The Phantom Horseman

Always thought John Bastian was a better coach than Peter Fox, myself...

He tends to play back row now so probably more a replacement for Halton/Day, though his ability to play centre could come in handy.

Ben Hellewell confirmed as back at Fev. Solid signing that.

Just my luck that my rhetorical question detector broke on the same day I lost my crypticometer...

this one? https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/super-league-needs-big-city-teams-in-finals-not-small-towns-from-northern-england-says-brian-mcdermott/ the actual video of the interview is there too if that's the one you mean

Doubt it, he played half back for most of his career other than being used as a fill-in at 9 by Warrington, was signed as a half by both London and York and that's his preferred position. If the usual reliable sources are correct we can expect to see Matty Wildie unveiled as Parata's replacement in due course.

Morgan Smith has been announced by the club Twitter website. Would think this will be a fairly popular signing based on his being local and of course his granddad being a Rovers legend. Whether he's here as 3rd half back, with someone else, presumably Nu, moving on, we'll have to wait and see.

Back to the topic at hand...looking at our squad and also the players that we have been linked with, I think the toughest area for us might be finding another good starting middle to replace Harrison. Koppy is another year older and Lockwood's future has not yet been announced and we were quite careful with both of them last year in terms of accepting they weren't going to be able to play every game. Bussey being re-signed would help but the hardest position to find both at SL and Championship level seems to be middles and we could do with another starting quality one. I wonder if we might look overseas?

You're kind of missing the point. Most of us have seen Pickersgill play numerous times so we're well aware of his strengths and weaknesses. We watched our lads run rings round him earlier this year, remember, 121 points conceded in 3 games? Just not that interested in hearing about it from you given you've popped up here (and on the General forum) numerous times this year and it's invariably been with an anti-Fev agenda. So, he's a popular player with his team mates too? Likely to improve team spirit? I'm liking this signing more and more.

Actually, on reflection, you're right. He needs to be assessed by people who have seen plenty of him, understand the game and really know how he has played. So anyway, who did win the Bulls' Players' Player of the Year award?

In fairness he made similar comments when Bradford announced Lilley's new contract so you are probably right...

Former Bradford Bull, multiple Grand Final winner and GB international Leon Pryce says "Great signing, one of the best full backs in the Championship", but Bulls2487 says "he has weaknesses at the back which he hasn't learnt from in the past 3 seasons", so now I don't know WHO to believe.

From what I've seen of him playing at half back he'll have to establish himself as the starting full back or he won't get in the team, I don't think he's a natural half.

Put the rod away, son. We finished top two this season and our recruitment (and to a degree our budget) will reflect that. It's not that hard to work that out, surely, unless you think all players have an equal chance of being recruited by a team that finished second as they do of being recruited by a team in the lower half of the division?

Seriously - decent player, well up to starting at Championship level, had a tough task at Fev as was basically fighting with Harvey Spence for 4th in line at half back behind Holmes Chisholm and Brown. Got an eye for an intercept and has the pace to score from long range.

Disappointed having looked at the title that it wasn't the start of a limerick... We've signed a young half back from Fev Who faces a fate worse than death We hope that he likes Being back-up to Sykes Who will play till he draws his last breath

Pretty inevitable that he would be moving on I think, he was basically fighting it out with Harvey Spence for the 4th half back spot in 2021. In the circumstances I think he and the club did well to get such extensive game time in a variety of circumstances. Decent player and certainly Championship starter calibre, but probably not for a top-two team at this stage of his career.

I think Foster would have had interest from across the Championship which probably means they have offered him a fair amount, though obviously they are in a strong position to do so now they have gone full time. It's well documented that they have plenty of financial backing so will be interesting to see if they can gel into being strong contenders this season Hopefully their fans are unlikely to copy their soccer equivalents with the chants of "we're richer than you" that were all over the news from Newcastle United fans this weekend.

Been trying to think of what our expectations should be for the squad by the time January comes around. We are going to have a lot of very difficult players to replace - Harrison and Halton in particular as I don't think there are too many players of their calibre who are unsigned and likely to be available to Championship clubs. Maybe if the Jesse S-L rumours are true though that would offset one of those losses though obviously he's a veteran rather than a young, improving player. Parata was very good for us especially in the first half of the year but we know Jones can do big minutes and if Matty Wildie is coming to us as rumoured I don't think that's an insurmountable loss, Wildie is very solid at this level. Nu Brown we still don't know about but if he goes that's definitely going to be a loss. There's still no word about Lockwood, which is strange - you'd have thought there would have been more fanfare already if he was definitely retiring. Maybe it was dependent on what division we were in. I'm hoping Bussey and Welham stay with us - Bussey is an important part of our pack and Welham was better in the second half of the season than the first in my view. Blackmore you'd presume would be leaving after not making the team in the closing weeks and with Gale and Hall already confirmed and the rumours of Briscoe signing - if that's confirmed it would be good news as by all accounts he has played very well for Leeds this year. I think the squad we had this year might have been our best in the summer era, we will have lost a few key players this off-season so it's probably unreasonable to expect it to be improved upon, but if by January we are looking close to as strong as the 2021 squad then I think we will have done pretty well.

Agree 100% re the comments, I often wonder if a lot of them are made without even talking to the player concerned. On a similar vein, the comments you sometimes see sportsmen put on social media after a defeat - "disappointing day at the office, fans were awesome as usual, we go again..." etc...often seem to be cut and paste from each club's "social media awareness training" day. London announced Curran re-signing for them again yesterday, Richards has signed for Hull KR, Krasniqi seems barely to have played at all this year so presumably has injury issues, and Walters just hasn't looked the same to me when I've seen London though he did play well with us in 2019. To be honest given how moderate they were this year I've been surprised how many London players have found good clubs for next year, at least 3 with SL teams and several others at the likes of Leigh, York, Batley etc.

I'm getting worried we won't even be able to name a full squad for this weekend's game... Seriously, a bit of patience is surely called for. Season only finished a week ago, a lot of our players are still on holiday which might impact re-signing/ leaving announcements. We will have already signed plenty of players and if previous seasons are anything to go by we might still be in negotiations with others, happy for the club to focus on that for now, plus they will have had a fair bit on behind the scenes given the tragic incident after the game in Toulouse.

Fair enough. I'm just struggling to get my head around the fact that Broncos looked pretty weak in 2021 and failed to reach the play-offs yet already three of their players have signed for SL clubs (plus they have 2 more who were on loan from SL clubs in 2021), and around six or seven others have signed for Championship clubs who will have play-off ambitions, with perhaps more to follow. As for Meadows, I thought he looked very promising when he first appeared for London in 2018 but I've watched him a few times this year and he had more poor games than good ones (from the ones I saw anyway). Maybe Craig Lingard will get something out of him though as Gilmore has probably had the best season of his career in 2021.

Chris Green's signed for Leigh, perhaps unsurprisingly given the Chester connection.

Most of the Broncos players heading north really aren't anything out of the ordinary in my opinion, yet they all seem to be heading towards teams with top 6 Championship aspirations or in a couple of cases SL teams. I think most of them will be useful squad players rather than significant signings, but I might be wrong.

I don't think they are? They definitely don't look like each other, though that's not always an infallible guide.