Two things - not much money.

Remember most Championship players are part-time, not much of an incentive to join a struggling SL club on not much money. It's a perennial problem, many Championship players if you combine their salaries and the money they get playing part-time RL are on better money than most SL players.

They have to be exceptional, young and willing to take a risk. Can't see many of those, unfortunately.

Hell, just looked at York again and missed Pauli Pauli!
I get what you are saying Vasty. We got Keegan Hirst from Batley and he did ok for a while. Walmsley came from there too. Nothing will happen before Thursday after which will follow another meltdown.

The only problem with a loan swap deal is you have to have a player they want.

How did Sam Eseh get on at Barrow?

He looks a big unit and can’t be far off making his debut at SL. I remember him impressing 2021 pre season against Dewsbury I think. Looking forward to seeing how he’s grown.

18 is young for a prop but getting a few first team games under his belt this year would help his development I think. He certainly looks like a unit.

The point is surely that we need someone better than championship quality??

For next season? Sure. It can be a project. But not for now.

He's big and he made his debut last year I think.

IMHO he's not ready yet, he's too raw. You could argue he's no worse than what we have but really we don't want to be introducing these lads to a team on a losing streak if we can avoid it.

If we get a few wins under our belt and he does ok at Barrow then maybe a spot on the bench at some point.

I didn’t think he’d debuted yet for the first team and thought the friendly was his only game.

He is raw for sure and I can see your point about bringing into a team on a losing streak but if he can get some minutes under his belt at barrow it would be worth giving him a couple of games towards the back end of the season if only so he can grasp what is expected of him at that level should he wish to break into the team for 2023.

We have certainly been very patient with him it seems. He has the physique that indicates he could cause defences some problems given some time and the right attitude.

SL has seen a fair few success stories over the year, especially in the forwards. Walmsley (Batley), Hill (Leigh), Hirst (Batley), England (Featherstone).

Unfortunately with many clubs being part time, it's a massive risk for them to take to join a struggling club. IMO we should be looking at the younger lads we have coming through and potentially a fringe forward from the NRL to replace Arona.

I can never understand why Tyler Dupree is stuck in the Championship.

A mixed set of examples to be fair.

Walmsley was always on everyone's radar, he just started at Batley so he could finish his Degree. He was always SL bound.

So was Hill in a way but Leigh kept hold of him for longer than expected - did debut at 18 so Warrington signed him at exactly the right moment.

Hirst is fair enough but sadly nowhere near as good as the other two.

Dupree is the obvious one though rumours suggest he may be Salford-bound next year.

There aren't many obvious young ones at Championship level and some of the more promising Championship forwards (Harrison, Halton, Garrett) were snapped up by SL clubs last year. Heck, Kyle Trout got a SL gig the other year. The fact that Leigh have basically gone with a series of NRL fringe/Intrust Super Cup Aussies in their pack and Fev have gone with a string of veterans tells its story.

Fev's pack which includes the 37yo Cuthbertson, the 36yo Lockwood, the 35yo Moors and then the baby of our pack, a promising youngster called Craig Kopczak, has pretty much dominated every Championship team it has faced this year. To be fair they pretty much matched the Catalans pack in the Cup too apart from struggling with Kasiano a bit.

There's just a shortage of middles/props around, every team is looking for the same type of player.

Whenever I see him or read about him he just seems too good for the championship already. At 22 years old he's already gone through Siddal, Salford, Leeds, Fev, Oldham, now Widnes and possibly Salford next.
Strange.

I've watched him a few times now and you have to wonder. It all looks to be there.

Maybe he has an attitude issue or some baggage we don't know about but if not he looks far more destructive than Whiteread as a prop, so if we were willing to take a punt on him then why not this lad.

I'll be honest the way SL clubs sign players baffles me at times.

Is that really the right way to improve us right now. In not sure it is.

We currently have one from the championship that looks totally out of his depth.
I'
I'm not convinced going down that route will necessarily improve us in the long run.

That wasn’t the point and I wasn’t suggesting we sign him now, I’m wondering if we looked at him pre season as that would have been the time imho. The point is that this player does look a bit special so it makes you wonder. If Whitbread or Sid was worth a go then why isn’t this lad, he’s certainly got the size and the skills.

Of course there may be a very good reason he’s not in SL but he’s certainly not lacking in size and he’s fairly local.

I don’t think we’ve been patient… I think we are being sensible… he was signed to the squad just over a year ago at 17…. He’s a raw boned kid … with the potential to develop into a monster… with the right development he could be a first team regular by the time he's 20 … but that’s two years away … are you patient enough to wait that long??

I think there has been a feeling that until this season he hasn't quite "fillled his frame" ie in terms of muscular development he's still a bit of a shell and not yet as strong as he will be one day. I was still surprised no SL club took a punt on him given some of the ones who hae got a SL gig.
He looked great early on for Widnes this year but on their forum some of their fans cooled on him a little lately, though their team has been dreadful as a unit for a few weeks now (he's currently injured anyway).
The development of big young forwards can be difficult to predict too. When Jordan Baldwinson played for Fev aged 21 I was convinced he'd progress into an international-calibre forward. He didn't do anything wrong or particulalrly regress from then on - he just didn't progress at all, bounced around a variety of clubs, and is now a solid but journeyman Championship forward.

Couldn’t agree more.

My point regarding Dupree is that we gave yet another relatively unproven Aussie a deal yet we never seem to take the same punt on a British player.

It’s not that Whitbread is poor it’s that he’s clearly IMO nothing special and an overseas should be a bit special. I’m far happier to have tried and lost on a possibly talented British player than a standard overseas.

My guess with Dupree is he lacks professionalism but isn’t that the job of SL clubs to take raw talent and mould it. This is where IMO modern SL coaches don’t do their job. It’s partly down to P&R but it’s also a lack of coaching ability in that key area. Kear once said that the sort of people you invite into your rugby team are not always the ones you'd invite into your living room. I think we put far too much emphasis on players being a nice lad and fitting in when we should be looking for winners regardless of how pleasant they may or may not be, the coach will make sure they are kept in check. For me, it's gotten way too cosy at Trinity but I accept I'm looking in from way outside. It was Brough I believe Kear was on about.

As I’ve said on another thread, Kear was good at it and Andy Kelly and Toppo were brilliant at it.

I think there is a mould/ culture at Saints. They don’t seem to produce bad eggs.
Also, they released Bentley and his season has been interesting for him so far!
I know what a bit of mongrel can do for a team though, particularly in position such as scrum half and prop and we have a few examples in our back pages.

Jack Bussey would walk in to this team in my opinion

Anthony Mullally

I think we have enough championship props already.

You beat me too that lol

Oh come on we are bad but not that bad.



Why not suggest John Glancy.

If you want to improve our pack then you’d need serious money for serious players.

It’s probably to late now we are going to have to find a way with what we have got, which I grant you is virtually nothing. We even missed Eddie Battye last night!

Thought Matongo did a reasonable job in the middle for York tonight. He certainly has the size and is the right age for another crack at SL.
Eseh showed some promising signs and definitely has potential. The loan move to Barrow will do him the world of good.