phiggins

To be fair, I read that post as the program hyping him up, rather than the player hyping himself up.

But that release would need to be negotiated between the club and player, so would hold up any deal if a player became available to bring in. Meanwhile he gets picked every week in the 17, while the club want to free up his quota spot, but then hardly plays any minutes. None of it makes sense to me. Why renew his deal, then immediately start to look overseas for another player that you want to take that quota spot?

Difficult to know how Leigh will line up. Asiata and Mulhern both uncertain, and a decision to be made on who will play full back. Leigh need Asiata and Mulhern available and more importantly, fully fit, to have a chance. My fear is that McIntosh is put straight in at full back and everything is disjointed after another change to the spine.

Yes, it's dead. If Leigh want to pursue players in NRL reserve grade that are ready to step up, they need to free up an overseas spot first. No point identifying a player that you can't sign. I've been somewhat bemused by the quotes coming from the club where they say they're interested in an overseas player, but not interested in freeing up the quota spot to allow it.

I think there are two elements to it. First one being that in 2022, Leigh likely had to make very good offers to players to attract them, as simply matching offers would see players go elsewhere. That is likely still true now, but may have been more of a factor while we were trying to recruit a SL squad while still in the championship. When it comes to renewals, I think overinflated wages means that they are earning too much for the role in the side that person is playing. For example, if Jack Hughes in on a big contract (I don't know if he is or he isn't). He was signed as a first choice second row. He's lost that place and is now a back up / fill in prop forward. Would imagine that money would be better spent elsewhere.

I'm not sure it is the case that all VR calls that take a while are because they are marginal. I think some, less experienced VRs seem to want to have an extra look or two when the decision is already pretty clear. Compare to Ben Thaler, who more often than not is very decisive and doesn't take too long. But as refs get more experienced that will hopefully change. Yes, there will be rants, and bitter posts. Though, ironically, the example you give on Notts Forest was them posting about decisions made by VAR!

Is it something like the on field ref asks the video ref "any reason to disallow" if he thinks it's a try, or "Is it a try, yes or no" if they were unsighted in RU? Would be much better than what we have. The whole point of VR is to support referees, who can't be expected to see everything, but then we expect them to make a call anyway.

Trouble is, some of the video refs currently agonise over decisions, before just stating that there isn't enough evidence to return. Then we also have the VR stoppages because players are staying down after any head contact. Not sure adding more stoppages is the way forward. I know it won't happen, but I'd much prefer scrapping the video ref full stop. Have the referee officiate on the day, then use the MRP for any necessary action for incidents that have been missed.

As well as the media leak, I think there can also be questions about how conversations between clubs have collapsed because the individual has said he's not interested. I know fans get hot under the collar about tapping up when it is their club's people in question, but almost any other club (in any sport) would've gauged the individual's interest, before making such a big offer to their club. Myler and Hull clearly didn't gauge Rowley's interest very well.

Yep, i worded it badly, but that was exactly why I don't think Wakefield would be going in with an overinflated offer for Holmes, rather than a suggestion that they couldn't match such an offer. You might make him an offer as a backup or bench prop, but your big offers are going to the likes of McMeeken and Johnstone.

Possibly, but now it's more a question of what other offers he gets elsewhere, rather than his current contract. If he's on an inflated contract at Leigh, I can't see likes of Wakefield matching that. If Leigh offered reduced terms, it might be his best option.

I think Holmes suffered from a perception of how many minutes that he can play last year, after moving to prop. When really it was just Lam's policy to have Amone, Mulhern and Asiata on for as long as possible. I'd like to see him stay, non-quota middles seem to be at a premium at the moment, but his age and injury record this year could make it difficult for the club to decide where to pitch any contract offer in terms of value and contract length. I suspect Hughes and Hardaker are the ones on big contracts. My guess would be Hughes will be offered reduced terms (whether he accepts them is another matter) while Hardaker will move on.

https://x.com/AaronBower/status/1782798844377399591

Trouble with penalising players going to ground is that you will almost guarantee a repeat set with any sort of kick to the corner. In those instances, the defending team gets a bit longer to setup from the surrender tackle and are in a good position to pen a team in. Agree on the VR, I personally would like to see it scrapped. And I think with all the negative noise about VAR in football, it would be a good time to scrap it. If we do keep VR, I'd bring something in to deter defending teams from trying to influence the referee when they're about to make a decision or on field decision for the video ref. If a player approaches the referee before he's made his decision, or completed the referral, then the play will restart with a 20 metre tap to the opposition, regardless of the outcome of the video check. I'd also give referees the power to give yellow cards to players if they think they're trying to referee the game on their behalf. When both Jai Field and Bevan French gave the sin bin signal to the ref after a trip on Good Friday, I wouldn't have had any problem with the ref saying, "you want a yellow card, there you go!"

That play at the end, he might have had a chance if he'd gone straight away and kept low, but he got himself upright and went straight into two defenders. Worst possible option. Also thought he was wrong to go right to McNamara when Ashton got the intercept which changed the momentum of the game. Some very good defence, some poor passes by Leigh, but also 6 very good tries imo.