Press conference www.newcastleknights.com.au/news ... kni_0.html (moderators - it's on the official knights site - totally legit to share)

Press conference www.newcastleknights.com.au/news ... kni_0.html (moderators - it's on the official knights site - totally legit to share)

I don't know. None? Can you find out please.

Officially announced now.

Gidley seems much more excited about coming to Wire than most of the posters here. I think after reading the quote below we can all be a little more optimistic about his gusto for the club:

"I have felt sad about leaving, I have felt excited about a new challenge but I am mostly relieved that I have reached the stage of making this decision.

"I have been thinking about this for over 12 months and I knew it had to come to an end at some stage.

"I have had a great career, it has been a pretty long career, and I am looking forward to the change of going over to England, so too is my family."

Had Saddened not mentioned his name the other day in connection to Saints I'd thought he'd retired.

This is the bit I don't understand. If Warrington desperately need a play-maker - why sign a player who isn't a primary play-maker?

Are you signing a primary play-maker AS WELL for Gidley to play in support of? If not the signing makes no sense.

My take on it is that this is a stop gap signing till either someone who we are after becomes available or someone we already have has that extra bit of time before being promoted from within.

From reading the interviews from Gidley, he mentions being down on confidence after being asked to play positions he had never really played before. I suspect this is at half back as he is predominantly a Full Back or Hooker.

I cannot see him replacing Ratch at fullback and shouldnt do either, Ratch is our safest fullback and offers plenty in attack also. Therefore this leaves me to think that we will not renew Highams contract, which would be a shame, yes he is getting on but i think his form warrants another year. Is it a possibility that Leigh have signed there local son for Super League next year and hence we have signed Gidley to replace Higham?

Were not biting!

We're still not biting.
Plenty time to announce that if required.

I don't know what made you think I wasn't being serious ... but I WAS being serious.

He was talking about Wayne Bennett kicking Gidley out of fullback so he could put his love child Darius Boyd in the position and telling Gidley to play hooker for 80 minutes, which Gidley did, but ended up needing shoulder surgery after a short time, ironically after he tackled good mate Clint Newton head on.
He goes alright at hooker for short minutes, but he is not an 80 minute hooker.

I don't have anything against Gidley. But Gidley in support of A.N.Other.TBA makes a lot more sense than Gidley on his own.

I don't like to criticise Lance Hohaia - but he was brought to Saints to play such a role and - judged solely on his performance in that regard - was a complete failure.

His missus is going to brighten the place up. Looking forward to helping her with her shopping in Morrisons.

Fortunately we dont need an 80 minute hooker, we have the current man of steel who could play the full 80, however we like to employ two hookers. Generally the starting hooker comes off (Higham recently) after about 20 minutes to be replaced by Clark who then does the rest of the game, Higham then comes back on after about 60 minutes and Clark stays on. The two of them then interchange between hooker and normally back row. We have employed this sort of tactic for a while now. Even when we had Monaghan and Higham as our hookers.

Our fullback Ratchford is more than adequate and i would hate to have his nose put out for a player to come in for a season and take his place. Unless Tony Smith is giving Ratchford the half back role

Just as an aside to what i just said, i was listening to Talksport yesterday and they were talking about Premier League football (as usual) however some points were made about recruitment at Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool etc. Manchester United, the thought was they are going down the Galactico route which hasnt worked, Liverpool have gone for the young players with sell on potential whereas Mourinho at Chelsea studied what position he required to win them the league. He looked at the teams weaknesses and strengthened where it was required. If you look at the signing of Gidley, the Mourinho approach hasnt really taken place, if Roopy is saying he is an out and out fullback (correct me if i am wrong) then we clearly arent addressing recruitment in the correct areas, Ratchford is a top quality fullback in my eyes, not a position we need strengthening. We are in definite need of a top quality half back, i would also say some steel in the pack, whether thats a big tough back rower (Gareth Hock for example without the issues) or a real line breaking prop like a new morley or carvell.

All the talk of him at fullback where does Russell figure in all of this.

on the wing, supposedly, that was the nose coming out of tony before his injury.

I personally would get rid of Russell. He is a fullback who on a one one situation isnt the best tackler and also isnt particularly safe under the high ball. He doesnt possess the right skills to be able to "chime" into the line to support play and link in with wingers and centres. His strength is getting the ball and running and even then i think that that is over hyped. So in conclusion i dont think he has the skill set or is good enough to be our number 1. Maybe get rid is a bit strong, i would probably keep as a squad player but not a starting fullback.

He came into firstgrade as a 5/8 and partnered Andrew Johns.
He was a very good 5/8 and he played there on and off for years.
He spent a lot of time playing halfback as well. He was enthusiastic but never brilliant at it.
It was Brian Smith who decided to try Scott Dureau and Luke Walsh in the halves with Jarrod Mullen and moved Gidley to fullback. It seemed like a crazy move at the time, but in half a season he went from poor under the high ball and a poor cover defender to being brilliant at both.
He had about 4 seasons at fullback and most Knights fans think he was our best ever.
As I said earlier, Wayne Bennett moved our best ever fullback and highest paid player out of the spot because he needed a spot for his "son", Darius Boyd - which meant Gidley was moved to hooker, where he had spent time as a back up in the past, but had never been a serious fulltime hooker.
He also spent time at 6 and 7 under Bennett.
My opinion - his best positions are in order, fullback, 5/8, centre, halfback, hooker.
He has actually spent time playing in all those positions at State of Origin level and went well enough to not let anyone down, but at club level he has had some shockers at halfback and hooker at times.

Its only really over the last two three years i have been watching the NRL intensely thanks to Premier Sports and wanting to see how the English Lads are performing. I do generally watch every game each round of the NRL now. I havent paid much attention to him in particular. From what you say, he could do a good job in the halves for us, then i am happy with that. Does he have a good kicking game, as generally we are crying out for someone with one. We're not so bad at close to line plays, generally our last tackle kicks down field always go straight to the winger or fullback, although since Patten has come in we have improved.

Now, time to go and watch the City vs Country game, two good tries by Blake Austin so far.....

As a 5/8 he plays like a fullback. He runs a lot and links with his outside backs. His kicking game is OK as a backup to a good kicker, but the reason he isn't a good halfback is because he doesn't do well under pressure with either his kicking or passing game. He just doesn't have a cool head.

As I said earlier (several pages ago) - his strengths are great defence and a great workrate because he is insanely fit. At 5/8 he'll make 30 or 40 tackles and be all over them like a rash, run the ball every chance he gets, always be first to a kick chase and even if it's Jarrad Hayne or Billy Slater, he will make the one on one tackle, but half the time you'll be thinking the attack would look a lot smoother if Gidley would just stay out of it for once.

That last bit made me chuckle, made me think of Paul Gallen, every other play never mind every set of 6 he tries to take a hit up to the detriment of the team!

He could then work quite well in theory with Myler if he stays. Myler isnt really a running half back, to me it is something we do lack. Someone who will take the line on, Patten has tried it a couple of times so far. Its something that Blake Green is being lauded for at Melbourne, for taking the line on.

I would suggest ,if Gidley is being brought in to shore up our leaking defence as full back, then Ratchford to loose forward & Harrison to prop in place of the probably departing Roy.Unless Myler is moving on i would think TS will persevere with his young home grown half backs who,although they may not be the best,certainly give 100% in effort.

10 pages of very varied opinions. I'm going to leave it to TS and just see where he plays Gidley. After all 3 CC's and 2 GF's isn't a bad record. I think he might just know what he's doing.

This sort of reminds me of when Leeds had a squad full of young players and signed Andrew Dunneman for a couple of years. IIRC he mainly played at 7 but played Hooker in a grand final. Leeds had Diskin, Maguire, Burrow and Sinfield all young playmakers but needed a bit of an experienced head in the team.
I also think this is more about the professionalism off the pitch. Remember all the talk of Morley and what he brings to the club other than on game day. We have lost Monaghan and Morley. Now a couple of years ago I believe that if somebody wasn't training hard enough or just not taking things seriously enough then those two would be queuing up to have a word. Who does that now, Joel, Bridge, Hill, Westwood. I just don't see it. But I can see Gidley pulling somebody to one side and giving them the hard word. He appears to have the intensity of M Monaghan. He may not be one of the biggest names but I do think he can bring a lot of added value.