I'll keep my eye out for that one along with Bateman to Wire and Ellis to Leeds

I take your point but with the best will in the world it still doesn't mean the same as, 'we're able to spend up to the salary cap'.

Just noting bbc sport saying cain has gone to whitehaven for 2013

I saw somewhere today about Gleeson for Salford or Catalan.

so gleeson and senior linked to salford?

Quote ="domthebull"Just noting bbc sport saying cain has gone to whitehaven for 2013'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/20427723 So what happens if (when?) Gale and/or Sammut gets injured?

Quote ="domthebull"Just noting bbc sport saying cain has gone to whitehaven for 2013'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/20427723 So what happens if (when?) Gale and/or Sammut gets injured?

Kearney and addy I guess. Hardly a surprise, cains departures been a rumour for weeks

able to does not = will do. but interestingly we are back to "at least one more prop" to be signed in the tna article today about Scruton being physically fully fit and able to do everything so welcome back Nick, and fingers etc crossed you stay that way and get back to previous performance levels for us.

Not a shock to be honest. He's never given me the impression that he's going to step up, and seeing the others who have gone I don't regard Cain's departure as surprising.

Keith Mason is without a club, worth a punt maybe??

Think its mason and sidlow we are linked with if i am right, if we sign Mason could we still swap Platt for Sidlow? As i noticed that was the rumour

Salford are being heavily linked with Martin Gleeson, so I can't see Platt going anywhere now.
As it stands, he is due to be OOC at the same time as Keith Lulia. I would hope, if the rumours about Platt's salary are true, that the club readjusts things and we can offer Keith a bit more (and Platt significantly less!)

Can't see anyone accepting a bit less on their current deal, to be honest. From the Salford pov I'd say Platty was a better bet than Gleeson though, Gleeson is a long way from what he was.

Think nothus meant offering Keith more and platt less when we're negotiating their respective extensions rather than now.

Platt also does live in manchester and i think he has a property portfolio in the city

I'd imagine that would be the case. FC has already come out and said we're not going to be over paying for average players any more which seemed to be the norm under our last British coach.

If we could get both on 1 year deals then we'd at least have a pack that's capable of not being bullied off the park every week and we'd be in a position to look to build for 2014 which is really the season that FC should be judged on as a head coach.

Agreed roofaldo, lets hope we can sign them both.

Sometimes cutting costs/getting better value for money is often easier said than done though. One of the biggest problems, coming from a few years back when the number of clubs in SL was increased, was that in the UK we just didn't, and still don't, have enough 'top class', or if you wish to term it differently, genuine 'SL quality' players to fill the squads. The two extra clubs meant around 50 extra players registered for SL, most of whom, presumably, not thought of as good enough the year before.

This situation was made worse when with the rules affecting Aussie/NZ/Islands players were also made more stringent with the effect that fewer could work in Britain. When you then factor in the relative strength of the Aussie dollar v the pound [and IIRC a higher cap over there it's no wonder that the value of 'lower end' British players has gone through the roof. At the end of the day a full time wage is a full time wage so it's pretty difficult to pare back all that much.

Well yeah, it's was one of the worst ideas that the RFL/SL came up with. Increase the teams but decrease the talent pool?
How was that ever going to be a good thing?

Squad numbers to be announced tomorrow.

I think the argument goes something along the lines of our plucky boys not getting a chance due to the abundance of second rate Aussies.

Oh yes. I forgot about those 300 or so British supermen who were condemned to play in the reserves because of the overseas players flooding our game and how they've all sprung from the ground to fill out all the spots SL used to give to aussies and kiwis.

Don't worry, it's now the referee's fault for all our ills.

The Squad in full is:

1 Brett Kearney, 2 Adrian Purtell, 3 Keith Lulia, 4 Matty Blythe, 5 Elliot Kear, 6 Jarrod Sammut, 7 Luke Gale, 8 Nick Scruton, 9 Heath L’Estrange, 10 Manase Manuokafoa, 11 John Bateman, 12 Elliott Whitehead, 13 Jamie Langley, 14 Matt Diskin, 15 Chev Walker, 16 Tom Olbison, 17 Jamie Foster, 18 Michael Platt, 19 Danny Addy, 20 Adam O’Brien , 21 James Donaldson , 22 Jobe Murphy , 23 Ben Evans, 24 Oliver Roberts, 25 Sam Wood, 26 Curtis Naughton.