Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:30 pm  

posted it in another topic but thought it needs its own one.
self explanatary really, so who would you keep?

Mark Flanagan, Adrian Gardner, Joe Greenwood, Anthony Laffranchi, Francis Meli, Josh Perry, Tony Puletua, Adam Swift, Paul Wellens
all off contract for us, who would you re-sign?

i'd go for flash, greenwood and swift. very undecided on ade but might be worth another year for experience, the rest can go for me

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:50 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

i'd go for flash, greenwood and swift.

So would I.

I would have no hesitation in letting Gardner go. He's been a good club man but he just doesn't have the pace we need.

We need to shed a skin.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:51 pm  

I think Meli and Wello might be in their last years playing.

Laffranchi takes some stick from certain fans but he is a good solid player and always gives 100% so would be worth another contract imo. TP of old would be worth a contract too but need to see if he can hit that form this season before resigning. Same with Ade, past 2 seasons he has played very well upto getting injured, so guess he would have to prove his fitness first.

Flanagan is underrated imo and is a very good squad player worth keeping. Greenwood and Swift both look very talented and would definitely keep.

As for Perry, I would personally pay his air fare back to Australia one way now if it meant we would never have to see him in the red V again. Terrible prop and possibly one of worst signings we made, needs to go for me.

Therefore, I'd keep Laffranchi, Flash, Greenwood & Swift, with TP and Ade judged on 2013 performances.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:58 pm  

Gaskell also off contract

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:15 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

posted it in another topic but thought it needs its own one.
self explanatary really, so who would you keep?

Mark Flanagan, Adrian Gardner, Joe Greenwood, Anthony Laffranchi, Francis Meli, Josh Perry, Tony Puletua, Adam Swift, Paul Wellens
all off contract for us, who would you re-sign?

i'd go for flash, greenwood and swift. very undecided on ade but might be worth another year for experience, the rest can go for me

Isn't Wheeler off contract aswell?

I'd keep Flanagan, Greenwood and Laffranchi

Wellens, Meli, Swift, Gardner and Gaskell can go and see how the rest go this year/what else is available. I'd be happy with that.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:22 pm  

Greenwood, Gaskell and Swift are obvious keeps. I'd keep Laffranchi (as a second rower if possible), Flanaghan if he keeps up his current form. Also,Puletua on a years deal if he keeps fit, but I think he'll go to an NRL club.

Keeping Wellens on peanuts and as a back up would be nice, but I can't see him being the type that would go for that. I'd say it's first choice or nothing for him.

We need to be getting our recruitment right at the end of the year, as we have big gaps to fill and a chunk of the cap available.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:36 pm  

Smurf wrote:

Keeping Wellens on peanuts and as a back up would be nice.

WTF?

If we want to be nice to him, and I wouldn't argue that he doesn't deserve it, there are plenty of jobs off the field he could be bad at rather than actually having him involved with the first team.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:24 am  

Greenwood only really out of the full list.

Think Swift might only be part time -Aero Engineer?.
Flanagan like him but difficult with Clough and Wilkin on long term details.

Gaskell looked promising in 2011. Think 2012 took its toll physically and mentally. Looks drained somehow.
Rush might have damaged him beyond repair. Wait and see.

Need a really big big clear out and would prefer UK based players rather than NRL. Our last few have been duds.

I was laughed at for suggesting Keith Mason and Adam Sidlow represented better £ for £ value than either LaFrank or Perry. Given our lack of grunt at prop, I still stand by it.

Greenwood - Keep
Swift ,Gaskell ?

Perry, TP, Meli, LaFrank -Bye
Wellens, Flannagan, Gardner, Wheeler -Bye

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:39 am  

Saint Simon wrote:

Mark Flanagan, Adrian Gardner, Joe Greenwood, Anthony Laffranchi, Francis Meli, Josh Perry, Tony Puletua, Adam Swift, Paul Wellens
all off contract for us, who would you re-sign?

I'd keep all the youngsters.

If I had my way, I'd currently be playing Meli in the centre and letting Gardner and Turner contest the wing spot.
I think Meli is a +1 year player. I know a lot of people don't like him, but he gives us more strike than any other back.

I'd also be playing flash ahead of Wilkin, so he's a keeper for me. Why? Basically because he's harder.

I'd keep Tony P +1 year, since he's a player that can genuinely do things that few other players can.

Wellens to retire, Perry and Laffranchi back to the NRL. Offload Wilkin to someone like Salford who have big plans.

That should leave us with a good chunk of Salary Cap to rebuild our team and I'd attempt replace the above as follows from the out of contract SL list -

Perry and Laffranchi - Priority signing of Ben Harrison from Wire and another prop of more modest rep like Andy Raleigh, Ben Davies or even Mace the Ace as back up.
Even if we lose TP, then we'd have starting 4 props of Harrison, LMS, Clough, Walmsley with our youngsters and one of the above in reserve.
Offload Wilkin - Harrison Hansen from Wigan or Greg Mounis from Catalans
Togther with Flash, Manu and Sia, one of the above would make up a really hard back row unit, with Greenwood in reserve.
Wellens - Ryhs Hanbury from Widnes
This would be my most important move. Lomax or Gaskell to play #1 and giving us an organising half that we need. Hanbury's an excellent player.
Gardner - Jodie Broughton
May be some competition for this one, but Dixon from London is also an interesting option for an exciting winger.

If we did the above, we still may look a little light in the front row if TP goes, but I think LMS especially is ready to step up and Walmsley will have had a year to mature into a SL prop.

Re: Our off contract players, who would you keep? : Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:39 am  

Gary Wheeler isn't out of contract until 2014.

The correct list is Wellens, Gardner, Meli, Gaskell, Swift, Greenwood, Laffranchi, Perry, Puletua and Flanagan.

I think Perry and Wellens should be certainties to leave, based on performances and/or the need for a quota space in Perry's case.

I think for one reason or another this will be Puletua's last season also, which I'm not too sad about given his performances over the last 12 months.

I think Laffranchi should be re-signed. He's no world-beater but I don't think there'll be much better available and as somebody else said earlier, replacing 3 "props" at once might be tough.

From what I've seen of Greenwood and Swift, it would be stupid to let either of them go. Long-term contracts for both would be nice, as was the case with Makinson. I also think Flanagan deserves another deal, an under-rated player in my opinion.

I think we should only keep one of Gardner or Meli. Keeping both would be a pointless waste of money.

And finally Gaskell. This all depends on performances over the next 6 months. He might just turn out to be fantastic for us this season and we may have a fight on our hands to keep him. But there's an equally likely chance he'll fail to meet the standards we need and he'll end up with his mates Ashurst and Dixon at Salford.

In general I think a lot depends on who, if anyone, McManus can lure from Australia/quota players already in Super League. Assuming Perry and Puletua leave, he'll have the option of bringing two in. Who else we release in the squad may depend massively on what positions we fill from the quota players. If a quality half-back becomes available, Gaskell may be surplus for example. Similarly, both Meli and Gardner could leave if a quality winger comes over.

One thing for sure is that I think we'll see quite a large turnover of players, and assuming Brown has his say on who comes and goes, hopefully it will lead to a much stronger side in 2014.