I'm not exactly sure what the club are supposed to do here.
Our hands are tied with Savelio, Masoe and Jones. They're OOC. We can offer them all the deals under the sun but if they won't sign, they won't sign. Jones is a utility guy and the club will unquestionably think that the positions he covers (back row and centre), we've got many options, including youth. Masoe we've brought Tasi in to replace. Savelio the club are/were desperate to keep but how do you replace ? He's been on peanuts and there's no NRL player coming here for the same money. We've put a lot of pennies into sorting out full back after full back as well. Again, NRL lads aren't coming here too often for six month contracts - it's not worth the hassle, so the club are hamstrung with contracts going into the next season. What are the club to do ? If we don't sign anyone to sort out the full back problem, everyone queues up to tell us we're writing the season off and lack ambition. If we do, we tie up good money in having countless full backs. Where do we go ?
We have lots of lads that are in their 2nd/3rd season at first team level and the club will see them as ready to take on more responsibility. The likes of Thompson, Richards, Greenwood (and Savelio should he be here). This is why only one prop has been brought in - the club envisage these guys growing further and further into mainstream prop forwards.
We've signed a lad to cover full back this season but also with an option to review I believe for following years. He also plays 6 and 7 so should we keep him on, we've covered Hohaia. We've covered Masoe. Jones hardly needs replacing as we've kids queuing up to get little minutes at first team level. The big one is Savelio and that's why all this has kicked off. You can't replace him like for like; you either invest good money in a seasoned prop to cover a bit part role as maybe a 4th prop; you bring another kid through or you increase the workload on your other young props, which is what the club were planning on doing anyway.