Another example of us losing our best homegrown players to another club.

If the club had any decent news to cushion the blow of Doyle leaving now would be the time to release it.

*checks Twitter and sees that GF has signed*

I really don't get where the George Flannagan love in from the club has come from?
I can see Lilley playing hooker next year.
2 new halfbacks would be effective.

I’ve seen suggestions on social media that Flanagan should be made Captain of the club. It seems a ridiculous suggestion to me, so probably nailed on.

Patton and Lilley must be two of the slowest halfbacks in the division, no danger of either of those two going the full length of the pitch. I’d personally rather see one of them moved on and the money used to sign a player who can cover a few positions similar to Wildie. A specialist hooker is also now required after failing to retain Doyle.

I've heard patton is off Holmes & A.N other halfbacks with Lawford then Lilley and flannagan hookers.
Personally I wouldn't have GF anywhere near the club.
The fact that he will end up captain and probably assistant to an inexperienced coach tells you everything you need to know about Nigels bulls professional standards. LOW

I can understand why people like GF. Over the past two seasons he's the only one who has shown some passion and pride playing for the Bulls and provided some impact off the bench. Walker provided some impact last season, but other than that, we've had no-one show that from the squad. So I can understand why people like him from that perspective.

However he shouldn't be the captain. His disciplinary record isn't the best. Although the second ball grabbing incident was a bit 50/50 the first certainly wasn't. You can't have someone like that captain. However he'll provide experience and impact from the bench. Not a terrible re-signing and will hopefully help Lilley (should he move to hooker) or another young hooker learn the position.

As for becoming assistant coach, why not? If he has the qualifications to do so then surely he should be given a chance like anyone else? Personally I thought we missed an opportunity at having Brough as the assistant when he retired.

Doyle leaving is a killer as he's homegrown. However he's obviously chosen money over progression. That says more about him than us. He'd sooner go to newly promoted Keighley than an SL side to test himself. He's been great for us no doubt and scored a few tries. But it's not the end of the world. If Keighley have offered a ton of cash for him to stay PT so he gets a very good income from work and rugby then fair play. Let them. They have a bit of backing these days, we don't. And if Doyle is their 'marquee' signing for this league, or if his signing is just a middle finger to the 'bigger' neighbors then so be it. I don't think we'll miss him as much as we missed Keyes, Ryan, Bentley, Pickersgill etc.

Rumours on the fax board that they are signing Lilley and releasing Cory Aston… could be good alongside Holmes as 6 and 7 if we could entice Aston that is?

Could think of worst pairings.. be interesting to see what Dunning and Noble have up their sleeve.
if Lilley goes then would Patton stay? or are we offloading both is the question..

whatever we are doing there would be 4 halves…

Cory Aston is a very low quality player. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have a really great game despite all the teams he has turned out for.

Although based on the rumoured budget reduction it’s probably the level we are at unfortunately