i agree. thought he would sign for 1 last season

Turner, Moa, Manu, Martin, Ogre, Ellis, Wade?

That's a lot of recruiting.

So far Johnson, Crookes and Arundel.

Not sure the recruitment is as good as what we are losing so far tbh, hopefully a bit more quality to come

Missed Elis off that list. Hope Briscoe see's his contract out. Johnson may replace O'carroll, heard he may go depending on injuries?

There really seems to be a lot going, far more than I anticipated. Not too concerned about Ellis hopefully he will kick on with his development more with a team like Cas, however I hope we are bringing in a 6 then as losing Ellis will leave us with limited options in cover, Nicklas has a way to go imo.
I hope Briscoe stays as he will take some replacing, O'Caroll is cracking on the pitch but the injury situation is a worry but we have some good lads coming through in that area so not too concerned. Replacing Moa & O'meley is a big concern, basically it will resemble a new team next year, bit of a concern all this really.

Not concerned one bit about what's going on recruitment wise, the last board gave ridiculous contracts to players that wouldn't get it anywhere else. Hopefully this will give Gentle the flexibility within the cap to mould his own squad. The problem is that we possibly have another season of transition in 2013, given Gentle only signed a 3 year deal (I think?) I hope he's here to see it through.

I agree there will be players on silly contracts, however my concern is based more on the fact we appear to not be able to retain our key players to stay, Moa, Manu, Turner, Briscoe (maybe), Wade (maybe) the signing of G.Ellis allegedly had agents knocking the door down.

I reckon we will be in the market for an aussie prop. Also a fullback to replace Wade if he's going or a halfback with Horne going to fullback.

That would be my concern, the signing of Ellis was supposed to have players beating our door down to play for us, seems at the moment if all rumours are true to be having the opposite effect.

Well if we lose O'Meley, Moa and O'Caroll we will need more than 1 prop, it is an area we are already short in, doubt we can count on Radders next year

I would like to know who decides which players we want Gentle or Bomber ?
I suspect Gentle says who he would like and Bomber negotiates, my next concern is what experience has Bomber got in negotiations with players/agents ?

What I do not understand is we did not offer G.Ellis the most money allegedly , he bought into the vision of the club, but the club have told us the have offered revised/improved big offers for both Manu & Turner, why are the players who are already here not buying into this vision? same with Moa, Briscoe (maybe) and McKinnon (maybe), it just dosen't appear to add up

I imagine that AP can help in that capacity - isnt that basically his job for City?

Plenty!

Clearly not if he cannot retain most of our key players.
What I do not understand is we did not offer G.Ellis the most money allegedly , he bought into the vision of the club, but the club have told us the have offered revised/improved big offers for both Manu & Turner, why are the players who are already here not buying into this vision? same with Moa, Briscoe (maybe) and McKinnon (maybe), it just dosen't appear to add up

Things certainly do seem a bit strange down at Hull FC dont they.

I said plenty, i didnt say if he was any good at it did i

The way I see it is;

Turner: Wants to move back to Manchester area to be closer to his family.

Moa: Wants to be back in Australia to be with his family.

Briscoe: Has a desire to play in the NRL and will do so at his first opportunity.

O'Meley: big fan of Agar and has possibly fallen out with the club.

Manu: £££££££'s


ATEOTD, none of these players are irreplaceable. We were around before them and we'll be around long after.
Sorry to see them go? Yes, I have good memories of each and every one of them.
Will we see benefits? MOST DEFINITELY, we will have ALOT of cap space to sign some real quality without having to pay over the odds and having to go 'cheap' on our depth..

Interesting times.

Maybe he just won't be held over a barrel. If paying more realistic contracts to players and getting better value from the cap means we have to lose a few along the way, so be it. We've been complaining for years that we don't have the same quality or depth as other clubs who spend the full cap, then, when someone tries to rectify the situation, we start moaning because players are rumoured to be leaving. You can't have it all ways. The time to start worrying/complaining is if and when the recruitment for next year is finished and we don't look stronger than we do this year. Until then, we should give the people responsible time to do the whole job.

I agree the judgement will be when recruitment is finish. However not sure about the holding over the barrel scenario though, my point is the club stated G.Ellis signed for us even though we did not offer the most money, claiming he bought into [uthe vision,[/u why are a lot of our key players not buying into this vision even though they are being offered revised better contracts, this is not just about 1 or 2 players this is about possibly half a dozen (key players)
Also the club clearly want to keep some of these players and appear not to be able to do so. Why has G. Ellis bought into this vision yet the players we already have are not buying into it ?

Then why all the angst now? We're not halfway through [ithis[/i season yet, so there's a long way to go before next season's squad is complete.



Possibly half a dozen? All you've got to go on is message board rumour and speculation. However, even if they all turn out to be true, let's just look at the individual scenarios:

McKinnon - Rumoured to be homesick and missing his wife. If he goes, it will be back home to Australia. Hardly the club's fault if a player can't settle on the other side of the world from his wife and family.

Moa - This season was always supposed to be his last, for similar reasons to McKinnon. There was a press report a short while back saying he was considering another year [ibecause[/i of the new culture at the club. If he goes, it will be back to the NRL, and who could blame him? Or the club, for that matter?

Briscoe - May go to the NRL, may not. He's contracted for next year, so a transfer fee would need to be paid by any club wanting his services. If he does go, again, it's hard to blame the club for the fact that a young player wants to test himself in the best club competition in the world. If he goes to another SL club, I'll be disappointed though.

Manu - Rumoured to have been offered more money over two years by Saints than we have offered over three. If that's the case, he'd be daft not to take it. It goes back to what I said earlier - we need to get the best possible value from the salary cap. We've gone as high as we possibly can by the sounds of it, and it would be foolish to try and hang on to him at all costs.

Turner - Rumour has it that he wants to be nearer his family in Lancashire. If that's the case, fair enough. I don't get all the concern about Turner. Yes, he looks very good this season. Yes, he's improved his defence. But it wasn't that long ago that many thought he wouldn't make it, and he only has half a season of consistently good performances under his belt. I'd like to keep him, but if he goes, there are better players out there.

O'Meley - Rumoured to have fallen out with the club. It happens. Maybe he's still sore about Agar going? Should the club have kept Agar to keep O'Meley happy?


I must reiterate - all of the above is rumour and speculation. Some or all of the players mentioned might actually stay. If they all go, then the reasons they are leaving are, in the vast majority of cases, personal, and nothing the club could do differently would change those reasons. In the case of Manu, the club are right not to commit too much of the salary cap on another back rower when we need strengthening in other areas. It's really nothing to do with players 'not buying into the vision'.

So, if we lose this half dozen players, we'll have to give AP, McRae and Gentle the time they need to find suitable replacements, which I'm fairly confident they will do.

Fair comment, hope you are right, I have not lost my faith in them just feel a bit uneasy, the recruitment is going to be a big task especially replacing some of the quality we may lose, hopefully we will recruit well

The other side of the coin maybe that they have had it good under the previous regime and now maybe do not like the change as there are certain targets and acheivement to make not just settle for scraping into the play offs as previous seasons.

The training may now also be a lot different and mean alot more hard work and whilst I'm not saying that the players are not adverse to extra effort it maybe that they simply do not like the change or possible pressure/expectation and wish to go elsewhere.

We have said for long enough as fans that we have too many players that are average and have not done won anything with these players. Also it was reported IIRC that as a club we did not get good value from the salary cap again with value/worth of the players so this may also have a bearing as AP, PG & SM may well have sorted this out to maximise our roster with the Cap restrictions.

I'm sure whatever happens between now and next season we will have a team at the start of 2013 that will be more than competitive and as we have seen already with the Gentle Touch so far a team that gives its all.

That's what I'd like to see , Horne at 1 and a new Half signed .