Surely Hall will start the season at S/O whilst Burns is banned.

Damn I'm good, 2 from 2 now what with my Gleeson rumour aswell

Good luck to the lad. Really good opportunity. He said it has been on the cards for a while now so hopefully we have got someone lined up. If not I can see Hall fullback with Hodgson/Caro on the wings (after Burns' ban). Doesn't fill me with too much confidence at the moment.

Sorry make that Hodgson/Caro/Brown.
Hall on course for the number 1 jersey then

why not he might surprise a few if he does make it it would be great

Got to be a full back coming in for me ! Alex Brown looks a powerful boy!

Full back and front rower were the priorities identified in a quote from NH in one of the rugby papers yesterday. Whether Brown arriving is as well as that or means a reshuffling of resources, is hard to say.
A replacement for Murrell would be nice as well.

Think Dave Peterson will be replacement for Scotty! Minnicello new full back for me, ageing obviously but undoubted class look at Brett hodgson hes a bit older but still doing the Biz ! Heres hoping!

At loose forward maybe, but not as halfback cover. Maybe one of the hbs from this year's U-20 or U-18 will get a full time deal.
We're out of non-fed spots and any more signings we make I'd expect to be in the Caro/Brown-mould. Perhaps a fringe player as part of the deal for Taylor.

Be a massive coup if we could win the race for Kyle Amor especially with losing Taylor, hopefully Benny Cockayne will be blowing in his ear!

Reumour has it, all these crap signings won't get us anywhere near the playoffs next year. 11th I reckon.

Recruitment has been okay-ish I'd say (prospectively). Lack of retention has left us looking very thin on decent quality depth. It was a hell of a difficult player market to be looking to cut costs.
The big earning antipodeans, fair enough - but to lose 4 club-trained qualified players in Taylor, Murrell, Watts and Sheriff has narrowed our options significantly.

Sandercock needs ~12 wins or we'll be back to square one for 2014, I fear.

Twelve wins and we'd more than likely finish outside the play offs.

Sandercock's going to need to pull a rabbit out of the hat, and not a buzzing one.

Are the players we've brought in any worse than those that have left?

Webster and Clinton hardly played so I'm hoping Gleeson and E.T will be an improvement, Blake Green wasn't half as good as he was in his first season so hopefully Burns will improve us there. Galea will be missed but I guess how much depends on Paterson and Mika. We now have some attacking options on the wing too which we didn't have last year.
Id like to see us bring another prop and a full back in and I think (hope) well do ok.

If [iall[/i 4 of the experienced first graders we've brought in prove to be hits, I don't think 7th or 8th would be out of reach, with a fair wind etc, etc.
We've cut too deep to expect or even realistically hope for more than that [uin the short-term[/u.
I'm still looking forward to next year, just hoping for as many wins as possible and a sense that progress (loosely defined) is being made again.
24 league points with the way squad is shaping up, is enough to at very least give the board a dilemma.



Less numerous is probably a bigger issue than worse.

Paterson-Galea, Gleeson-Webster, Tuimavave-Clinton and Burns-Green could/should all be wins relative to 2012. But it is the next level that worries me - Wheeldon, Taylor, Watts, Murrell, McDonnell, Sheriff. A mix of the steady and the promising, that can be partially covered by the progress of Salter, J.Green, perhaps Peterson and Griffin, but only partially. We're going to be short on depth of experience.
Couple more signings to come in, but there isn't much talent to choose from, and we're determined not to pay over the odds apparently, so they're unlikely to be big names.
This sort of restructuring is never going to be without pain, but a quick clean cut is best.

We [ishouldn't[/i be so bad that 2013 won't be interesting and exciting its own way.

Atleast I can watch it all from my new seat on top of the chimney in the North-West corner. Cracking view it'll be.

I don't think rovers will be as bad as some expect, and I also doubt Hull will be as good as some of our less knowledgable posters believe.

Plenty of teams look to be worse than last year on paper, and I doubt you'll lose much from what was actually on the pitch in 2011 from the players who have gone. If burns is any good then I'd expect you will finish 6th to 8th, depending on how Hull, hudds, bradford and wakey turn up

Somebody has hacked Jake's computer.

I think we have every chance of making the top 8,paterson and tuimavave have played nearly 200 1st grade games in oz between them and they must be an improvement on clinton and murrell,burns is a great signing 100% player who will keep everybody on their toes.We have made offers to 3 aussie youngsters so we will have to see what happens with them !

Nah, I'm the most sensible, knowledgable poster on here, it's just that the truth I normally preach isn't welcomed by those who don't want to listen.

Get the shizzle out.

Let's debunk your credentials.

Your post is easily garnered knowledge which is readily reaped from the fools of these boards.

I'm a cook, (I'm not really, this is just for illustrative purposes) I take a big bunch of ingredients, mash them up, add too much stock and I come up with a culinary swamp.

We listen, and we don't laugh, we merely glimpse at your anguish and feel: "Oh Mr. Jake, you were once so good (not really) but now you are a pale shadow of the quim you once truly were.

thats exactly what i was going to say

Rumour going around dobson has put in a transfer request

There's a rumour going around that Pearson bought a club that he thought he could profit from.

Yes in your head