Players in vs players out and my guess at like for like cap value
Gidley < Roberts
Westerman - BMM
Sims > Akouola
Hiku - Goodwin
Dwyer
Savelio
Evans
Pomeroy
Blythe
Penny
Wilde
Obviously this is all guess work, but....
The top 4 in/outs in that list seem to balance themselves out in salary cap value (remembering that only £175k of Roberts salary will count)
Any player outside the top 25 paid players and under 21 won't count on the cap, so Dagger and Smith would fall under that category.
I think we need a replacement of sorts for Dwyer.
Props of Hill / Cooper / Crosby / Akouola with Westwood / Philbin / King as back up seems ok to me...? But if a very good prop was available I'd take them, we're not as strong as Hull in that area.
Linehams starting place looks at risk for me, but would you use a marquee spot on a winger?
Does Hughes get another year to prove 2017 was the exception?
Not sure who's ready to step up from the academy, but we need a little more squad depth considering who's leaving. Given the new salary cap rule of anyone under 21 not in your top 25 earners not counting on the cap - we need to focus some attention there.
I'd probably keep Pomeroy as long as he's happy to be a back up to the theee quarter line.
I'd say we still have plenty of cap space left, remembering the club say they want to carry two marquee players, would that suggest we will carry £175k of cap space in to next year if we can't sign another marquee for 2018?
Cap is also increasing by £100k, I assume that will be spread throughout the squad, although few could argue they deserve a pay rise after the 2017 season!