Jamie Ellis is all that needs to be said

Dickinson for me could go either way I remember when Josh Johnson was 16/17/18 he was immense and most clubs would have taken him from us - similar to Tyler when he was 16/17/18 always representing England and been England first choice prop at academy level. However, Johnson just did not improve to develop physically much over the last few years how I expected him to and props who he would of been much better than at that stage are better than him now - Nathan Mason being one but you can't fault his effort at all.



Although I was disappointed not to keep Josh as he is home grown and was still very young for a prop may have developed further over the next few seasons. If he doesn't find a club maybe we could still offer him a deal? although I want players who want to play for the club.



Tyler Dickinson is a very similar size and weight to Josh Johnson and plays with similar aggression and style although Tyler may be a big bigger since I last saw him play. Tyler is is 2 years younger than Josh so for me will either lack the size similar to JJ or may develop with game time over the next 2 years. Apparently went very well in the championship last year and was unlucky not to have got more games with us last season if so.



Matty English is going to be the one to watch over the next 5 years for me when ive seen him play he is very very talented prop forward - so will be interesting to see how he develops physically over the next few years when he gets into his early 20s.

No they didn't



Hth

like i say they showed loyalty at the time.



im sure we as fans will give all the new players our backing and hope they perform to their best

Thanks for the post. Interesting to read your views. Cheers.

Anderson succeeded in taking us to the top,where previous coaches over 79 years had failed,the key to that 2013 season was having a front row all at their peak,Crabtree,Lunt,Kopczak,and also Fielden in there before he got crocked.Kept it close to the ruck on attack it worked a treat.



Problem was at play off time when the experienced teams committed to defend the fringes,then because of our style we posed no threat out wide.

YES they did.



Nice to be helpful.

Anderson was a good coach. He just lacked experience. He will have learned a lot with us and learned more of how to deal with the pressures of being rock bottom. He hadn't experienced it much as a player nor a coach.



He will go down in history but I believe the hard work was done by Nathan Brown. He turned us from whipping boys to a fired up, fit, skillfull team.

He lost his way with team shuffling. Lawrence jumping in at prop and Lunt at second row. Etc.



2013 came and Anderson used that fit skillfull team we had, and settled the ship. The players enjoyed their rugby again and topped the table



We can hope Rick Stone can take us a step further given the chance. I just hope our fans realise he's pretty much starting from square one regarding fitness and becoming a top 4 team again. Will highly likely take more than this season to reach them heights.



The New Stone Age should be exciting though.

You don't understand rugby league do you?

we have some great players at our club.

But no strength in depth.

all the more important we get the fitness correct this time



and abit more luck with injuries



keep as many of your first 17 on the field rather than on the treatment table the better you will go simple as that in super league, especially the pivot players

That's an interesting post, I agree with most of it as well, Certainly the part about reaping the benefits of Browns coaching, (before he lost the plot), The likes of Crabtree were becoming skilfull players who could offload, Cudjo is another who leaped ahead, Lunt also was very good at that time.



Brown was the start of our downfall in a sense when he self destructed, Anderson was more a successful coach than a good one for me. He deserves credit for the defensive qualities we had for a couple of seasons, and also for winning the Hub cap, I think his shortfall was man management and lack of motivational skills, all the skills some of our players were showing under Brown, largely disappeared under PA and we were pretty much reliant on Brough to create anything, though K Brown had his good sides.



I may be doing him a disservice to a point, something went wrong at the Giants before last season and he may well have only been a part of it, I have no info from inside and am just speaking how i have read it. It would be interesting to see how he went at a championship club.



I am pinning my hopes on Rick Stone being a lot more like N Brown than PA, If he keeps us alive and going forward, even if it's only enough to keep us in the 8, With this seasons signings he will have done OK, and we should be far better placed to get players next year.