Dare I say it but I think we are showing signs of being smart and ruthless again. Last year- and the fact that Wigan are the dominant team- has given us, I feel a proverbial kick up the a**e

We are getting rid of players past their best and ageing and starting Robertson over Hurrell has been particularly telling. Knowles is a huge loss, no doubt about it. How we replace him I've no idea. Radley isn't going to come over here and the fact that Knowles was homegrown and effective on the Salary cap for that reason is another factor that we now have to deal with. 
Matt Shaw was asked a question about our recruitment a few weeks ago and he said his information is that we are being "aggressive in the market" so I do think we have some signings lined up.
We will have a lot of cap space to play with next season. 
Knowles, Batchelor, Bell, Vaughan, Sambou as certainties and then potentially Ritson, Hurrell, Davies and Paasi too. 
The 4 year deals for Robertson, Whitby, Stephens and Dagnall will have eaten into a little of that cap for next season I feel plus Delaney and Lees will have had a decent increase I would imagine. 

Welsby aside, there was essentially zero attacking threat from Saints last night. Kicking game a big problem. Stick a fork in Johnny Lomax - he's done.

One saving grace was the front rowers who all performed well.

Good news is that if they keep flogging Walmsley to death ,come towards the end of this season he will be knackered like last season.

Said the same thing on Redvee on both fronts, I don't understand letting Bell go with Knowles already going. It's going to be a massive ask to get a replacement rotation that's anywhere near as good as the Knowles/Bell rotation so unless Hull just provided an offer we couldn't match then I don't really understand it. Think Bell is coming off quota next year or the year after too. Also agree that whilst I don't see Smithies as being as good as Knowles, he's pretty much the best possible replacement we could get for Knowles, short of Radley coming over which obviously isn't happening. I understand the biases but I don't really understand people saying they wouldn't want him, can't think of anybody else that would be a better fit and obviously fed trained too.
That said I don't actually see Smithies coming, pretty sure that was just some clever seed sewing from Rogues! Going to be very very interesting to see how we line up come next year anyway, going to be a massive shift in personnel.

I can't see Morgan returning to SL. The question I would be asking is did Saints try to retain Bell. I suppose the acid test will be who Saints replace Knowles and Bell with.

Straight away you lock down the 13 shirt for at least 5 years if you sign Smithies and you don't tie up a quota spot. You need the right sort of forwards around him (metre makers, a bit of pace and threat with the ball) and I think Saints have some of that with Walmsley, Paasi Clark, Sironen etc. If there was a chance of him coming home, I could see Saints throwing good money at him because of the need for non quota players. I'm really struggling to see where British replacements for Knowles and Batchelor come from at the minute and if quota spots are needed to replace Hurrell, Bell etc then it's going to get tricky. It feels a bit like the house is being bet on kids like Robertson, Whitby, Stephens and Dagnall not only making it but making it big. If that doesn't happen then replacing Lomax, Walmsley, Clark, Percival etc in the years to come will be a massive challenge.