What I said was I don't have a problem with them leaving IF we had replacements. There are very very few English players available and we seem to be losing more and more. Most squads have been announced. We had a small squad last year and its looking extremely like it will be smaller this year.

bit more patience mate, sure its wearing thin with most fans but signings like mamo and hardaker just havent come off for one reason or another, sure we will get some in before the season kicks off

mamo still expected over the next few weeks with wardle going other way

Is that supposed to be good mews?

Bad we can't keep hold of a great young athlete like Wardle.. However we are in desperate need of a fullback and we'd be getting somebody who would want to play for the Giants, while losing somebody with an ambition to play in Australia.

If it happens then good on him. He'll be missed by most.

Mamo released from knights
now can we borrow him back for the Auckland 9s
He's always our best in the 9s.

Apparently we have come to an agreement with Newcastle now and we will be announcing it sometime this week. Wardle going the other way.

Surely Wardle will be the last outgoing player and we will see another 2/3 additions after Mamo arrives.

So we are going to lose a quality young talent for a full back who is injured at the moment and unlikely to be fit for a while. Will someone please explain to me how that strengthens our paper thin squad?

Wardle going means we now need the following first team players

Fullback - presumably Mamo, Murphy/Simpson/Gaskell back up

Left centre - nobody been mentioned but we need a top class one - Murphy/Sam Wood/Gaskell back up

Left wing is weak - Murphy first choice for me, back up of Ormsby and Darnell if Murphy injured or playing elsewhere

2 Props - 1 of which has to be top class with Mason/Clough/Smith battling for other positions. Seb and Taai can play here but both are better on the fringes imo.

Hooker - Leeming will be a big player this year (he needs to be) but I'd rather Hinchy cover hooker only when necessary. We need a top line hooker.

If cap is an issue then following Mamo we need to prioritise in the following order Hooker/Centre/Prop for me.

I suppose the reality of it is with the time of year, money and players available we will probably end up with a couple of unknown quota gambles and a couple of British surplus squaddies (in addition to the Bradford lot)

We don't need anything like that

Mamo at the back, with a ton of cover
Left centre - Sam Wood or Gaskell, plus loads of cover
Left wing - Ormsby, with a load of cover

Prop, we need a new one with Wakeman being likely

It'll do for me


Murphy remains an entirely dependable squad player, but lacks pace at wing, power and handling at centre and organisation at full back to be first choice

Utterly dependable yes. Match winner. No

Ormsby has the power and pace to do the job on the wing for me

great news if we get the long awaited news of mamo, maybe the delay is to do with the injury he picked up in some way

id be happy with murphy and ormsby on the left hand side for us...other options available too, gaskell, wood, mckintosh can go centre with murphy on wing if ormsby fails to take the chance on wing, you can play murphy where you want and he will give you a performance every week.

hooker is a worry for me, not sure leeming is the answer but hopefully he rises to the task

Leeming was a lot better than Hinchy last season for me, he needs someone else though

Most importantly needs to learn to ignore Brough when he's demanding the ball and take the right option but that's experience

Not sure keeping the ball away from our only playmaker is the way to go, at least till we find out If Leeming is going to make the grade.

I know the point you are making though, that we need someone to take some of the load of Brough, Other sides have found it just to easy to stop our game, Ellis was supposed to do that, but he was never going to make the grade as a half, Funnily enough i thought he may have had a chance at Hooker if he had lost a bit of weight and gained a yard in speed.
Leeming needs to take his chance and step up now, he is never going to get a better chance.

Yeah I had hoped Ellis would go to 9 with Leeming

What I mean about ignoring Brough is there were times last season when the ball always went to Brough when the play was obviously to go the other way

One thing Robbo was good at was over ruling Brough in the approach play

Wish we had kept wood really as he was good last season at hooker for us

leeming and hinchcliffe to swap hooking roles as it stands for 2017, injury then maybe brough will go in at hooker again! gaskell and brierley half backs!

Why the panick, if this were Wigan,Saints, Rhinos, even Cas etc, they would whistle down the tunnel, bring on some kid out of the Academy, enthusiasm often makes up for lack of expieriance, the afore mentioned teams have literally flooded their teams will youngsters in the not too distant passed. We have a coach who is reportedly a master with the young uns, yes we do need a couple of class players, but l would like to think that the likes of Dickinson, Johnson, McIntosh, Simpson, can step up and jion Leeming, Mason, Smith,and Roberts, in bulking out the squad.
When the going gets tough the tough get going, get behind the club.

Good post, says it all!

Spot on Boomer.

We do need to make more use of our young players i agree. I am not a fan of moving half the team around to get another player in, It's not necessary a lot of the time

That was definitely an Anderson fail

Shuffle around 6 player for one injury instead of just making one swap with a young player

No, it's his brother who has left

I'm looking forward to a quality young talent coming in for a centre who is unhappy at the club and has made no secret of his desire to leave for the NRL.

But you pose a good question regarding how this signing strengthens the squad. Surely the best one to answer this will be Rick Stone himself - perhaps you could drop him a line? If you do, would you be so kind as to relay his answer to us?

I'm with you on that one.
Nathan Brown and Paul Anderson were both guilty of it.

Jon Sharp, who's hand was pretty much forced on bringing in Cudjoe and Lawrence, due to our depth of squad really paid off. Give players enough experience and they can grow to be international class with a heart of claret and gold.

its ok bringing in the youngsters , but they cant all come in at the same time like last season due to injuries and having a small squad it didnt work and having to play too many games and losing is no good for the confidence

we need better luck with injuries next season, same for every club if the injuries hit they will struggle.. more so if you have a small squad like us

Yep. I'm hoping the likes of Wood and Macintosh can have a few back to back games during the season without it being because there is nobody else.

It would obviously be easier if we were getting some good results and not fighting to avoid the bottom 4!

they may get their chance in the two warm up games, their chance to impress!