Drinkwater’s been linked to wire. Regarding Napa all though he’s been a loose cannon this year I don’t think Catalans style will have helped.

Daniel Alvaro potentially still available as Toulouse dropped out of SL and can’t afford to pay SL contracts….

Did they really.

They finished second. I'd take that.

You would probably expect the below to be in /around the 17;

Whitbread - 24
Butler - 24
Tanginoa - 28
Bowden - 30
Battye - 30
Crowther - 25

Then add to that the likes of Eseh and Windrow hopefully breaking through to play a few, even if you add a few older forwards 32/33+ we still have a good mix of youth and experience IMO.

Afraid it’s one of the sully things fans do to wallow in negativity. This year it’s dads army next year it will be the baby brigade.

True should we sign Proctor that would push the average age uo. But if you want some real quality from the NRL by nature they will be knocking on.

We’d all prefer Proctor aged 28-30 but at that point he was still hot property in the NRL. It’s never going to happen, not even for Saints.

All that matter is that one, he and any of the other older players are still up for it and two, no long term injuries .

We won’t have many of them at their best but we don’t need that, decent form will do nicely.

If rumours are to be believed we will have Proctor, Mago and Lawrence adding to the Props and Taylor at loose.

4 rumours that refuse to go away.

I'm sure you've posted that before, and when you did, someone explained to you that Proctor is a second Row.

Isn’t Lawrence a loose that has ocassionally filled in at prop? He’s more a steady Eddie forward I think.

Mago would be idea for us. We need that impact from the bench and a player who has big drives and can push out some post contact metres. Him or a player like fits that bill.

Proctor - we need a second row and I can see him starting and Tanginoa also coming on to add some real impact from the bench. Unless we play to start with Proctor and Tanginoa with Ashurst coming on for Proctor. That’s some serious size in the second row and the more I think it could be a positive move if we get a motivated Proctor.

Taylor - very much a defensive 13. Not sure we need him and Lawrence tbh. One or the other for me.

It’s interesting as if these 4 come true then we actually haven’t really explored the option of WC players afterall.

There’s some good looking players in the WC that would be worth a look at still.

I would guess we still have more than just 4 coming in.

Hope to see Shaw and Croft re-sign for us too.

Lawrence and Taylor are world's apart.
Taylor is one of if not the best defender in the league

Proctor has been a secondrow for most of his career however as is often the case he was increasingly used as a middle towards the end of his time in the NRL.

I think we will see him used as a Prop at Trinity with KT reverting back to his more effective second row position under the new coaching set up.

Other than that thread on wigan fans, where’s the mago rumour coming from?

Hard to see anything in it. Not on any of the media outlets, many of whom are willing to publish forum gossip as fact.

Was told this by someone very close to the Wigan club, someone who is very rarely wrong.

Not saying they are right, but they are right a lot more than they are wrong and they only really say something if it is in the pipeline.

Out of all the players we’re linked with Taylor is by far for me the best. Captained Salford last year amazingly. Saw the cream of the crop of NZ forwards running at him when he played the exhibition game for Leeds vs the kiwis, he felled them one after the other. Folded Asofa Solomona in half to the point he got up grimacing.

I`d snap your hand off right now for those 4 tbh, although Proctor is a bit of a gamble for me, that would be a gamble worth taking as we would have 2 very good known quantities as SL players in Mago and Taylor (I really rate Mago as one of the best forwards in the league) and a solid workhorse in Lawrence.

I wonder if Mago has been on the phone to Mr Demetriou.

I believe any movement with Mago will depend on Wigan securing their targeted replacement for him.

Salford closing in on Sam Stone from Leigh centurions back rower. Played 30 and scored 9 last year looking good. Rumour was that he was NRL bound but now wants to stay in the UK.

Maybe worth a look if the Proctor deal isn’t over the line?

He looked good when I saw him for Leigh and believe they were gutted he was leaving but appears he’s now available and possibly a victim of the quota spots at Leigh. Big lad about to hit his prime years too.

Played a good few NRL games before joining Leigh. Could we nip in there and bring him to trinity maybe?

Still plenty about.

Not sure if you know this Trojan, but we were very close to signing Stone when we signed Whitbread as both were offered to us at the time, Carter mentioned at the last fans forum they were sat watching the last Leigh game of the season and stone was immense for them and Whitbread didn`t have a great game, he said they went away that night feeling they had taken the wrong one and the rest is history! So I would imagine if we still have a spot we may be interested.

That would put paid to the idea that Whitbread was a late pick up. He would have had to have been signed up two months before he was announced.

Despite the lack of announcements I’m confident that similarly this year most of our business has already been done for 2023, maybe not all of it…but most of it.

Luckily Whitbread has been very good for us! It seems Stone may be available though seemingly on a loan deal as Leigh are expecting quota changes to happen where a loan doesn’t count on quote (loaned out).

I’d certainly be looking into Stone though if he’s an option.

It’s a possibility that we already had a couple signed for 2023 before season ended yet to be announced. All we can do is wait and see though.

I noticed that Hampshire still doesn’t have a contract for 2023.

With us still needing a full back and possibly halfback cover/options I’d certainly look at Hampshire as an option purely for his versatility across the back line and halves.

I think he’s recovering from an ACL? And probably a number of months off but if the deal is right maybe it’s worth a look to add some depth/cover.

I can't see any logic in signing Hampshire up at this moment in time. When we're so tight on our budget why would you pay someone to sit in recovery for 4 or 5 months?
Wait until he's recovered and fit to go and then see if it's an option we need at the time.
Yes, you risk that someone else might pick him up in the meantime but I'd rather that than pay him for half a season that he is not available