know you can't keep a forced recruit, so if he wants to go we'll, no doubt, have to allow him to skip the last couple of years of his contract. Thing is, as the saying says, "you're long time retired", so I can't see him not wanting to play again, certainly no more than I can imagine that Toronto wouldn't want him to play either. That being the background, if he goes, we need to hold his registration until we get some transfer fee.

Hargreaves retired early. But he'd lined up a good job in USA iirc.

Just thinking out loud. Without knowing what AoB's contract is, would anyone be that surprised if we allowed him to leave if a suitable offer came in? RS does seem to be interested in people who can cover hooker, the Fev game showed his thinking, even if he made a public retraction afterwards. He has to be one of our higher earners if his agent did his job properly when negotiations began back in April when Jimmy was in charge. If RS believes he can get a hooker who does the job he wants for the team on much less money, has he gained enough coaching credit to weather the storm if AoB was sold?

Yes. He'd need AoB's replacement to work out but we don't have the budget for sentimentality. I put replacing Odsal with a purpose built, ~10k capacity, all-seater stadium in a similar category. It would sadden me but it would be A Good Thing, and a statement of intent.

Half or three-quarter seater, please

I'm pretty certain AOB will still be here. Think people are obsessing over the Fev game. With only 2 props that day which says everything about our recruitment) i could maybe see why he went big with Addy and Howarth, but it was a flawed decision that he got wrong. Afterwards, OB played big minutes for the remainder of the 8s.

I think RS tactics will be to play AOB for 70 minutes, have 4 big forwards on the bench, and maybe have one of them do a 10 min stint at hooker to give OB a breather. I think RS is of the opinion it's pointless wasting a subs bench on an out an out hooker like Lumb or Halafihi to only do 10/15 minutes.

With Haggerty looking like he's going and if we do sign Leary, it looks like a straight swap.

I think your current coach sees AOB as dispensable.

If we can find a suitable replacement then I wouldn't be putting obstacles in the way of releasing him. He's had some stand out games but he's also capable of some massive brain farts that usually lead to us being penalised.

AOB is one of our key players, we would be absolutely mad to let another gem go. Mind you, I've spent half my life watching us let great players go, so it wouldn't be big change.

If a SL club comes in and triggers the release clause we wouldn't be able to do much about it. No point worrying about that though, such is life in the Championship.

What about a straight swap for Scott Moore, only asking like

I've got a feeling that they may not be a SL release clause in his contract.

O'brien is Bradford through and through and i think he would want to see us get some kind of compensation if he were to go. He doesn't seem the type of player to have requested a SL release claue in his contract. Someone would have come in for him now if they just had to offer him a contract and pay no fee.