Powell surprise! : Thu Dec 07, 2023 9:26 am  

Well so far he's proved me wrong.

Firstly, who is this man, friendly, articulate and optimistic? Not what I was expecting at all.

Secondly, and to be honest this impression came from Cas fans, he hasn't filled the team with old Cas players, in fact he hasn't signed many old players at all.

Most surprisingly of all is that he's signed a lot of young players, especially from our youth set up. TBH I didn't think they would get a chance.

I didn't think he'd retain Shaw, Law and Croft. I'm delighted he has.

I didn't think he'd go out of his way to re- sign Pratt or sign Smith, but he did.

I certainly didn't think he'd pay hard cash for a potential star in Lawford - new territory for us all.

Of the rest of his signings there is a distinctly young look about them, Cozza, Uele, Bain, Boothroyd, Doyle, Walmsley, all 25 and under. Hardly the dads army many were fearing.

True we have some old stagers, but not that many, McGillvary, Gayle, Kay, Hood, Pitts, Bowden, Griffin and Ashurst the most noticeable. But others from last years team such as Jowitt, Atoni, Lino and Franco have years left in them. So far only 8 of the 26 players signed are what you would term as older players, not bad at all. A good spine of experience.

It is in truth a fairly young team, not what I expected at all.

Re: Powell surprise! : Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:36 am  

Building for the future, learning from experience. Not sure you could do this in SL, unless you had an A grade and were guaranteed not to be relegated.

Exciting times ahead.

Re: Powell surprise! : Thu Dec 07, 2023 12:12 pm  

vastman wrote:

Well so far he's proved me wrong.

Firstly, who is this man, friendly, articulate and optimistic? Not what I was expecting at all.

Secondly, and to be honest this impression came from Cas fans, he hasn't filled the team with old Cas players, in fact he hasn't signed many old players at all.

Most surprisingly of all is that he's signed a lot of young players, especially from our youth set up. TBH I didn't think they would get a chance.

I didn't think he'd retain Shaw, Law and Croft. I'm delighted he has.

I didn't think he'd go out of his way to re- sign Pratt or sign Smith, but he did.

I certainly didn't think he'd pay hard cash for a potential star in Lawford - new territory for us all.

Of the rest of his signings there is a distinctly young look about them, Cozza, Uele, Bain, Boothroyd, Doyle, Walmsley, all 25 and under. Hardly the dads army many were fearing.

True we have some old stagers, but not that many, McGillvary, Gayle, Kay, Hood, Pitts, Bowden, Griffin and Ashurst the most noticeable. But others from last years team such as Jowitt, Atoni, Lino and Franco have years left in them. So far only 8 of the 26 players signed are what you would term as older players, not bad at all. A good spine of experience.

It is in truth a fairly young team, not what I expected at all.

Always found him to be like that tbh....
Used to see him in a pub in Ackworth, normally after the inbreds had beaten us....
Mrs BG even liked him then...
She likes him even more now....

Re: Powell surprise! : Thu Dec 07, 2023 12:17 pm  

BarnsleyGull wrote:

Always found him to be like that tbh....
Used to see him in a pub in Ackworth, normally after the inbreds had beaten us....
Mrs BG even liked him then...
She likes him even more now....

I was going on his TV persona tbh, and the one time I met him, but that was twenty years ago and we all change.

Re: Powell surprise! : Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:02 pm  

This is our championship side and would look considerably different imo if we were going up against super league opposition , you have to look no further than the Leigh blue print on how to gain promotion and be successful in the big Misters league for that . Not rocket science really and no surprises for me just a good mix of old and new and Powell has been around long enough to know the crack ,but knows it will be a different kettle of fish when and if we get promoted in the coming year or so and we have a far more battle hardened squad to go to the next level which unfortunately will require those old dogs of war more than ever