How do you mean 'not true'? How do you know what was offered, are you his agent? His dad? Gary Hetherington?

Your word is no more accurate than anyone else's, my truth comes from someone at the club, I can't prove it but neither can you. There are many 'truths' in RL, mine and yours are equally valid, unless you can prove it - always tricky on a forum.

So I'll let you have 50%.

Here she goes again…it’s been a while!

Yep I did believe he was too small in height at one point, during the 2020 off season he shot up though probably 2 or 3 inches, and as you correctly stated I changed that opinion.

I’m totally over egging him? In what way, saying he would have been a good squad middle player at 13 due to his work rate, his ability to play long minutes and his low error rate.

I’m not claiming he is Andy Farrell but I do think he would have gone well in that middle role last year had he signed for us.

I’m not undermining our ownership because I think a player who I feel would have done a good job for us in 2022, that’s a big stretch even by your standards.

Hull KR got to a Challenge Cup Final and Eliminstion semi final in 2023. That’s a club that is going well, that’s a fact, not speculation if we get to those levels I will be over the moon let’s not pretend KR are not a top team, they are and he is a part of that squad who are a top team…another fact, not speculation.

Cook Islands are ranked 13th of rugby league nations, if anyone is over egging things in a silly (but expected) response it’s not me.

How do I know what he was offered? What does that have to do with you?

His younger brother is a bit of a late developer just been signed from the Wakefield College program to join up with the Academy next year. Very talented kid, just needs to get his head down and do the work and he could go well at Trinity too.

Aydin has just turned 23, he’d be a good pickup in the Championship where he might develop and become a genuine SL middle. The thing that makes him different from most young forwards is his leg speed, he’s not a lumbering one paced forward he eats up yards and with more maturity & experience he could be a very solid stalwart for years.
He certainly wouldn’t let us down and IMO is tough enough to stand up when we go to Cumbria, Batley etc

Yes but remember he wasn’t considered to be worth investing in by our football manager at the time, nor were Croft or Shaw and I wonder what happened to them.

I simply don't believe this.

I liked Aydin but I don’t see what all the fuss is about him.
Yeah he might have played a few games last season but he hadn’t been someone who glaringly stood out in the games I saw him play.
We’ve signed better.

Not sure there is a fuss. I don’t think he ever going to threaten the England team but I do think he will have a solid SL career over the next 8-10 years and no shame in that if he does.

He was one of the standout props at academy level because of his work ethic which bodes well for him.

It’s all about perspective I guess.

We sign a kid who has never played against adults from Australia and some people get very excited but then don’t see the benefit of bringing back a youngster who is a proven SL level player.

I don’t know why because it definitely happened or do you live in a parallel world.

No, I mean I can't believe we had a football manager.

Sorry about that we did apparently but he was new to this particular job title.

Players had to move on to balance the books and keep the club safe , as I remember at the time of Batchelers departure it was looking more and more likely that we were heading out of super league and so through his agent he got the best deal he could to safeguard himself and his young family , and that was HKR , and we move on . . A raft of Trin players left around that time under the management of Harrison’s company, (don’t forget Murphy ) Whether he fell out with MC is neither here or there to me as Carters hand were tied and the future of the club took precedence over any players at that time . Move forwards two years and things may be a whole lot different, but water under the bridge now . Crofts and Shaw need to kick on this season or so and show Powell that they are worth their respective shirts when we get back in super league.

Just to be clear, we didn't want to invest as much in Shaw or Croft as they thought they were worth. Rightly or wrongly.
It's not that they didn't want to invest.

That's bang on is that. And the fact that they both ended up back with us in the Championship after everything that got said probably shows that there weren't any other clubs that thought they were worth it either. I thought their agent made himself look a bit of an idiot to be honest and if I was the parent of a young player I'd be advising them to stay clear of him.

Well let’s get it right then, we offered them more money to come back!

Think the issue with them struggling to find other clubs on a more permanent basis revolved around the fact the club would have been due a transfer fee due to their age.

Croft would be a free agent next season as he's 23 this year.

True but he wasn’t when he left first time around hence the reason he ended up in Australia.

Big year for him next year, probably career defining for him.

I agree. I felt last season that Championship was probably more his level, but a year working with Shenton and he could be a different player.