Bureta is staying, good news.

[urlhttps://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/bureta-faraimo-agrees-deal-remain-2931731[/url

Just need to follow that up with an extension for Ratu and that's the backline sorted.

Yes, good news. With him, Ratu and Swift that's a decent set of wingers. Acquisitions of Jones, Savelio and Swift also means we are improving our Fed trained contingent. Think our contracted overseas players are:
Faraimo
Tuimavave
Kelly

With potentially 4 free spots to be vacated by Mini, Manu, Paea and Talanoa (is that right?) and strong rumours of Thompson and Sao, think we'd still have 2 spots?

This is great news. For me Faraimo has had as much, if not more of an impact on the team than Fonua.

Not wanting to speculate too much, but I would not think that Swift would relocate to be a back up winger, suggesting that there maybe a question mark over Ratus availability for next year.

Would Ratu take a spot if he signed?

Thought he was exempt but don't know.

Yes, I did think that too. But the language from Radford is very positive about him so was thinking we might be able to keep him. Whether 3 goes into 2 though, don't know.

Out of the 3 I think Ratu should be first choice

Radford seems to like him a lot, and according to Ratu himself the army tend to be very accommodating with things like this. It's good publicity for them. I can't see why we wouldn't be able to extend.

Your last sentence sums up what I was saying about Swift. It's not that I don't rate him, it's just that I think he is probably too good (and more to the point probably too expensive) to be a 3rd choice winger. It seems excessive in a salary cap sport when you also have MDJ sat there. In fairness though I should just wait to see what the final squad looks like before I say we would have been better using his money on X and Y.

Happy with this, team is starting to look a lot stronger for next year.

Certainly. Good to get business done early as well. And for all the changes in the pack the spine remains broadly the same, which will help.

Maybe not.Can see Paea staying one more year