Same source as me then!

Presumably on your Wheels of Steel?

Motu Tony, torn Achilles tendon. Exact same injury as Gareth Ellis. Any comeback hopes shattered. Real shame because he has got himself into great shape and had a genuine chance with combining his current role with that of your interchange hooker.

Don't want to turn this into a slating Radford post, but it really doesn't matter who we sign if the coach cannot get them to play!

Depends. We'll likely finish 7th this year. Upgrades to the back row. Props better for including Ellis. Proven NRL winger replaces Lineham. Tuimavave replaces Rankin. Issues of lack of proven centre and interchange hooker no different to this year. Could be OK. Not Top 4, but that's unrealistic.

Think we'll definitely finish 8th, Catalan usually pretty good when it comes to play off rugby, can see them upsetting a few

It may all turn on whether we can beat Catalans at home.

We can recruit new signings until 'the cows come home',
but until we are coached as a team, things wont change.-IMO.

Depends how you define "not changing". If you gave Radford Leeds squad, it's fair to assume they'd beat our current team. Quality of playing personnel, believe it or not, makes a difference.

Will we break through the Top 3 "glass ceiling" with the 2016 squad and Radford? No. Would we with another coach, like Paul Anderson, or Frayssinous, or even Darryl Powell? Unlikely IMO. We might do better next season though than this. We have done better this season than last and the squad's better. Not an outrageous scenario.

Of course,quality playing personnel ,does make a difference,but the key is, too gell them into a team. and not into a group of individuals.

Players still mis-time runs, our passing is still slow & inaccurate, also 10 yards from the opposition try line, we are not decisive, we look clueless we have no set plan.

Playing against the top 4 in SL, our attack is nullified by the oppositions fast defensive line speed.

IF Radford,Last & Horne were at Leeds, Leeds's performances would slowly dissapate.-IMO

For mine, a proven coach would gell us into a 'team, I'm not saying we would be top 4, but at least we would be 50/50 chance of winning against a top side.

I doubt Castleford 's salary cap is on a par with us, and the difference in team ethic & performance, is noticeable. in my opinion as individuals,we have better quality players than Castleford.

Personally I have zero confidence in our coaching team.

I agree there'd likely be an improvement under Powell. But saying that there'd be no change with a better squad is crackers.

Well if we are going to have a better squad next season then we can surely expect better performances and a higher finish.

If there is no improvement then Radford will have no excuses.

In year three of his tenure with what is truly his own squad, he won't be able to blame anyone else.

Of course quality of playing personnel makes a difference, but we are never going to have a squad as good as Leeds, Wigan, Saints or Wire. We therefore need a coach who can get the best out of the players we have.

I was only thinking about this this morning.
Teams like Hudds and Cas were once teams we'd expect to beat quite regularly and were almost the whipping boys of the league.
Now no longer. Hudds are far superior and for me between ourselves and Cas the balance of power so to speak is now shifting towards them.
The catalyst for these 2 teams has definitely been there coaching appointments which has enabled their clubs to improve beyond us.
Pritchard and Taylor aside our recruitment is of an unknown nature thus far and hopefully an improvement over what we currently have but unless our style of play and tactical approach radically change I believe we will still encounter the same issues but will scrape top 8 again. Top 6 is where we need to be aiming at As Cas and Hudds have consistently achieved last 2 seasons.
For me to get the best out of our squad this season and next we need a new coach.
For me we could improve but think it would be down to improved players quality not coaching ability.

i think us and cas are two evenly matched teams on the field, results have proved it this season, 2 wins each! we could have won that game easily last night, but 3 players weren't strong enough mentally, funnily enough the 3 players we are losing.

agree with the comments about hudds though, i do wonder how they manage to attract a certain calibre of player, location? wages?

I may have miss heard but barely caught the radford interview from before the cas game. When asked about signings said they was looking at bringing in a backrow (as we know) and a back? Did I miss hear that?

Maybe Washbrook is covering wing and FB.

Don't know if Radford is familiar with the hooker, either kind. One stands on street corners and has slippy knickers, the other plays at 9 on a rugby field. Think he might be looking at the wrong one cause he doesn't seem interested in bringing in one any time soon. I suppose a back rower can play there as it seems we might be playing back rowers in every position next season lol

See him more as a strike centre myself. He reminds me a lot of kallum watkins

Nah more Mel meninga

These are the backup hookers from the teams that finished above us. Out of interest, which ones would people on here be happy with if they signed for us? I shouldn't really include Wigan or Saints, because neither operate with a backup hooker and don't really spell their hookers. Clearly Cunningham and Wane are just as woeful coaches as Radford.

Leeds - Rob Burrow
Saints - No-one/Matty Fozard
Wigan - Sam Powell
Huddersfield - Kruise Leeming
Wire - Brad Dwyer
Castleford - Paul McShane, but probably Milner soon.

I think Houghton's fatigue in games is massively over exaggerated, and I wouldn't want a large chunk of cap taken up with a reserve hooker that might play 20 minutes a game. I'd have liked to have kept Cunningham, but in his absence I'd be quite happy with a hooker from the youth team, or one of our junior halves to cover the position.

Just heard from a leeds fan,they are after danny houghton,any chance of it ?

Really interesting and surprising context. Clark/Dwyer the best but very much the exception. I do think we miss Azza BTW but money was better at Widnes IIRC.

I agree, and with our obsession in following all things Australian, then it is likely we will be reducing the number of substitutions next year. Perhaps the days of having the luxury of a specialist second hooker on the bench are coming to an end.