Some of the signings we made this season came with some reservations.

Most notable was Westerman who I feared may have been after a final pay. So far more than so good, added some real class, not totally on the same wave length as the rest of the team just yet but getting closer every game.

Ryan Atkins looked the most committed player on the park on Sunday, lost his pace but he’s still strong and clearly wants to play.

Naveretta??? He looked far too small when I first saw him but has a big heart and despite his size always seems to beat the first man, I like him far more than I thought I would.

Along with Green, Tangata, Pitts, Walker and Tanganoa there doesn’t look a poor signing amongst them, well not so far anyway. Sorry if I forgot anyone.

We’ve missed Fifita and Arona but nowhere near as much as I expected. Some real competition in that pack when they are fit.

I was thinking this at Salford tbf.

Navarrete was my motm. He took no prisoners and really upset the Salford forwards by playing strong and direct both in the tackle and running it in. Really liking his style of play.

Pleasantly surprised by Pitts too. He’s almost a carbon copy of Ashurst on the left. Professional, runs good lines and can tackle like a pro.

Westerman appears to have that touch of class but makes good metres too. Tangata looks stronger and fitter than last season and a pro pre season has done him good. Green coming back from injury looked solid too at Salford for a first hit out.

Think they are all good additions to the team and I’m looking forwards to seeing more of them in the mighty trinity shirt and playing there part in hopefully getting some good wins this season.

Navarrete looked like a desperation signing and I suppose he was, sometimes you’re lucky with them sometimes not. Too early to be sure but we may just be the right club at the right time for him.

Have to say CC would be brave to drop him, I wouldn’t.

Very happy with Westerman, he looks part of the team and displays lots of enthusiasm.
He's one of those players I really didn't appreciate until he came to us.
It's very difficult to try and think what CC's first 17 would be? Perhaps he hasn't got a preferred 17 but would adjust the team according to the opposition?

Very astute signings by Chester to bring these players to the club .very early in season yet but already they are making a positive impact to our game .Navarrete on Sun ran the ball in with no regard for his own well-being ,Westerman is showing the type of ball skills we’ve been missing up front for a while, what can you say about kelepi, very lucky to have him I’d say.
Walker needs game time to get up to speed to show us his true worth, Green is a big unit and takes some getting down as well as driving it in well and Pitts puts his self about the field ,whilst tangata only knows one way ,and that’s forward.Special mention to max who yet again has been asked to fill in an uncustomary role and come up good .Chester says Sun performance is the benchmark for the team ,role on hull I say .

Was always sure about Westerman. He was just what we needed. Showed it straight off the bat against HKR too.
The only one I had doubts about was Navarette but he seems like he's starting to find his feet now.

Agree with everything there, but you forgot Josh Wood....been really impressed with him too, as he looks more likely to score than his namesake - Kyle - who seems to have dropped off the pace a bit ??

Chuffing knew there was one and he's one of the best of the bunch, yes great signing.

Kyle it taking the brunt coming on first where last season he let Randall take the stick first ,all the big lads make a bee line for him

Yeah I was a bit "meh" when we signed J Wood but he's been great. Ferocious tackler and like a trufflepig when he goes for the line. From what Ive seen so far, definite upgrade on Randell

Well put, I remember Kear saying he never signed for the sake of it and always believed the player he signed was better than the one he replaced. This so far seems to be the case but it's early days so I'm still cautious as we've been caught out before.

THat may be Kears (and every other coaches) ambition. However, EVERY coach will make an error of judgement and not always does a "better player" improve the side.
It's all about how they fit into the structure and what they bring to the party.

Having said that, we've knocked a couple of years off the average age of our forwards and we appear to have a significantly more mobile pack than last season.
As usual, it's all about having the right players fit and in form at crucial times.
Right now, it's a case of getting through without two of our "first choice" spine and it will be interesting to see how we go on Friday.
I do agree that we look stronger though

I was thinking mainly of the forwards.

England (never recovered from injury)
Huby (ditto)
Hirst (I liked him but was borderline SL at best)
Anakin (local fave but never quite made it)

None of these would get a look in this year.

We have not really replaced Pauli in that we have two NRL spots left rather than in terms of his ability or lack of.

In terms of size and power we nudged down a bit but as far as I can see in terms of work rate and durability we've gone up quite a lot. As I say its a bit early but we look a younger, fitter more resilient outfit than last year. We got no breaks against Cas in terms of two serious injuries and one very dubious sin bin but we bounced back a week later which we weren't doing last year.

Absolutely agree.
It's difficult to know how good / bad Salford are this season although, it's probably fair to say they aren't the same team that made the GF and even though they blow hot and cold, Hull FC will be a far better benchmark. IF we can get a result on Friday and with players still to come back, things would definitely be looking up.
We shouldn't get too excited after one victory and it's all about backing last weekends result up, with another decent performance.

Looking forward to the game though.
Hull have great support and it promises to be a decent atmosphere under the lights on Friday.

Yeah agree with all that but I think though that Tanginoa is the direct upgrade to Pauli - probably the area we've made most improvement tbh!

I actually thought Naverette was poor in the first three games so hopefully we’ll now see some of the potential he showed at Catalans. I prefer Tanginoa in the back row, but he’s also been our best prop forward recently as well. Tough call who to drop for Arona this week.

He was our best forward on Sunday.

That’s good to hear. How did Crowther go? My guess is that he’ll be the one who makes way for Arona.

Crowther went ok, got through his tackling. Took a knock and went off for a head test IIRC.

Never went ok. Crowther is your ultimate steady developer. He’s not an automatic choice just yer imho but I reckon he will be one day.

Comparing players isn’t generally fair but in this case it is. A few years ago Crowther was totally eclipsed by Batchelor who looked a world beater. Now Crowther looks the better prospect. There is time for Batchelor to kick on but he needs to because there is a lot of competition in that back row and my money is now on Crowther.

For now though a fit Arona trumps both of them.

Harsh on Randall I’d say, took the brunt of the attack in the first half of games so woody could exploit the tiring defences .Thought as a team we were at our most productive with this combo, now we have woody up first and so far not as affective with big men running at him in the first half’s.No getting away from his defence so far, would like to see Them swap around and him out in first half were his defence would be an advantage and see if it helps woody’s game.

Think Randell got quite a bit of unfair flack by some. Granted, I dont think we quite got the best out of him. I think having such a good debut, and early games, couldn't maintain it. Also had rotten luck with injuries during his time with us. These weren't little niggles, these were serious ones.

My only criticism of Randell was the needless penalties he gave away that put us on the back foot. Just two that spring to mind where the opposition scored off the next set were a spear tackle at Cas just after Fifita had opened the scoring giving them the yards and then similar at London in that opening game when we were something to nil up. Having him and Kirmond on the pitch at the same time was frustrating as hell.

Oh yeah I dont think Randell was bad for us and appreciate what he did in terms of the hard work, but I just think so far JW is better at it, hits harder and more of a threat near the line.

Must agree with that Kettykat.