No thanks. A player on the wane in a position were we already have good cover given Hock, Crosby and with Fielden back in the next month or so. If we've got space leave it available should something come along where we are short of cover - for example what happens if Carmont get a season ending injury?

If Newcastle and then Leeds were both happy to get rid early it should sound alarm bells.

Short term - an experienced prop to add competition to the props?

No brainer.

To be honest, the underlined bit is just a soundbite. There could be any numbers of reasons why it didn't work out for him at Leeds, not least the poor coaching and generally poor team attitude.

The reality is that he would provide back-up for us. And at the right price, you can't have too much back-up.

We don't know where Hock will play, or if he'll be up to his former standard. We don't know when Fielden will be back, or if O'Carroll will ever reach the required level having had so much time out. So that's questionmarks against all three of the players you name. In addition, there are questionmarks against Coley's fitness, and we still don't know what the likes of Davies and Crosby can do at first grade, so we can't be sure they'll just slot into the first team should we have an injury crisis.

I see no harm whatsoever in giving someone like Cross a short contract, so long as it's not for silly money (which, with IL in charge, it won't be).

short term he will just disrupt the team, we are finally getting it together and introducing him would just not help.
leeds let him go early, and they r not having a good season, we dont need other peoples cast offs, he obviously isnt playing well and age catching him up,

Maybe not part off the famous Leeds Clique?

This clearly is a concern, but presumably we wouldn't give him any kind of contract unless he'd passed a stringent medical and so on?

If he's just not up to it any more, then obviously we shouldn't go near him.

Theres no reason why we can't alternate Cross with Coley as they are both grafters who are getting on a bit and need a break to keep them fresh every now and again, if we have the quota and cap space and we were looking at him before he signed for Leeds why the hell not.

I seem to remember Craig Smith didn't rip it up for me in his first year but went on to become a great prop.

Cross will have something to prove to the rest of Superleague and with him in the squad bolsters our pack and would put us on a par with Hudds and Wire in regards to pack size and quality.

Imagine this for a pack against Wire in the cup

8 -Fielden 9 - Leuluai 10 - Coley
11 - Hansen 12 - Hoffman
13 - O'loughlin

14 - Lima 15 - Cross 16 - McIllorum 17 - Hock/Prsecott/Mossop

i wouldnt put him ahead of any of hock prescott or mossop

He's been useless for Leeds and whilst I can understand there's circumstances maybe around that I'm still not sure why we would need him. We have 4 props on top of their games at the minute and Fielden waiting to come back. We also have Hock back who may well play prop and a couple of promising youngsters.

I think I'd rather us sit on any cap space and wait and see if any good centres become available.

Our props are currently:

Lima, Prescott, Coley, Fielden, Crosby, (Hock), O'Barrell, Davies (Sorry if I've missed anyone off)

If we look at the breakdown of this:
Fielden: injured, we don't know when he's to return and what he'll be like when he's to return.
O'Carroll: Long term injury, questionable if was good enough anyway
Davies: Not YET good enough, not impressing enough to push for a first team spot.
Crosby: Needs more experience before he pushes for the the first team, at least another season away.
Lima: Fine
Mossop: Fine
Prescott: Fine
Coley: On his way out.
Hock: Still a SR forward, we don't actually know if he'll even move up front, its all rumour.

So we have Lima, Mossop, Prescott who are all 'good to go' with Coley on the wane.

I don't think recruiting Cross would restrict the development of any of our props.

"Coley on the wane" - when did this happen?

no thanks

He's retiring at the end of the season. He's at the back end of his career. Regardless of such, recruiting another experienced prop doesn't exactly do us any harm.

And more importantly, does Wane know?

When they said Cross to Wigan, maybe they meant

He's the same age as Cross, is retiring because he has a good job and career lined up and isn't going to be replaced by Cross this season even if we signed him.

He certainly isn't on the "wane" based on performances this season.

Coley's stats from last Friday would say he is anything but "on the wane"! He isnt even 33 yet and he is being written off. Cross wouldnt be a good replacement for any of the Wigan props the way they are currently playing - especially not Coley

Agreed

But to support them for the next 6 months with an open mind...who knows?

That's the thing for me - we don't know how Fielden will cope when he comes back, what if it's more problematic than we thought and he doesn't play a part this season - will having an experience prop ready to fill his place in the squad help us come Playoff time? I think so.

Bit OT, but has anything been said about Leeds bringing in anyone to replace these two, surely theyd be left short in the front row if the dont, and they have hardly been on top form even with them

What Bollox: bolster their Pack strength. I hope not! the way the pack mastered Stains and without Fielden, Hock, Farrell and Crosby. The Guardian is known for it's typos, it should have read Worriers (Warrington) not Warriors.

heard they'd signed Griffin from Huddersfield

step down imo, but there you go

I wish people would stop going on about Crosby he is not a front line Prop, if we pick up an injury with one of Mossop, Prescott, Lima or Coley then we are down to the bare bones. At times this year we have gone into massive games with 3 or less Props, St George anyone?

A big question mark hangs over Fielden, and it certainly does not sound like it will be an easy injury to come back from.

Yes Hock can fill in but he can also slot just as easily into the backrow.

Options are always a headache, but as the old saying goes, "its a nice headache to have."

Crosby would get mullered filling in for those guys, and that is no disrespect to him and Davies has been off the pace from what I have seen from his performances at Barrow.

Everytime you post a picture it just comes up as the word 'image' , are you doing it right?

i can see it