Connacht Squad 2016/2017

Plenty of activity on the Robbie thread, but there's lots of other business to be done on the contract front. Maybe someone can post the list of players whose contracts are up at the end of the season?

Great news that Kieran has signed back up. I see in the independent this morning that Ulster are supposedly eyeing up Rodney

www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/who-is-st...layers-34235413.html

Of the current senior squad I think the following are out of contract at the end of the Season (there might be a few mistakes in here):

• Rodney Ah You
• JP Cooney
• Dave Heffernan
• Jason Harris-Wright
• Aly Muldowney
• Danny Qualter
• Andrew Brown
• Jake Heenan
• George Naupu
• John Muldoon
• John Cooney
• Ian Porter
• Craig Ronaldson
• Robbie Henshaw
• Shane O'Leary
• Matt Healy
• Tiernan O'Halloran

I'm not certain, but I think the following are out of contract at the end of the season:

• AJ MacGinty
• Conor Finn
• Apirana Pewhairangi
• Fionn Carr

Notable year 3 academy members include:

• Rory Parata
• James Connolly
• Sean O'Brien

Could we maybe try to avoid offering opinions on who we could afford to let go?

You'd have to think that there's a good chance John Cooney will be heading East as well, but as he's a product of the Leinster Academy we'd have to feel less hard done by if he did.

Thanks for the list evil_g. There are a lot of names on that list that I'd be eager to sign up pretty quickly. Rodney, Craig, Robbie, Matt, and Tiernan would be at the top of my list.

I appreciate the point about not talking too much about who we might be able to live without. It's peoples livelihoods at the end of the day. Still, it's professional sport, so I think as long as nobody is one here bashing fellas, or getting person then we should be ok.

Finally, we seem to find ourselves on the defensive at this time of the year, as speculation about our best players being targeted by other teams mounts. So, who should we be looking to lure west? Madigan?!

Banm wrote: I think he'll stay. He has ties to the west and likes it here. If Leinster offload Boss maybe then he'd consider it

I hope you're right. We could have the second and third best Irish qualified scrum halves then.

Just so you're aware, there are a number of lads currently in Year 2 Academy that only agreed a two year contract as opposed to the standard 3 - Shane Delahunt being one of them.

The current season one dosent load up Pinky

Evil_g wrote:

• Rory Parata
• James Connolly
• Sean O'Brien

Rory Maloney is 3rd year Academy aswell and someone I'd wanna hold onto

I see the indo are saying Ulster are keen on Ah You. Hope the lads are working hard behind the scene to keep the core of this team together.

I'd be happy if we got Muldowney signed up again. There is a good few there who other sides will be looking at.

I imagine as McGinty is on a one year contract that he will get signed up by one of the new American clubs, it would make sense for all concerned unless he is personally worried the quality of rugby won't be high enough. After that there's very few players we can afford to let go, although if Cooney goes back to Leinster which would make a lot of sense it would at least give Blade a chance for more gametime.

I woke up this morning having made two dreams about Connacht (one of them crazy, they were playing beach rugby against Leinster, true story! )

The reality is far better than anything we could have dreamt 2 years ago. For the first time as a Connacht supporter, I'm serene, peaceful.

Lose Heenan? Nepia Fox Matamua steps in
Lose Nepia? Connolly steps in brilliantly
And Moloney's next

White is 34? Bealham's ok, Menuargia promising
Naoupu's 33? Masterson already is a Masterpiece
Muldoon? SOB is indeed a 2.0 version of SOB, the future is all to take for him

Cooney out for 3 months? I rate Caolin Blade highly
And even Henshaw isn't irreplaceable, Parata looked great.

And we have McCartney, McSharry, Roux, McKeon, Marshall and Poolman on the verge of return, I can't imagine where there gonna play. The fight for any spots is absolutely incredible

I know I'm anticipating, a little bit but for next year i'd like 95% of our great current squad
+ Steenson, Sheriff and a NIQ ambidextrous prop
It's reasonnable and enough