If you use him right, he will go ok for you. He will be a good squad player and to be honest, he's a good bloke to have around the club. People like him, and when he makes one of those barnstorming runs when he comes off the bench he will lift the team and the fans.

You can only look at playing him effectively for 10-15 minute spells... but I think with Gentle you have a coach who understands the game well enough to bring him on at the right time. You need him as an attacking weapon, and he's also effective at bringing you up from out of your own half when you need to try and turn the game... i.e... when you've been under the cosh for 4 or 5 sets and you need to get out of your own half... because like I said... he comes on with one of him runs and the crowd lifts, as does the team.

Where he lacks is defence... but like I say... You need to know when to use him... and when you are in the middle of the 4 or 5 sets of pressure... you don't bring him on when you don't have possession. That's what Salford seemed to do... we'd bring him on to defend when we had lost the ball on our own 40... and he'd end up dropping off a tackle because he wasn't fast enough... or could get down low enough to stop the faster players.

Give him a chance... may not set the world on fire as far as top signings go... but judge him on what he can give your team rather that what he can't. Gentle wouldn't have signed him unless he had a plan of how to use him.

He wasn't wanted at Salford and remind me of how good they was back then, what big club could he have possibly attracted?

He will give us some much needed go forward.

I can understand this signing.

Could go either way. Obviously Hull have had a look at him and based their decision on what they've seen. Would imagine it's not a big contract and doesn't affect fed spots so could indeed be the signing of the season if his performances are at SL level. If not then I guess he'll struggle to get a spot in the 17.

The thing I'm most encouraged about is the speed with which the signing has been dismissed by many of the usual suspects plus of course the knowledge-free fans of a local small club. The fact that that has happened vastly increases the chance that this punt will be successful exactly as happened with Ryan McGoldrick. No guarantees obviously but it certainly helps.

I do take your general point but that's just the way all business work nowadays. It's nothing personal.

And RL clubs have, by and large, become just like other businesses. It's a natural consequence of becoming a pro sport.

This huge signing must attract some new support and bring back others who have been lost to the game, season ticket sales will be on the rise!

Yeah, like with Galea. He certainly proved the doubters wrong, eh?

Like I said could go either way. The doubters may be right. Galea was a strange signing as we didn't need a second rower particularly so the gamble on him never really had the reward to match the risk. I know you'd prefer Cookie but I think we need more grunt up front. At least this player in theory could provide that.

I'd imagine our season ticket sales will go up, after a challenge cup final, a play off win, and two victories against that small club across the river this season.

I never disputed the fact that it could go either way, I was responding specifically to your assertion that the signing being unpopular amongst a certain section of our fanbase (and extremely popular with the Rovers fans) somehow increases the chances of the gamble paying off.

I believe that - couldn't give a flying one if you don't.

Rovers have the "my council tax funded" stand though to smash their season sales through the 10k "break even or go into administration" mark.
So in short term we are utterly doomed.

As is your right, but it's an utterly illogical standpoint. For every unpopular signing who has proved the doubters wrong, there's at least one more who hasn't.

He could be a good signing but he's got it all to prove after his spell out of SL.

Time will tell

And still room for Mika because feka will be a dispensation signing

Like me and my theory you can't quantify that claim. Presumably - like mine- it's just a hunch.

And the reason I thought you were against the signing rather than "not disputing it could go either way" was to do with your posts from the other day on the subject.

For example



didn't seem to position you in the 50/50 camp.

Anyway - time will tell I suppose.

Correct me if I am wrong but did Wigan get rid and replace him with Lueaki (SP) - just asking ?

better than the bottom two and relegation you'll be playing for

Have to say feka maybe a great signing for you guys depending on his shape! At Wigan pre Mcguire days he was large shall we say but the damage he did in the 30 mins he would play was massive taking at least three men in every tackle and how many times did he rumble over from the 20! However maguire got him to slim up and unfortunately the mass he lost took away his power and force! Would love to see him at his best knocking players on there backsides in super league again

Hardly a hunch. For every Ryan McGoldrick there's a Ben Galea, for every Martin Aspinwall a Chris Thorman. That aside, the very idea that the negative opinions of a few message board posters is likely to have any effect on the chances of a signing being successful or not is, in itself, absurd. By your reckoning, if the reaction had been overwhelmingly positive, that would decrease the chances of him being successful.



The two positions are not mutually exclusive. I am against the signing - I think it's a poor one. That doesn't mean I don't accept the possibility that he will surprise a few people and recapture his best form. I just that I think the odds are against it. You could put me in the 85/15 camp, rather than the 50/50 one.

I took a few knocks to the head the other day and I'm really hoping I'm unconscious and this is all just a bad dream.

Is this the "project" signing we were expecting then? I'm a little underwhelmed but not seeing him play for a while I will reserve judgement. Welcome to FC Feka, all the doubters will soon clam up if you rip in on your debut.

Personally I'd have much preferred us having Michael Weyman as our starting prop with Paea.
That'd done for me.
Feka? Time will tell!

You lay it on too thick and its counter productive. Spin is inevitable, but it can be done less glaringly. We've got the Ben Cockayne announcement to look forward to, of course, where I suspect more prominence will be given to his ETS call-up rather than the string of off field incidents that led to his departure in the first place, so I'm not throwing stones.



Even Smailes!


[size=50Little bit of gravel, underarm.[/size

He could be brilliant, he could be washed-up (IP, not Smailes), it's a gamble, but all signings are. The fact it is 2 years makes it a bigger gamble, but it suggests a confidence that he has still got it - whether that is well placed, we'll see.