The UAFC

We don't have enough players for next season. We are losing:

Bowe
Trimble
Piutau
Black
p
Jared (probably)
Jackson
Olding
Patterson
McPhillips (maybe)



Getting:

Marty
Jordi
Addison
Joey (1 year)

The old injury list is swelling. Any word on Hendo? Will Marcell's knee last more than 5 minutes? Did Deysel do his ACL? The Hond lol?

Discuss...

Dave wrote:We don't have enough players for next season. We are losing:

Bowe
Trimble
Piutau
Black
p
Jared (probably)
Jackson
Olding
Patterson
McPhillips (maybe)



Getting:

Marty
Jordi
Addison
Joey (1 year)

The old injury list is swelling. Any word on Hendo? Will Marcell's knee last more than 5 minutes. Did Deysel do his ACL? The Hond lol?

Discuss...

2MP
CRoss
Simpson went quietly
Zac McCall
And few more TBD

Kofi Annan wrote:

Dave wrote:We don't have enough players for next season. We are losing:

Bowe
Trimble
Piutau
Black
p
Jared (probably)
Jackson
Olding
Patterson
McPhillips (maybe)



Getting:

Marty
Jordi
Addison
Joey (1 year)

The old injury list is swelling. Any word on Hendo? Will Marcell's knee last more than 5 minutes. Did Deysel do his ACL? The Hond lol?

Discuss...

2MP
CRoss
Simpson went quietly
Zac McCall
And few more TBD

C Ross was a decent squad player, never slacked

Is Ross going?


Seems that over the last couple seasons we have been shrinking in terms of squad depth. Now we are even looking thin at centre and wing, the two places we have been very well stocked up until recently.

Eggs wrote:Is Ross going?


Seems that over the last couple seasons we have been shrinking in terms of squad depth. Now we are even looking thin at centre and wing, the two places we have been very well stocked up until recently.

It's almost like we don't know what we're doing.

Totally agree eggs. We have Gilroy, Stockdale, Addison, Ludik and the very talented but easily broken Lyttle covering the back three. I suppose Carberry can play 15 too. We are losing 4 back three players without enough replacements. We are in really bad shape.

Now Diack....

Haven't people been calling for a clear out for a while? The squad is getting very skinny but largely I'd say its because they are bringing through the young guns - hence why they have blooded so many this season. Back three looks a bit light though.

Blooded-

McBurnley
O'Toole
Dalton
Hall
Jones
Rea
Timoney
McPhillips
Stewart
Curtis

possibles

Agnew
Rea Jr
O'Hagan
o'Sullivan
McCusker
Dunleavy
Regan
Lowry
Hume

Need to make sure we have some older guys there setting standards- Marcel's fitness is very important, light at loosehead and scrum half.

A clear out of daves. Too many non-daves going.

Yeah but its more to do with age profile- Bowe and Trimble -totally fantastic players but have been on the wane pace wise for a while. beagle I'd still have ahead of Shanahan but would he be in the first 23? Same with Diack - good player but in the first 23? Tough cuts yes but they clearly want to back the young guys and it means they have no choice but to bring them through.
Not saying we don't need a couple of new signings but the future of the squad has to be based on giving the young guys their chances. Might not be pretty at times though..

Bryn did say at the Season Ticket meetings that the young guys would have to step up and that the squad will be leaner next season, time will tell if the guys that have been given an opportunity are good enough.

Part of this is probably facing economic reality, did I hear we made a loss a year or two ago, add declining season tickets, possibly Parker Pen, not sure do we incur the cost of the payoffs for PJ & SO? This is another reason Logan must go, he is a salary that adds little value to the club, in fact he is probably costing the club money before even accounting for his salary.

I hope big Dan has a better approach to utilising nippers. He will have to.

He hasn't much choice ... huge gamble - but IMHO the only alternative we have.

The view of Ulster from D4 is, that because we are relatively debt free, we have been profligate in our spending on senior players with big contracts.
Youngsters are much more cost effective, but they haven't been getting a chance for us. That is no longer going to be the case and we're seeing the evidence of it with the raft of retirements or non renewals of contracts. There needs to be a much better succession strategy in place and a leaner playing squad profile.
Look at how much cash: Bowe, Trimble, Diack, Marshall and Henry (who will go when his contract expires) were collecting and for virtually no return. Same reason why Cave only got a one year contract. I'd expect all 30+ players to be on short contracts from now on. Hanging around until you are 35 is no longer going to be a given. Obviously there will be exceptions for the likes of Rory and Jared if he gets back to playing.