Three apparently.

two of them were in the changing room toilet though

Ali needs to eat some pies . Preferably lard pies . Slimline Ali ain't got the impact that he had in previous seasons .

When Gary H went to Australia in November last year he said he had met with all the player's agents and was looking at signings for 2012 as he always plans a year in advance. Let's hope that the "sleeve" has some player(s) already identified or even signed up as last year he left it too late as the best NRL players had already signed for other clubs. I think we need a couple of marquee quality signings, a centre and a tough go forward prop. We have lots of good young players with loads of potential who can gain experience from these few quality signings. Various names have been mentioned but they maybe are only rumours. Matt Cooper is out of contract at the Dragons and Antonio Kaufusi is not wanted by Bennett at Newcastle, are these two on Gary's shopping list? Not sure on the rumoured swap of Chase an Burrow. Gary H also spoke with Andrew Dunneman about being Assistant Coach. Is it worth revisiting to work alongside Danny Buderus who could be player coach in the short-term?

To sign anybody we need room under the salary cap. But if Webb, Senior, Leuluai, Lauitiiti and Kirke/Bailey left as speculation suggests then there would be money available. How many spaces are available for overseas players as I assume Cross and Hauraki are filling up 2 spaces which is a waste. Overseas players should only be signed if they add something to the squad.

Only Gary knows what's happening but we should be preparing now for 2012 so we can hit the ground running next year.

Season ticket sales were 1500 down this year you would expect the same is not slightly more next season if things continue - a pretty soft run in might help sway some?



Hull Kr - home

Crusaders - away

Bulls - home

Wigan - away

Catalans - away

Hull - home

Salford - away

Castleford - home

Harlequins - away

Wakefield - home

Huddersfield - away



From that I would expect 6 wins - 3 defeats and the two games against the Hull sides could go either way.

Sinfield has been doing that for the last season and a half!

If he picks up an injury we are well and truly stuffed (bit like early last season)

Do you think Gary H already has players lined up from NRL after his trip last year and do Cooper and Kaufusi feature?

The squad needs some new faces but talk of a mass clearout is an over reaction IMO.

The Head coach must shoulder the majority of the blame although injuries have deprived him of fielding his strongest side. A top quality coach can have a big influence with the same group of players. TS at Wire and Maguire at Wigan have transformed their clubs fortunes without massive overhauls of the playing squads.

Hypothetical question maybe, but if TS had taken over our squad of players in the off season we would be a far more competitive side than we are ATM.

I think a complete clearout, is a little over the top, and may affect the swuad in a negative way, instead of positively. We need to get rid of the deadwood in the squad, and players that can easily be replaced in the youth. I reckon we will see Webb, Ali, Kirke, Bailey and maybe Senior leave. I think we need to sign Kylie on a 1 year contract, and JP maybe 2 years. We SHOULD offer Burgess a 3 year deal, whether he will accept is another question. But in my opinion a clearout would only affect the squad negatively.

would like to think so, but can't imagine he will. Those are 2 names that have been thrown about, but no solid rumours. The only real rumours for us are Heath L'Estrange and Andy Lynch...

I'd like to have seen us make more of an effort to keep Burgess too. He's had obvious flaws in his game over the past few years, but this year he's seemed to be ironing them out and looks like turning into a very good prop in the near future. We've all heard that he wants to try his hand in Australia with his brothers, and fair enough. But we could have at least *tried* to keep him.



What's more likely to change his mind? Playing him every week and showing him that he'd be giving up a spot as an important member of the squad if he leaves, or leaving him on the sidelines for a month and saying we rate him lower that Ian Kirke? If his mind wasn't made up, McDermott's made it up for him. Why would he accept a 3-year deal with us as things stand?