Yes that is my opinion and it is quite a strong one that I have when it comes to him. He is nothing more than a very average plodder that offers no more than effort and application.

Can you honestly tell me that he is what we need in the backrow in order to compete with Leeds, St's etc ??

How many other SL clubs would honestly want him ??? Salford, Cas, Wakefield, Celtic ?? that's about it. He wouldn't even warrant a place in the dobbins backrow, infact I'm pretty sure that their fans would be horrified if they were linked with him.

it will keep him at the club till the end of his career and his natural progression into a coaching role

While I'm on the subject, what is the advantage of actually handing him this extension now ???

He did nothing on the pitch to justify it last season (along with many others) and we're months away from the start of this season.

What's wrong with seeing how individual players and the squad as a whole have performed after a dozen or so games ???

Stability?

Every team needs a workhorse like Radford. Issue for us last year was that we had too many grafters with Cusack, Dowes, Tickle and Radford in the same pack. For me out of those 4 Radford would be the first name on the team sheet.

This coming season we will still have Dowes and Cusack playing and i believe Radford and Tickle will be competing to play alongside Crocker with Manu coming off the bench along with Thackery and King. Decent impact and good tough pack. Would still like another prop though.

Ofcourse every team needs a grafter or two but the better teams have grafters who offer a hell of a lot more than Radford does. I just don't see how he will justify a starting 17 spot next season so why the new contract.

We have too many grafters and not enough quality and, for me, he typifies exactly why we are where we are in terms of our squad in SL.

but for Radford to be slated on here but Dowes, Cusack and Tickle escape scot free is a bit odd TBH. As ive said, i would go with Radford and Crocker in my 2nd row with Manu off the bench and possibly Tickle depending on whether we play a 2nd hooker. A pack of:
Dowes
Berrigan
Cusack
Radford
Crocker
Washbrook

with a bench of
King / new prop
Thackery
Manu
Tickle/Houghton

Looks pretty competetive TBH.

It doesn't to me. It lacks go-forward especially in the front row. If I were picking a starting 17 in an ideal world :

R Horne
Calderwood
New Centre
Yeaman
Raynor
Thorman
New Scrum Half
Dowes
Berrigan
New Prop
Crocker
Tickle
Washbrook

Thackery
Another New Prop
Manu
Houghton

Radford, Cusack, Byrne, Lee and possibly King would all be elsewhere.

As i said earlier, thank god you arent Richard Agar!!

That would be a very competitve side. not forgetting that there would still be Tony, Whiting, Maloney, G Horne, Briscoe and possibly King, Hall and others to cover injuries etc..

I don't think that it would be too unrealistic either with the players that I would offload.

To offload those players would cost the club something like 500k which would seriously harm bringing in any new players.

No, I mean offload for free as and when possible in an ideal world.

Hence the reason why I'm questioning new contracts being handed out to players like Radford.

The likes of Byrne and Cusack should never have been signed in the first place.

Byrne does a job but i agree shouldnt use a quota space on a utility cover player. Agree to some extent about Cusack too being a quota player and being too similar to Dowes. However, we have what we have and i still think we are good enough for top 2 or top 3.

Top 2 or 3 for this season with what we currently have ???

Jesus !! I admire your optimism and I hope you're right but I think that you are mad !

Youre probably right!!!

I doubt we will make the 6, and I doubt Agar will be first team coach after week 13, we shall see. (and if proven wrong I will love it!)

And we've already got four/five who are better.

My thoughts too. Although I hope that Agar is a massive success

I just think the writing was on the wall as soon as Sharp was brough in, Agar is a nice guy, but he isn't a SL coach.

I believe we will be in the 6 but am unsure about Agar but he will get my support.

My reasoning for the 6 is that i believe there are a few teams behind us and i dont know why people are bigging Wigan up?

Agree, will support Agar and see how we go, the key for us is the Horne/Thorman combo, we've never seen them play together so it's a real unknown.

Horne and Thorman were the Yorkshire half back partnership a few years ago when we gave Lancashire a good hiding.

Could suprise a few teams as well as us i reckon.

In your opinion!

Wasnt that before he went off to Oz?