Very quiet on here isn,t it everyone... Just thought I would throw this one in to see if anyone is interested.... Although it is probably too early to judge, and we will all have our own thoughts, my take on it, as it always has been, is that we need big forwards(which team does,nt), but we have been far too light for a long time which contributes to our league positions recently. It,s not the only thing, obviously, but I think we have the flair players, but not enough grunt. The old adage, the forwards win you the game, and the backs decide by how much still rings true.. So with that in mind, the ones I would keep would be: Crooks, Brierley , Dagger, Parcell, Peteru,....Unsure just yet, Ellis, Gee, Rooks, Huaraki(but Huaraki ..probably) Not keep..Murray, Trout... Really liked the way we through the ball around and the inventiveness, but the defence, as always is a big concern...Big if, but if we can land a couple of quality players I have real hope we could be really competitive, and start winning more than we lose....Which would make a pleasant change and boost the supporters.It,s time it happened.....Anyone bothered?

Peteru went ok for his first game. Murray form seems to have dipped but was good last year. Gee has the size but not seen much of him? Mulhern the senior prop now Mose and Garbutt wont be in the new seasons squad. Trout gives his best.Storton really could be very good and Lawler looks capable of anything? Very good young team in general but lacking size and most importantly aggression. The game now seems to be going away from monster packs with the new rules etc and Salfords on paper outmuscled pack tore apart a star studded FC team. Lannon set the tone in smashing Mau with a cheap shot which didn't get punished by ref or the opposition.Not saying we need to be dirty but for a long time been very nice as a team and get our bellies tickled far too often. I'd like to see our forwards batter other pack then do the expansive Tony Smith plan? I really believe with shrewd additions at prop and maybe a new half it could get us on the right path. Pride in defence and line speed needs instilling much more than recent years or we will be cellar dwellers yet again. We attack as well as most but without real steel in our defence and consistently top of missed tackles we can play attractive but ultimately lose the game. Back to basics then worry about entertaining but Smith with no relegation will press on with the Harlem Globetrotters stuff which is fine in the rest of this pointless season but if relegation returns then that's where it will lead. The best 2 examples in recent times imo FC beating Saints in the cup through brutal forward play then the backs cut loose and looked like world beaters and Sunday's performance by Saints blasting Leeds up the guts then fatigued players leave gaps in broken play and Grace and co run riot.RL is such a simple game when the basics are done. We are trying to go wide without bending the line and it just wont work against good sides. Anyway that's my view on it.

Watkins held talks with us and Salford.

Been a good player but centre is least of our worries.
Be a sizeable wage id expect? A player of that quality certainly would be nice but will wait and see if he arrives?

I think all clubs will need to wait & see what happens with the rules once we are back to normal, I think the six again & the possible ending of scrums will happen & it may make the big bad prop an endangered species.
The one thing I don’t get is last Saturday we all could see the class that the wolves had across the pitch, my question is as we have spent up to the cap up to now, how come they get a star studded team on the pitch for the same salary cap?

Tbf, their wage bill will be a good bit higher than ours.
Then...
They can offer greater security (much lower risk of relegation) and the opportunity to play alongside other good players, win games and compete for trophies.

A problem with our long-termism is that it seems to come at the expense of the short-term, and good players in their prime want to sign for good teams rather than teams aiming to become good when their prime will be coming to an end.

Their wage bill cannot be greater than ours, as the cap is the same as ours & every other club. I thought up to this year we had spent up to the limit.

I thought we were quite a bit under the cap though I may well be wrong.

The cap rules are very complicated and opaque.

Warrington will be able to get better value from what they do spend by being able to offering success, security and transfer fees.

There have been plenty of cap exemption rules over the years (tbh, I lose track but I know some are still in place e.g. relating to new talent pools). Warrington, by virtue of having more money, have been in a better position to explore and exploit some of those opportunities.

Then there are the things that just aren’t mentioned in the rules or by RL community generally. I tend to assume that if something isn’t in the rules then it can’t be against them. For example, it was (and maybe still is) stated that clubs couldn’t registration-carousel overseas players to beat the quota but nothing was said about doing similar with other players to beat the cap. For a while, I assumed this was happening - more recently I’ve started to doubt it. The point is, there’s potentially some ambiguity in an apparently simple statement about spending up to (or not beyond) the cap.

The line Rovers take publicly is a difficult one. Say we don’t spend as much as other clubs and some fans might take a chequebook out attitude. Say we are spending the cap, and questions will arise as to why we spend it so ineffectively. I recall that this year NH said we were unable to spend the cap simply because we couldn’t attract that calibre of player, or they weren’t available - or something along those lines.

That last line certainly makes a lot of sense. We somehow need to break that cycle.