Would I be mad in suggesting Ian Madigan?

You would yes.

There's rumours in the twittersphere about ihumphs and Connacht. I'm assuming this is b*llocks? Didn't he sign a 3 year contract when he went to L.I? I'm assuming he has at least one more season left with them.

Would I be mad in suggesting Ian Madigan? Paddy Butler or Ian Nagle.Niall Annett from Ulster maybe

phatguerilla wrote: I think rossie is right, building depth has to be a priority, three journey men are worth more than one good to very good player per position (my words not rossies).
There are a number of forwards in the connacht academy who are being spoonfed, hopefully with the intention of creating fully fledged pros rather than just for the sake of it. Conneely, Qualter are examples of this. There's nothing wrong with it, for every Buckley or Henderson that emerges almost fully formed as a 20 year old there are plenty of young players who need to be given time, I just hope it will pay dividends. We need a brutish hooker and back rower for next season, I don't know where they will be found.
With Griffin gone there is room for one or both leaders at 13, Henshaw will be a senior player next season which leaves us in much the same position as we were in at the start of the season. Running to stay still is the name of the game at connacht. Without being malicious I hope alternative 13 options can be trialled for the rest of the season now that griffin is signed to LI.

Its going to become more and more difficult to attract good players as we'll only be playing in the Amlin from next season. I'd be more worried about that.

I think rossie is right, building depth has to be a priority, three journey men are worth more than one good to very good player per position (my words not rossies).
There are a number of forwards in the connacht academy who are being spoonfed, hopefully with the intention of creating fully fledged pros rather than just for the sake of it. Conneely, Qualter are examples of this. There's nothing wrong with it, for every Buckley or Henderson that emerges almost fully formed as a 20 year old there are plenty of young players who need to be given time, I just hope it will pay dividends. We need a brutish hooker and back rower for next season, I don't know where they will be found.
With Griffin gone there is room for one or both leaders at 13, Henshaw will be a senior player next season which leaves us in much the same position as we were in at the start of the season. Running to stay still is the name of the game at connacht. Without being malicious I hope alternative 13 options can be trialled for the rest of the season now that griffin is signed to LI.

You are all getting bogged down on what Connacht pay players which is a bit hypocritical considering many also want players released and replaced by better players apparently for less money.

What the last three years have thought Connacht is that you need a minimum of 3 players of decent standard for each position. The quality will be dictated by budget but there has to be a minimum. Right now Connacht have 2 players for every position and struggle for the 3rd. With the NIQ rules and budget as they are those players will have to come from other provinces and on loan if necessary due to budget restrictions.

Maybe gilsenan will go back after the loan spell. We have jake and willie do we need another ??

Gilsenan can play across the backline so yes I would take just for his sheer versatility but considering he is the captain of the Leinster A team the chances of him coming here are slim.

As for Nikora getting a contract it depends on the contract if it's pay or play etc I have no big problem. I can't imagine he is on huge money so it isn't a terrible decision not a great one either though.

One of the interesting facts I think we are missing is that this seems to be the first time we have asked Leinster for a loan of a player in years. Looking at the Babbling brook site it seems under EE he didn't want loans as he wanted every player who put on the shirt for Connacht to be 100% committed to us and not just here for gametime and while I can applaud that I can't help thinking of the 13 game run of loses and what might have happened if we had some coverage during the injury crisis of that season. I have no idea what the situation was like under Bradley/Cheika regimes so can't comment then. While I don't want us to become the Leinster reserve team and yes maybe if we had the likes of Macken on loan Henshaw wouldn't have come through but I do think that if we have another crisis like this then it could be good for both sides to continue to keep this channel open with regards to loaning players. Thoughts?

Gilsenan is only a loan signing, TOH needs to step up big time, Nikora is lucky to get another year, Carty showed enough this year to get more than a one year deal. Would be off if I was Aaron Conneely, they obviously don't rate him, same applies to Danny Qualter.

Other than Carty none of the signings really make me jump for joy. If the Gilsean deal was permanent, but it's not. Just shows that we don't rate what we have. Lam will be trying to get similar from Leinster academy as well as some Kiwi players over the next month or so.

sea_point wrote:

rossie wrote: <strong>Tiern an o halloran signs for 2 yrs.</strong> Jack carty and miah nikora for 1 yr.

There's Pull if ever you saw it....
He's done not a lot of anything to deserve a Two Year extension....

If I was desperate to keep either Griff or Tiernan, I'd be getting Tiernan his Good luck & Bon Voyage card. He's a winger who doesn't score enough tries (10 in over 60 games), he should be heading off somewhere to find some form.

I'd like to say I was surprised though, but I'm not...

Not sure what you're getting at but I'm 100% sure that pull has absolutely nothing to do with it. I don't think Connacht (or ultimate paymasters IRFU) are going to sign (and pay for the next two years) someone they don't rate. He has been in Ireland squads and played with Emerging Ireland in the Summer so obviously somebody sees something in him. I think your comments are disingenuous- we should be encouraging our young players, not demeaning them.
P.S. I think we'll deeply regret losing Griff- I rate him extremely highly and I think he'll do really well with London Irish.

Maybe gilsenan will go back after the loan spell. We have jake and willie do we need another ?? Right now yes but next season maybe not. Beef Heenan up and put him at 8 and Willie at 7. Would be room for him them

rossie wrote:

FACECUTTR wrote: Parks might not be part of Lams plan. Remember this is Lams first stab at recruitment bar bringing Heenan. Parks cannot deliver like he did before so is usless as a player. As a coach maybe but should he not be coaching these young 10s already in kicking and other 10 stuff??? I think he is a dead weight now and quite a substantial financial noose around our necks. Cut him loose at the end of the season and spend the money elsewhere

Parks has struggled with the lam game plan in a similar way that Dog did early on with penneys. He isn't the only one in the Connacht team though to struggle with it and IMO that's on lam as much as the team. You have got to tailor your game plan to suit the players at your disposal and that hasn't been the case for a large part of the season. His goalkicking is on him alone but he is a confidence player and its no doubt taking a hit this term.
The squad needs 4 wingers and in TOH, Healy, pool man and Carr Connacht have that. There is only one 12 signed ATM though and I'd expect ronaldson to play there a bit from now on. Robbie will no doubt be 13 and Finn will probably be promoted from the academyalong with leydon as tthey both leave the academy. I don't see a big name coming in this season . There are two centres coming out if the Leinster academy with a lot of players ahead of them( collie o Shea and Jordan coughlan) but I don't know anything about them.
The back row needs boltstering, gilsenan leaves Leinster academy, shane buckley leaves Munsters academy and paddy butler is out of contract AFAIK. There's 2 development contracts there for good players and butler wouldn't cost a lot I'd say. Its going to be bargain hunting time I'm afraid but its a good time to be at it in my opinion.

Gilsenan could be a serious signing. He was the next big thing in the Leinster Academy until Dan Leavy came along so they obviously expect Leavy to make it.

whether Parks stays as a player or coach we need to ensure that whatever deal is done it frees up a large portion of what he currently gets paid, which can then go towards signing better players. I hope that Lam persists with Ronaldson at Out-half until the end of the season, his all-round game is good enough for the purposes of Rabo\Amlin level. The backs have aquited themselves admirably this season and the glaring weakness has been organisation and protection of the ball carrier. I'm sure there are stats available to show just how many turnovers we have coughed up. At least we're not running the Ball out from our own 22 like we were.

FACECUTTR wrote: Parks might not be part of Lams plan. Remember this is Lams first stab at recruitment bar bringing Heenan. Parks cannot deliver like he did before so is usless as a player. As a coach maybe but should he not be coaching these young 10s already in kicking and other 10 stuff??? I think he is a dead weight now and quite a substantial financial noose around our necks. Cut him loose at the end of the season and spend the money elsewhere

Parks has struggled with the lam game plan in a similar way that Dog did early on with penneys. He isn't the only one in the Connacht team though to struggle with it and IMO that's on lam as much as the team. You have got to tailor your game plan to suit the players at your disposal and that hasn't been the case for a large part of the season. His goalkicking is on him alone but he is a confidence player and its no doubt taking a hit this term.
The squad needs 4 wingers and in TOH, Healy, pool man and Carr Connacht have that. There is only one 12 signed ATM though and I'd expect ronaldson to play there a bit from now on. Robbie will no doubt be 13 and Finn will probably be promoted from the academyalong with leydon as tthey both leave the academy. I don't see a big name coming in this season . There are two centres coming out if the Leinster academy with a lot of players ahead of them( collie o Shea and Jordan coughlan) but I don't know anything about them.
The back row needs boltstering, gilsenan leaves Leinster academy, shane buckley leaves Munsters academy and paddy butler is out of contract AFAIK. There's 2 development contracts there for good players and butler wouldn't cost a lot I'd say. Its going to be bargain hunting time I'm afraid but its a good time to be at it in my opinion.

Parks might not be part of Lams plan. Remember this is Lams first stab at recruitment bar bringing Heenan. Parks cannot deliver like he did before so is usless as a player. As a coach maybe but should he not be coaching these young 10s already in kicking and other 10 stuff??? I think he is a dead weight now and quite a substantial financial noose around our necks. Cut him loose at the end of the season and spend the money elsewhere

Borders no.2 wrote: Depressing news day for Connacht imo. Pleased for Carty and him and Ronaldson have had their moments but if we are hoping to make any progress in the short term we need a proven quality 10. Nikora has had some good days with Connacht but harsh as it may be, the end of this season should have been it for him. We kept Frank Murphy on for a year as he lost a season to injury and we see how poor a decision that was. Thought Nikora was lucky enough to get a contract for this season as it was.

With Parks (probably) retiring funds should have been freed up to replace him properly instead the money is disappearing down a black hole and we are heaping pressure on two unproven youngsters and a journeyman to bring the control and direction we desperately need at 10.

Tiernan O'Halloran on a two year deal is hard to fathom. Hopefully the fact he has committed to the province can give him a bit of a spark but really haven't seen enough from him in the last couple of seasons.

We knew Griffin was off but disappointing to have it confirmed. I wish him the best of luck, sad to see he feels he has to leave Connacht. We look very short at centre now. Poolman is too good to be fluted around as a utility player when he returns from injury.

Gilesenan coming in is good news. Its a move that makes sense for both parties. If he can do well, it'd make sense to bring him in to strengthen our back row options.

I'd have no doubts Griffin is off because Henshaw is seen as a centre by Schimdt and will be playing in the centre regularly

Depressing news day for Connacht imo. Pleased for Carty and him and Ronaldson have had their moments but if we are hoping to make any progress in the short term we need a proven quality 10. Nikora has had some good days with Connacht but harsh as it may be, the end of this season should have been it for him. We kept Frank Murphy on for a year as he lost a season to injury and we see how poor a decision that was. Thought Nikora was lucky enough to get a contract for this season as it was.

With Parks (probably) retiring funds should have been freed up to replace him properly instead the money is disappearing down a black hole and we are heaping pressure on two unproven youngsters and a journeyman to bring the control and direction we desperately need at 10.

Tiernan O'Halloran on a two year deal is hard to fathom. Hopefully the fact he has committed to the province can give him a bit of a spark but really haven't seen enough from him in the last couple of seasons.

We knew Griffin was off but disappointing to have it confirmed. I wish him the best of luck, sad to see he feels he has to leave Connacht. We look very short at centre now. Poolman is too good to be fluted around as a utility player when he returns from injury.

Gilesenan coming in is good news. Its a move that makes sense for both parties. If he can do well, it'd make sense to bring him in to strengthen our back row options.

Darragh507 wrote: what does parks genuinely have to offer as a coach that we do not already have?

i don't particularly see it. fook elwood is an obvious consultant for young kickers!!!

not sure what it says to nigel either for example.

anyway, if no big 10 signing, then a big hooker and 8 please!!!

I could see him staying in a player/ coach capacity in similar mode to BJ at Munster. There is no backs coach so he could slot in there, help out with kick coaching and still be available for selection when needed. He was a half decent international 10 for a few years and has played a lot of top end rugby. 12mths dual contract seen as no one else is doing that job anyway.