Lol. Me too Kev.

I was actually going to put "(read in a Sean Connery voice)"! Then thought no one would know what I was prattling on about!

You've signed Blake Austin for 2019 so ended up with a far better player than Eastmond

Never heard of him who does he play for

There’s no fun pun in there cheekydiddles, check the rules...

Canberra Raiders half

Thought he was going to play in the championship with Leeds?

I'm hoping that's not a prophecy on likely time served against contract, you know like how we signed Sandow for 2016, Hiku for 2017, Roberts for 2018.

What makes everyone so confident on here that Eastmond won't sign for us ?

Maybe he will when he is 45, been going on for years as this.

Pretty tired of this rumour; who the hell wants to sign someone who's been away in Union for so long? Who here can actually attest to his quality anymore?

In before 'Charnley' as in comparison to Eastmond he hardly played in Union before coming back and wasn't there long enough to slip into RL Mediocrity.

Sculthorpe/Sinfield anyone?

So does the Austin signing close the lid on Eastmond to us?

I wonder where he will end up. He doesn't have a club and if we're out of the running I wonder what his options are. He might be in the situation where he has to take what is available from the likes of Salford or Toronto if they come up, but whether they will be paying top dollar is questionable.

Won’t be Salford, he will still be a marquee signing and not many clubs can afford that. Even with the Austin signing we still have a marquee spot available.

No disrespect to Eastmond, but he doesn’t deserve top dollar. Not yet. He needs to prove himself in RL after 7 years out of the game and then look for a decent salary. At the moment he’s struggling to get a decent salary in RU, so I’m not sure what qualifies him to suddenly command top dollar in a different sport, one that pays significantly less on average.

The other dilemma is where to play him. He’s not a creative half back, in the threequarters he’d be a small centre whose RL defence will need A LOT of work... at best he’d slot in at full back, but we currently have the best British full back occupying that position and I don’t think Ratchford would be pleased to see Eastmond take his place on a marquee salary with no justification.

Not saying it wouldn’t work out with Eastmond, but it’s a huge gamble that could upset the squad. He wasn’t exactly Billy Slater when he left 7 years ago, he was just an exciting runner. Kevin Penny was an exciting runner too but I don’t think I’d be looking to re-sign him if he’d left for 7 years in union either...

I think we have KE enough time and with the Million Dollar Man being available we walked away.
I believe we did leave the agent with a 'take it or leave it' deal.

I believe we did that with Sam too...after asking him to pretty much to add his own noughts in the cheque...and he still went back to the Pies.

Why not...we re-signed him after he left for Swinton?

I’m referring to the marquee situation Sally - of course Eastmond should get a chance on a cheap deal. That’s what I’d put forward in my first paragraph. Pretty sure Kevin Penny came back on around £20k with a view to proving himself in Super League again. Common sense should see the other marquee spot spent on an experienced pivot to guide us round the pitch.

There’s only three teams in this league who’ve regularly won Super League, and none of them seem to have been chasing Eastmond. Maybe we should try to emulate their methods first before we go experimenting with what I see as an expensive publicity stunt.

I think Austin is along that line Easy...I happen to think we'll win the GF this year any way.

Can't see it...Wigan or saints will win it....

We know the measure of Wigan....
The Saints game...well that's going to be coming at a time both teams could do without...it may not be a yard stick match.

I think you'll find Daz C is our other marquee player

It is a great testament to the patient squadbuilding that TS did over the past few seasons that he has left Steve Price with a squad ready to win GFs rather than needing to be reconstructed from scratch.

No he is not,Karl Fitzpatrick confirmed we only have 1 marquee player.

How can you type with your tongue so far in your cheek? Very impressive