When it was announced earlier this year he'd be leaving I was pretty gutted as last year he was great, and had a top year in 2011 under Terry Matterson.
However, this year he's been pretty poor and hasn't been in the side as much - whether this is due simply to poor form or because his mind is elsewhere is uncertain, but he has potential. Not the biggest second row, but when he ran with pace around the ruck in 2011 he was occasionally pretty devastating off the bench - scoring with his first touch of the game a few times I remember - and played above his weight.
I must admit I'm glad to see we've got Frankie Mariano in his place - I feel at Cas we have quite a physically small team, with players like Thompson in the pack we sometimes struggle against bigger, stronger forwards.
If you can get him back in that form, he'll do a good job, otherwise on the 2013 form even under Powell I imagine he'll be a squad player at best.
