if shaul were to leave, as well as rankin, id play naughton at fb. I always thought he was brought in to make cover for wing/centre full back and or half back if needed.
played a lot of his rugby down under in the halves, think he could really make full back his own, as I say, if shaul is leaving aswell

It doesn't matter a great deal how good our wingers are until we have a settled HB & SO pairing.

I think Sneyd and Pryce were good additions but they haven't reached full potential regarding attacking play. Hopefully next season they will gel better and we will see better distribution in the back line

Let's play the James Snailes guessing game

Good news Fonua
Expected Wahbrook
Bad news Rankin

Steve Michaels new 1 year deal .

In the James Smailes Guessing game...

New - Fonua, Washbrook,(plus the UK based backrower mentioned yesterday)
Retained - Michaels (announced), Yeaman

Out - Rankin and Ellis to retire

Other non-recruitment: a new strip for the Super 8's (the club mentioned 5 shirts this year and there have been 4)

Losing Ellis to gain Paterson would be a shocking move.

Say if Ellis is on 200k and his retirement wasn't expected, then we should have 200k to go towards his replacement. Paterson isn't worth that. Tempt Sam Burgess maybe??



Joe Greenwood would be ok as a future star

Harrison has been mentioned.

Still not sure about the Michaels deal, solid player,much improved recently but would rather play the young wingers in his place. Depends who else we retain and sign.

Joe Greenwood is fine where he is thanks - Mark Flanagan is leaving Saints at the end of the year though and Hull spoke to him last year - he fits the description given and wouldn't surprise me

Let's be realistic, we haven't got the money for a transfer fee for Greenwood and why would he leave Saints for us.

Hansen would be a good signing as Ellis/Minis long term replacement.

Could also be a high profile departure !

Or unrelated to the playing side of things hullfc.com/article/41082/club-st ... -from-2016

Or unrelated to the playing side of things hullfc.com/article/41082/club-st ... -from-2016

Yet again our 3/4 line next year will be full of average utility players. Recruitment hasn't addressed our deficiencies IMO

Looking like a very inexperienced three quarters next season. Risky strategy.

There was some talk earlier in the thread about Sa. I was flabbergasted to read in the HDM piece that he's only 27 years old. I was under the impression he was the wrong side of 30 !

from what ive seen of carlos,hes no centre.hes played 6 in the games he has played for Newcastle this season.showed some nice touches,but doesn't look a strike centre to me.

quote="ditchley16"from what ive seen of carlos,hes no centre.hes played 6 in the games he has played for Newcastle this season.showed some nice touches,but doesn't look a strike centre to me.'" HIGHLIGHTS: Mounties v Knights (Rd 6) - NSWRL - www.nswrl.com.au/news/2015/04/13 ... ties_.html this game is from the centre. Hes in the 6shirt tho scoring 1st couple of tries

quote="ditchley16"from what ive seen of carlos,hes no centre.hes played 6 in the games he has played for Newcastle this season.showed some nice touches,but doesn't look a strike centre to me.'" HIGHLIGHTS: Mounties v Knights (Rd 6) - NSWRL - www.nswrl.com.au/news/2015/04/13 ... ties_.html this game is from the centre. Hes in the 6shirt tho scoring 1st couple of tries

Unless we're losing some players we're not yet aware of it looks to me like too much quantity and not enough quality next season. Massive amount of cap tied up in the back row and nowhere near enough quality in the outside backs. The 3/4's have been nowhere near good enough and we're losing our best one of them (hopefully to be replaced by a decent winger), keeping michaels and yeaman and recruiting and a 6 who we'll be playing at centre.

We only have one hooker so are signing an average back rower who looks likely to be our back up hooker. Completely baffling recruitment IMO.

Rather than signing washbrook we should have picked up a hooker and instead of michaels, yeaman and tuimavave, we should have signed a recognised centre

In a nutshell..sadly

Yep

Signing a top overseas centre is easier said than done, how many other clubs have these, the best two overseas are Noon and Gelling, not exactly works class are they.

Certainly risky recruitment, but we have signed a very good winger/centre who has played 50 NRL at the age of 22 for a top NRL team, I'll doubt any SL will sign better. Carlos is a risk, but highly rated by a lot of Newcastle fans and Phil Gould.

Our backs and forwards are better than this season, if it's enough to take us yo the next level is the main question.

Who said top class? I just said we needed to sign a recognised centre. Our centre options next season appear to be talanoa, yeaman, michaels, logan and tuimavave, none of which is good enough for a team wanting to challenge IMO

May I ask challenge for what?

Not having a go, it's a genuine question. What does success look like next year.

Because all I can see at best is top 6 and go for the cup again.

We are light years away from top 4 IMO, and a recognised centre wont make much difference to that.

Ultimately I'm expecting another season of total mediocrity, but I'm used to it now!

A decent centre, winger, hooker and another prop plus a better coach and we'd be top 6/6 material IMO. Instead we sign washbrook to play hooker, no props and makeshift outside backs. Recruitment and retention, plus coaching, is why we're so far behind

Jury is out on recruitment for me, Washbrook aside they may turn out to be very good. Agree with you on retention and particularly coaching though.

here's hoping pearson doesnt rush to give radford a new extension to his contract!