Is it just me because I can't for the life of me understand why the club haven't offered Craig a contract for next year? At first I thought it was because he's going back to Aus but last night on Radio Manchester he said that he'd like to stay.

From the way I see the game I don't know a more consistant and reliable prop in Super League. He reminds me a lot of Sean Rutgerson and I feel like Sean we'll miss him a lot when he's gone.

Any thoughts?

DOES Craig Stapleton still count on the overseas quota

James, I think he was classed as exempt in the "fudge" they came up with last year. I'm not sure if that classification was just for the length of their existing contract though.
Even if he is still classed as overseas I'd still prefer to have a proven first class professional in Superleague than a unproven journeyman from the land down under!

He has been down graded to "overseas trained",because he signed a contract before the new rules were announced

So not on "quota"

From what I understand (which isn't too much!!) when the contract talks were beginning Stapo expressed his wish to go home for personal reasons therefore no proper talks took place...it sounds like these personal issues have been resolved somewhat and he now would like to stay...hopefully we wont have another David Gower-like situation where the player wants to stay but we don't offer them what they want.

I think if we are to improve and develop we need another prop forward with an offload, the problem with us is that we are unable as a team to break at tackle and offload to get good 2nd phase rugby, the stats back it up.

Cashmere - 38 Offloads
Stapo - 13
Big Phil - 15

So basically i feel we need another forward who will give us 30+ offloads a season, gives our opponents defence somthing to think about because if it isnt cashmere it aint going to happen at the moment.

Also with metres made

Cashmere - 1945
Stapo - 1287
Phil - 1609

He does put the effort in and i would keep him perhaps as a off the bench prop like Jewitt who will give us a steady eddie performance as his defence is very good with 306 tackles made at the moment but if we are to improve and move on this part of our games need to be addressed.

I firmly believe Craig Stapleton should be retained for at least another season.

That's unless Stephen Nash is now ready to take his place

This could explain the lack of effort I witnessed from him throughout the earlier rounds of Superleague. Isn't it ironic how players raise their game to a higher level when they are playing for a new contract?

I'd wholeheartedly agree with you if we were a team who looked for the offload but unfortunately we're not.

Adam Sidlow when he first came into the team offloaded really well but we don't back up.

In fact I'd go even further to say that it appears to me as though the offloading appears to be coached out of most of the players in favour of the safety first brand of rugby we try and play.

The team have won every game this season when the completion rate has been 85% plus. Fewer players have the natural ability to offload and many others don't, the players who don't offload perhaps know they don't have the handling skills and don't want to let the side down by turning over possession?

RedShed - spot on observation - Whilst we'd all love to see dazzling handling skills, and we all call "safety first rugby" as boring - it's just that which has won us the games we have.
Rugby League is a simple game and in general the team that makes fewest mistakes will win - that's what McCrae concentrates on - once you have a squad that deliver some sort of consistency, then I think you can start to build on that and bring in more flair players - for now I'm afraid, we are where we are!

Some good posts here re offloading. Stapo has been disappointing in that department it must be said.

Re Sidlow - when he made his first few starts he was offloading for pleasure but now it seems that the coaches want him to go to ground & I personally feel that is defo the wrong way to go. When you have players willing and ABLE to offload give them positivie coaching - Kevin Ward for instance never went to ground if he was in a position to keep the move going. Who was the coach at Saints at that time? Answers on a stamp.

I don't think Ward played under Mcrae. I'm pretty sure he suffered his career ending injury before Superleague.

Its not a matter of showbiz hands, perhaps with further investments in the offseason we'll get some new players who are able to play at a intense superleague level everyweek, offload when its on and dont when its not.

Our problem we seem to go for the hollywood ball when it comes to offloading and turn over the ball far to often.

Sidow could be the answer to our prays, big, fast, got a great pair of hands certainly will be a handful to opposition defences if he continues to improve in the future, he will be what he want to be in rugby league he is that good imo.