WP hasn’t made that many signings tbh but the ones he’s done seem good.

The one that sticks out for me is Hall. His signing upset a few and actually I got there point. However you’d be pretty mean spirited to not accept that Hall looks like one of the most natural young centres in the game.

Probably not season ready for SL yet but he’s far more advanced than I expected. I can easily see him pushing hard in 2023 which I wasn’t expecting tbh.

There is a way to go for Hall so no guarantees but on what we’ve seen so far a genuine prospect who with the right attitude could go all the way.

What it confirms to me is that although coaches make mistakes with players they still do way better than any of us.

Also note that on the team sheet on the website Whitbread is a Prop which again puts pay to the debate on here. No secondary role like some players have, not a LF just a prop as we were told.

I agree regarding Hall, he's a class prospect .
I was one who felt we were light at prop, the way that Fev steamrollered us, but who knows when the firmer pitches come and the warmer weather, the big props often can't cope as well and aren't as mobile.
We've had big props before and that hasn't always worked for us.
I remember years ago Fev had a prop called Vince Farrar who wasn't the biggest prop but had a heart like a lion. I would prefer that in my armament rather than a Jarrod Hickey.
Time will tell but our props certainly should be more mobile as summer comes on!

Agree on Hall and most of the post, but Its a bit far fetched to say because Whitbread has been put down as a prop on the website that he will just be a prop with no secondary role. Pitts is down as a second rower, yet he is our number 13 which would suggest Poaching at some point in the pre season looked at him as our best option at loose. I think his primary position is front row, but he has the best hands out of our pack for me and I think we will see him at LF more often than you think.

Squad numbers are just numbers these days, unlike the good old days, when you knew that players with 8 0r 10 on their back would be playing prop.
Whitbread should probably be playing LF but, we have plenty of options there.
Let's just see if WP can shuffle the deck and get us a few "W's", hopefully starting with the Hull game.

Not really, a number of players are down as multiple positions but not Whitbread. Not saying he won’t or can’t play LF I’m just saying that he’s primarily been signed as a prop imo.

Coaching is a results game. Unfortunately for WP he has a lot less to spend than the majority of teams in SL, although expectations obviously should match that too. I think we’ve done well with transfers, with all adding to the team for sure. The only signing I have question marks over is Hood, I’ve not seen much of him, though he seems a different type of hooker to Wood when I have seen him. Corey Hall is an astute signing, and until Tupou is back to full fitness it’s Hall’s position to lose for me.

I know at least one poster who used the signings comparison of Hall v Leilua as criticism of our club. Lets see how they develop.

Leilua can be a decent player... but he’s also prone to massive brain farts and often compounds with error on error.

Not seen much of Hood but from what I see I don't think he'll produce the darting runs that Woody used to do, but I'm prepared to see how he goes, probably a different type of player to Woody. Does he look a tad overweight, or is that how he always looks?
I completely agree re Hall, although Minns may be given a run first - who knows what WP thinks?

Tricky one, Minns has the experience but personally I feel like Hall has played himself into contention with his pre-season performances and the shirt is his to lose.
Like you say though, Willie may see it differently

Hall has probably earned the right I agree but I hope we are patient with him. With BT out I think he starts the season in the centre but is rotated and rested before he is over utilised. He looks a very good talent and both a natural athlete and wingers centre, however physically I think he has a little way to go (which at his age and stage of development generally goes without saying).

I hope he starts the year and the plan is to play 8-12 games across the course of the year whilst focusing away from the pitch on adding to his frame as he clearly could carry more weight with his build.

Similar in frame to a certain young Reece Lyne when he first came to trinity. Hall seems to have it all and I agree he only seems to lack that bit of physicality/muscle that comes with age. Looking forward to see him develop and I agree that he deserves to start the season. When he’s coming up against big units week in week out it will test him but I’m sure he will do good. I’ve also been impressed by Minns too though, he’s got his head down and looked good in pre season.

Am in my 70s now, have seen the good the bad and the damn right ugly. Always hoping for the best and never shocked at the worst. We are all hardened to it. I feel starting a season without props is nuts. Lacquer it any way you want but you would expect to be easily steam rollered by some teams. If DF is injured, we are in the poop. Not seen Lino yet and against Fev we were really shocking. The six unvaccinated will mean capitulation of the French games due to Covid rules, particularly if all are overseas players which we don’t know of course. I am a 100% glass half full person but this time have a negative feeling and want desperately to be 100% wrong. The Whitbread signing just seems plain daft to me. There had to have been a young prop looking to come over and cut his teeth in Super League. Playing people out of position is a massive gamble and often unsuccessful. There’s a bit of boom and bust about Fev and exactly the opposite from us. Maybe we will look at things again mid season. Vasty, I would love this re- posted to show I am completely wrong later in the season and I know there will be plus points like Hall (Craig still looks good by the way!) someone said a good big un will always beat a good little un. Against FC will be a barometer as they have a few missing. First time I have felt like this sadly. Sorry!

Whilst I do believe we are 1 prop light I don't think we really need to panic quite like the above would suggest.

Battye/Arona/Tangianoa/Whitbread/Fafita are all experiened senior prop forwards. We then have Aydin and Adebiyi as back up, both who have a number of senior appearances under their belts. The prop market has been very lean this offseason. Even the traditionally bigger teams have had to go a little left field to recruit n that department and to what is no doubt an inflated market in regards salary.

Trinity are a money ball side. We don't have the cash slushing around to pay over the odds for players. If we are to push up the table we need to get players in who provide more value than their cap value not less so paying over the odds really isn't an option.

We clearly are not going into the season with no props. We have a set of capable props and some with promise. The issue is we only really have one stand out prop, the others are all fairly similar in style and stature. We may well be waiting for a mid season move rather than panic and bring in the wrong type of person and player.

I think we are OK going into the season with the Prop options we have. In an ideal world we add some size later in the season when players become available on loan etc.

So you think you know better than Willie Poching?

Interesting.

It's not about knowing more, it's about knowing less.
We can all wax lyrical about what we'd like but we don't know what restrictions Willie has in terms of available cash to spend, current wage bill or what us available.

Let's see how it goes against Hull. That's the starting point. I'm optimistic but realistic as well.

Well put.

We as fans see 80 minutes per week for two-thirds of the year, so we know the punch line but none of the build-up.

However, you don't need to know much to know that anyone who thinks Fifita is our only prop is talking nonsense, he's our best but all teams have a best.

Posters should listen to the WP's podcast, there is a very realistic man who nonetheless believes totally in his ability and that of his team. You can be realistic but this desire to be negative before a ball is kicked frankly makes me puke, especially the line 'and want desperately to be 100% wrong.' I don't believe that line, to be honest, I think they love it. Put simply I personally wear my heart on my sleeve and have no time for defeatism or self-pity, certainly not for something as relatively trivial as sport, I find it nauseating and an easy way out for those lacking conviction. I'm sure I'll be lambasted by some for saying that but hey.

Never mind nobody knows better than WP Vasty, you think nobody knows better than you and nobody has an opinion. I hope you do puke, it may clear some of the bile from your system.
Tanginoa, Whitbread and Arona are not props. End of. This is a forum where opinions are expressed, you need to get out more.

Quote ="Manuel"Never mind nobody knows better than WP Vasty, you think nobody knows better than you and nobody has an opinion. I hope you do puke, it may clear some of the bile from your system. Tanginoa, Whitbread and Arona are not props. End of. This is a forum where opinions are expressed, you need to get out more.'" You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.

Quote ="Manuel"Never mind nobody knows better than WP Vasty, you think nobody knows better than you and nobody has an opinion. I hope you do puke, it may clear some of the bile from your system. Tanginoa, Whitbread and Arona are not props. End of. This is a forum where opinions are expressed, you need to get out more.'" You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.

Quote ="vastman"You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.'" You forgot Eseh.

Quote ="vastman"You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.'" You forgot Eseh.

I did, sorry

I accept some of those 8 lack experience but the potential is there in them all.

There’s definite potential for sure.

I do think that we have some reasonable/acceptable depth at prop. We do need some luck with injuries though I feel or we will be relying on some players with less experience but you can’t guage that.

Quote ="vastman"You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.'" Just to clarify on the Whitbread debate: 30 NRL Apperances for Gold Coast, 1 game started at prop, 2 games from the bench at prop. 8 games started at loose, 19 off the bench to loose. 4 Games at Leigh - 2 games at Loose, 2 games at prop. So in his senior career, he`s played around 14% of his game time at prop. His junior rugby for Burleigh looks to be a mixture of second row/Loose/prop. So I don`t quite think its people just deciding he is a LF after one game.

Quote ="vastman"You're right and I've just expressed mine. Whitbread is a prop, he's played there all his career at prop, for some reason people have decided after one game to call him a LF. Still, as I say Coach knows best and you don't. I realize you're clearly living in a dream world but for your information, the following players are props or can play there with ease. Fifita Battye Whitbread - is a prop see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Whitbread Aydin is probably a scrum-half in your book Adebiyi SR/Prop Tanginoa SR/Prop Shaw That's 7 props, all at various stages in their career, about the same as most clubs.'" Just to clarify on the Whitbread debate: 30 NRL Apperances for Gold Coast, 1 game started at prop, 2 games from the bench at prop. 8 games started at loose, 19 off the bench to loose. 4 Games at Leigh - 2 games at Loose, 2 games at prop. So in his senior career, he`s played around 14% of his game time at prop. His junior rugby for Burleigh looks to be a mixture of second row/Loose/prop. So I don`t quite think its people just deciding he is a LF after one game.

Whitbread is a "middle". I don't like the term but it is certainly a position we are stuck with for the foreseeable.

With ball handling 13s seeming to be very few and far between the 13 and Prop role in most cases has become interchangeable, and more often than not they do the same job.

A middle tends to be a little more mobile and agile than the traditional view of a bigger prop.

I think we have an imbalance in the prop rotation where we have possibly 6/7 middles and only one out and out Prop in Fafita.

Wigan last year were in a similar position with basically a prop rotation of middles and their lack of ability to get meters ended up with them being the lowest try scorers in the division, along with some very negative tactics from the coach at the time. The priority was for them to recruit 2 traditional Props and they had to search hard to find them from less obvious routes.

Covid and the arrival of a new franchise in the NRL for 2023 means the talent available from the NRL is going to be reduced even further which is why it is refreshing for us to be investing in youth and developing players not just looking at short term fixes.

I agree the middles have become interchangeable but if you look at our middles the 2 that stand out in terms of linking our attack, a decent pair of hands at the line and some good footwork at the line are Whitebread and Arona and I don`t think it`s any coincidence that they have both played a lot of rugby at 13 both here and the NRL. To be honest, I think Crowthers game has come on a lot passing near the line and linking in, not quite there yet but he`s vastly improved to what he was.