Marty Taupau is rumoured to be leaving Manly. Now he would be a hell of a replacement for Manu

Pity Ikahihifo signed a new deal with Huddersfield at the start of the season as he would have been a great fit and possible replacement for Sika (if he is leaving).

We definitely need to strengthen our second row.
I just hope the club dont think we can go into 2019 with the same squad possibly minus Manu as that would be a mistake.We are already well behind the top four teams for consistency and if Manu does leave we need two second rows as i expect Minichello to play a lot less game time.

I think a few NRL clubs would find a place for him.

What about Simon Mannering? Retired from the Kiwis and if he leaves the Warriors this year he'd not want to play for another NRL side.

His body looks to be on the way out possibly, plus he's not got the lateral movement/speed to play as a genuine second rower. He's a 13 100%

Taupau is coming off contract into a props market, he could get close to $1m a season

So he's only good enough to play wide internationally for New Zealand. Got it.

The only team to be consistent is St.Helens, we are a couple of wins/few points behind the others above us, if we'd have won on Saturday by 10 points we'd have gone 3rd, that consistency is hugely affected by injuries which we have had a lot of almost from the get go.
I don't think the squad is particularly any weaker this year, Hadley has certainly improved it, Connor has improved again on last year, Brad Fash is by far the biggest step up from the junior squad members. it's just that we've had a ton of injuries and to crucial/top quality players as well as losing Watts which we have not replaced (Westerman is an ok stop-gap but nowhere near Watts output/impact).
Throw in a couple of dubious selections when we have had injuries, not using Litten and continuing to use Washbrook who has been poor too often, chance to use Miloudi in the halves against Fev and indeed the utter nonsense that was Yeaman turning out!

Players like Harris even though a backup haven't worked out as well as one might have thought plus rushing back players from injury which means they are not at the races for a match or two so they look lethargic/out of sorts.

It mostly boils down to injuries to the backbone of the first choice XVII (incl Watts) that is affecting our consistency by far.
If we want an upgrade on Manu then we are going to have to pay for it, Manu isn't exactly going to be on small potatoes given he's an active international forward and a quality player in his own right, I'd be more concerned with having a front line replacement for Watts as the starting number 10 rather than another backrower.

We have backrowers, lots of them, Manu, Westerman, Hadley, Fash, Jordan Lane, Jack Downs, Turgut (and theoretically Griffin). Lane will hopefully step up, Fash to continue to improve and cement a starting XVII place, Downs and Turgut are clearly able to fill in but are at this moment in time a weaker option however do we sack them off simply for a few quid that won't make a difference in terms of money available for a big name, personally no, we develop them, that's the whole point of the youth system not to yet again snub that development and buy players in which we do a lot and is not and never has been a long term solution. This is why the quality of our home-grown youngsters is falling short compared to other top 4/5 clubs.

He's a far better lock than SR, struggles for the Warriors out wide. He's played 10 games there in 3 1/2 years for them. Apart from last year, he hasn't played SR for the Kiwis since 2014 and last year Kidwell was in charge and he's clueless

Without wanting to ask the question again (which I am clearly going to do) WHERE, AT ANY POINT HAVE HULL FC SNUBBED DEVELOPMENT?

c2008-2011 under Kath & Co.

He knows this period of underinvestment is the root cause of some latent years further down the line, yet chooses to ignore it and lay the blame at Radford's door.