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.

Apparently, Perth are likely to come into the NRL in 2027, followed by a PNG team in 2028.

It'll be interesting to see how the new NRL teams go. Flying long distances to play games is a real handicap. I remember John Monie saying in his biography how difficult it was for the Warriors and their flight time is 3hours 40 from Sydney. Perth is over 4 hours and Port Moresby just under 4 hours. Not ideal preparation or good for recovery.

A few of the better players in SL are likely to become targets for NRL clubs as they seek to make up the numbers but can't imagine the PNG team being a draw for anyone other than PNG players really.

I think there's talk about PNG getting cap exemptions to try to to convince players to sign. Although, I think they'll play a lot of their home games in northern Queensland.

Looks like Littlewood`s going to miss a couple of months of the season due to him having surgery on a hamstring injury he sustained in training.
Similar injury to Miller I believe.

On the bright side it looks like Miller is recovering well.

That is good news and I`m hoping for a better more consistent season this
year.

Always the risk with tough pre season training.

I see HKR have made an enquiry in to Sneyd`s availability.
Does seem surprising considering they have Lewis, May and Richardson at half back.
Maybe we should be doing the same and look to play Frawley as a ball playing LF?
Or pay him off.

There's rumours May won't be coming back.

I would take Sneyd on a 12 month contract but im not convinced Frawley would be a success at 13 and i doubt we have enough cap space to pay him off.

That probably explains it.

If they get sneyd maybe they can send Martin back....