Alright guys, time to move on. DCE backflipping seems imminent with an announcement in half an hour to confirm it.

Let's look forward. We've got a young gun half in LG on the left and need someone to partner him. We've also got 1.2 mil spare.

Currently, we have:
Karl Lawton
Daniel Mortimer

as contracted halves for 2016 (excluding Kane). I think we can all agree that Morts doesn't fit the bill and Lawto is untested and IMO is a hooker.

That brings us the open market. Off contract options are:
Blake Ayshford, Justin Hunt, Kris Keating, Luke Kelly, Samisoni Langi, Jack Littlejohn, James Maloney, Te Maire Martin, Shaun Nona, Manaia Rudolph, Will Smith, Kyle Stanley, Ray Thompson, Chad Townsend
Mitchell Cornish, Shannon Crook, Adrian Davis, Zach Dockar-Clay, Jamal Fogarty, Christian Hazard, Beau Henry, Trent Hodkinson, Isaac John, Mason Lino, Robert Lui, Penani Manumalealii, Todd Murphy, Jayden Nikorima, Jeff Robson, Chris Sandow, Zach Strasser

Of the above, I would be happy with:
Shaun Nona - has aced everything below NRL and the best half in Qcup. Young and from Qld.
Te Maire Martin - best attacking half in u20's, however lacks size required for NRL at this stage and an inexperienced pairing wouldn't be great.
Trent Hodkinson - Wouldn't pay this bloke anything more than 400k based on form - reputation however may inflate his value. Decent goalkicker and strong defender.
Jayden Nikorima - Utility value and X-factor. Again, question is whether he could handle NRL and that makes me highly cautious.
James Maloney - Handy player buuuut highly unlikely to leave chooks.

All have their ups and downs and if I got to choose one, it would honestly be Nona.

Do we have options that are currently contracted elsewhere? Perhaps:
Ashley Taylor
Moses Mbye

I know the above 2 options are popular amongst forum members and I tend to agree. Mbye in particular. The complication here of course is whether they will be granted a release.

So that's the current environment regarding the vacant spot. Thoughts and feelings? Who would you guys like to see?