Two down, Two to go

The spirits of the Haven faithful have been much higher these past few days mainly due to the fact that Serbian trialist Soni Radovanovic has been cleared to play and the signing of Aussie starlet Jamie Theoharous.

In fairness, 20 year old Soni hasn't known whether he's been coming or going for the past few weeks. Initially, the RFL wouldn't grant him a permit to come and play meaning the deal was off. I personally spoke to Soni the day this was announced and broke the news to him. I certainly didn't feel good about that!

However a couple of weeks on, and I'm sure after plenty of work from Ged Stokes, he has received clearance to play and is due to feature in the friendly against Bradford. I also was the first person to break this news to him, so it more than made up for the last bit of news I had shared. I am extremely keen to see this guy play and I'm sure Ged wouldn't bring him all the way over here if he didn't rate him highly. A strong running prop/second rower is exactly what you need in this league

Our new Aussie signing, Jamie Theoharous, is probably the worst kept secret in the history of signings. It seemed that everyone, but a small handful on the forum, knew who the guy was! The 20 year old has signed from Penrith Panthers after winning thier U20 player of the year in the Toyota Cup. Jamie certainly seems to be versatile and can play Loose Forward, Hooker or Half Back. I personally expect him to feature at the latter if Dan Russell isn't granted a visa at his appeal. It is also worth nothing that Jamie doesn't count on the quota due to his Cypriot heritage.

Moving onto Russell, the RFL are still looking over further information which backs up his case to stay. A decision is expected soon but I can't imagine Dan is too happy at all of this messing around. If he does eventually get granted a visa, I'm not too sure if he will still be keen to come back and play after such a long wait. I guess time will tell. It seems we are also still playing the waiting game over Makisi also.

Let's just presume for a minute that Radovanovic is the real deal and we sign him up and we also manage to sort out the visa issues with Russell and Makisi. That would leave us with a pretty heavy squad numbers wise so what would the best line-up be? I'm sure everyone will have a different line up, however I will go with:

Craig Benson
Craig Calvert
Rob Jackson
Saia Makisi
Ade Adebisi
Carl Rudd
Dan Russell
Ryan McDonald
Graeme Mattinson
Karl Edmonson
Spencer Miller
Scott McAvoy
Jamie Theoharous

Gregg McNally
Soni Radovanovic
Marc Jackson
Leroy Joe

Acutally it is a lot harder than it looks to pick the optimum line up. With having such a large squad, there are a number of players who could be knocking on the door if they impress.

I certainly would be keen to know what everyone else's line up would be, presuming we do manage to sort our Russell and Makisi's visas. Be sure to comment with yours!