the Hull Daily Mail as confirmed the signing of Addy & Clark from Bradford. These are exactly the kind of signings we need, young enough to develop but with experience of the championship.

Clark is an excellent signing. Good prop. A Mitch upgrade.

Both will give 100%. Addy will be ok provided he's not asked to play in the halves or at hooker. He needs to play in the backrow. Anywhere else and he'll have you tearing your hair out. He can be inconsistent but should do ok if not asked to fill in for others.

Clark is promising but raw. Will take the ball up at 100mph with no thought for his own safety. Never stops. Will put his hand up when others have gone missing. Bit of mongrel but also a bit error prone and can throw in the odd reckless challenge when he's tired. Concedes a few penalties when riled. A few rough edges. Something for Sheens to work with. You'll like him.

clark sounds like the kind of prop who will end up at Hull if he does well for rovers

Clark sounds better than Tilse already.

It's about time you started producing your own props

Or just producing some better gags.

I've been looking forward to the confirmation of these two players. The squad is coming together now.

It's interesting what you say about Addy. I do think it's worth considering that it is probably easier to find backrowers than halfbacks, though. Also, after the last couple of seasons a 'lightweight' backrow is is not a concept many Rovers fans will be quick to buy into again, I imagine. With Blair, Clarkson and Lawler already signed up, I think I'd rather see Addy as stand-off/utility, instead of taking one of the remaining backrow spots in the squad. Depending on who else signs, whether Lawler focuses more on developing as a hooker etc.

Blimy mild rover do you work shifts or can you not sleep your post 3.22am

It will be interesting to see how we use Addy. If 2017 is to be used to develop Matty Marsh then Marsh & Addy are not a half back partnership to lead use out of the championship.
I think we will find Addy filling the gap left by Donaldson who seems to be doing is best to find a new club down-under.
We still need an experienced half to dictate the rhythm of the game and complement Marsh's youth and enthusiasm.

I’d say having Addy and Donaldson in your backrow leaves it too light. When both players were with us we got bullied a bit in the pack. That wasn’t just down to them by any means but they’re on the small side.

Of the two I’d say Addy offers more in attack. He makes more ground with ball in hand and can pass and kick. Donaldson’s defence is better than Addy’s. Addy can put in the occasional big hit but he’s also guilty of shoulder grabbing too much and has been a defensive weakness for us at times. Donaldson I remember has a better tackling technique.

Addy should not be played in either halfback position if you have any ambitions of getting promoted. He can pass and kick well but he can also do it badly so can’t be consistent in either of those positions. Wide running second row who can put a man through a gap or as a back up kicker in general play if needed is a better bet.

I've always thought if Donaldson was 6 inches taller and 3 stone heavier he'd be a world beater

So far.....

Staying/new:
Cockayne
Wardill
Salter
Minns
Oakes
Addy
Marsh
Clark
Lunt
Scruton
Clarkson
Blair
Lawler
Jubb
Harris

Confirmed leavers (or from media comments)
Thornley, Kelly, Walker, Green, Campese, Boudebza

Probably going but no word yet:
Sio, Larroyer, Tilse, Greenwood

Unknown:
Mantellato, Dixon, Allgood. Horne, Donaldson, Shaw, Mulhern, Moran, Cator

Thin that's it for now.

Shaw's a decent championship level fullback. Good goalkicker too in case you lose Mantellato.

My sleeping pattern is all over the place!



Moran mentioned as a Rovers player in the Scotland squad on the Rovers website, so I'd guess he's probably staying.

With, I'm guessing, roughly 10 spots left in the squad and 5 non-fed places available, the next few announcements will be very interesting. I wonder if we'll hold an overseas place or two for strengthening mid-season.

Some serious work still to be done, your team will be good enough to finish top 2, but it's way off your side last year, which went down, Salford apart all your competition looks stronger. Hard to do recruitment at this late stage, when you didn't expect to be the championship, time for Sheens and Peacock to start earning their money.

Bit harsh on Sheens to say start earning your money he's only been here 3 days

You would hope he has been working on recruitment since it looked like you might not come up, He was appointed unofficially months ago.

Hard to gauge until the recruitment is confirmed, but I would assume that we will be no-where near cap this year, or at least at the start of it. I envisage that the side that starts the season will likely be very different to the one that contests the 8 (I'm obviously assuming we make the middle 8s).

I have no knowledge of how the salary cap works - and the next part is balls if the cap is pro-rated, but if you can get 4 players on a £200K pa contract that you pay for 3 months rather than 1 on £200K for a full year. You can see how the system can be played come the business end of the season.

Sheens money will be earned in moulding what we have into something that can win the league or make the top 2. Which will likely be a trickier task than I would like.

Those wishing for Dixon to stay should think again IMO, he hasn't improved on any of his frailties so he's never going to be SL material, let him go.
Addy will play Loose forward so Clarkson can go to SR as a replacement for Greenwood if he goes, I'd prefer Greenwood to stay and put Clarkson on the bench though. If not, Frankie Mariano?
We're still light in the front row, so we need two more props (Cox?)
If we can keep Mantellatto and Shaw I would be very happy with our 3/4's. Just need an experienced Scrum Half (I'm worried that it might be Prince though).

A lot will depend on pass sales and that seems to be going positively so you will have some cap to play with, I'd expect you to leave a good chinch left for the middle 8's, you might be able to assemble a better team if you are not playing your halfs a 5th of your cap for not playing.

I've heard Greenwood has signed to stay which would be a massive boost.

So, in the last few posts we have discovered that Dave K knows:

The job description : objectives of both Jamie Peacock and Tom Sheens.

The salaries of both the aforementioned Rovers employees.

The collective salaries of our half backs for the 2016 season.

How did the palm reading go at Hull fair last week?

There's a long way to go, and I'm not for one second underestimating the challenges Rovers face!

First fragile green shoots, though, which after the calamity of the season just gone is something to enjoy.



The squad won't be as strong on paper as in 2016, but hopefully some lessons will have been learned. Those that come from failure are those that stick with you, IMO.

As you say in a later post, Greenwood signing would be a boost. Not building a backrow to try to break the record for the most people that can squeeze into Mini Cooper, would be good.

Like all on here, it's pretty much guess work, but it's obvious that most I've said won't be far off.

If you are after facts you are in the wrong place, one fact for you is, you don't even know your coaches name.

Oh please, let's not begin to talk about typo's, it won't end well for you.