Mark O'meley? Brent Kite?

Notice we are signing English players .... leaving room for a couple of Quota signings still TBA.

And I agree with that. I had the same opinion after Sharp was sacked. You had to look at the players he'd brought in, and how long we'd be stuck with them before you could truly see what sorta job Agar can do. He's taken us from 2nd bottom to CCF and play-off contenders in a year with a squad that is still not what he's fully after and some nightmares in the recruitment department (i.e. Visas!). Next year will be a good year for us if the signings continue.

The deadwood is being cleared out.

To be announced after the State of Origin?

I hope the two to come in are a prop and a centre, then imo our squad would be complete and we should be right up there challenging next season. I hope RA can turn it all around in 2010.

Exactly so how do we plan for him being our first choice centre? We can't. we can try him there and see how he goes but imo he won't be first choice centre next season.

Which is exactly what happened with Yeamo, during Eagar's year of injury. Briscoe needs time playing at this level in the centre first.

What if we signed a Lee Gilmour/Chris Nero type player, predominantly as a tackle-busting second row, but who can play centre very well if needed. That would give us options in the pack with Lauaki and Fitzgibbon (who can play prop or second row), plus provide some cover (along with Whiting) if Briscoe is struggling in the centre.

I'd sooner sign a Jamie Lyon type centre.

I heard last week his visa worries were sorted and he would be announced this week.
Wonder what happened to that then !!!!!!?!?!?!?!

FWIW i think Briscoe will make an outstanding centre. The yards he makes from acting half from a realtive standing start should give us encouragement for when he is bursting onto passes from Long. Calderwood will have a field day outside Briscoe

Don't worry, Alan Johnson as just become home secretary ..... might even be worth trying to get Crocker in again now.

I still see Briscoe as the answer to a centre position. Depends if next year will come to soon but i'd like to see him given a go. Briscoe and Hall sharing the role. Spend the spare cash on another quality halfback.

not necessarily as we have not seen any sort of ball handling skills from Briscoe which all top centres have (gidley for exemple). Not saying that he can't/will not do it but without seeing him play there we may have just another finisher at cetnre

He's done it in the 21s and has played all of his junior rugby as a centre.

my apologies not seen him play at centre as haven't seen any 21 games.

there is a difference between doing that as a junior and at super league standard.

are his ball handling skills any good or just average?

We ll Yeaman had good hands when he broke into the first team and seemed to stop at that point so maybe its irrelevant!



Think with Briscoe his ability to outmuscle the defenders in the tackle and offload to his winger would work well, providing we dont stifle his ability.

to the first bit in bold



to the second bit in bold

hope to good we end up eith a proper centre who can put his winger away ie a gidley rather than another yeaman

TBF to Yeamo, i keep saying it but he was 2nd on our assists last season and i think he has better hands than he is given credit for still. Ive not seen us put a set move on were Yeamo gets the ball with the chance to put his winger away, even when Cooke was here he would either hit Yeamo or Raynor, never Yeamo to then pass to Raynor.

very fair points

can't wait to see yeaman with a good supply of ball again and see how much better he will look. our tactics over recent years haven't played to our 3/4's so any back we have signed hasn't looked as good as they should have

Exactly.

Im looking forward to seeing Long, but i also think we need to get some basics right, like maybe standing a yard deeper in attack to allow us to shift the ball. Seems too much emphasis is put on stats like getting over the gain line which makes teams stand flatter but in reality its another stifling tactic.

i totally agree,
you can't really blame a centre for being a bit ball greedy in these circumstances,
to look after his winger he has to recieve a good supply of ball too.

First of all I don't know what players earn, these are just educated guesses.

Fitz for Crocker, but I can't see us paying Fitz quite as much as Crocker so I reckon about 20/30k a year saved there.

I reckon Cusack, Hall and Moa combined will be on about the same wage as Long will be.

Tansey will probably come on a similar wage to Thacks.

That leaves the wages of Motu, Byrne, G Horne and Thorman all free. Motu, Byrne and Thorman will all have been on a decent amount and Horne has been around the first team for a while and won't be on a pittance. I reckon we could have close to 300k available for next year if we do release all of those you mentioned. That allows us to buy 2 more top class players and still have a bit in reserve if we need it.

He's taken us to the most boring brand of rugby seen since the inception of superleague

Which I find particularly odd, when Sharp was sacked last year Agar seemed to give us more freedom in attack, and yet this year it's 5 drives and a (poor) kick.