Rumour, gossip and speculation.
For example, Halifax announced their retained list six years ago this week.
It comprised 19 players who had apparently agreed full time contracts for 2003, namely Paul Davidson, Danny Halliwell, Andrew Brocklehurst, Gavin Clinch, Shayne McMenemy, Johnny Lawless, Liam Finn, Stuart Donlan, Jaymes Chapman, Ryan Clayton, Jamie Bloem, Lee Greenwood, Daryl Cardiss, Sean Penkywicz, Brett Goldspink, Robby Beckett, Jamie Thackray, Colum Halpenny and David Foster.
It looked a handy foundation for Tony Anderson to build on.
I'm not sure what particular order that list was compiled in though!
But it turned out to be rather erroneous.
For a start it didn't include Jason Flowers or Andy Hobson, both of whom had still to reply to fresh offers.
Flowers went to Salford (to ironically replace Damian Gibson) but Hobson did sign for another year.
And as it turned out Clinch, Bloem, Goldspink, Beckett, Thackray, Halpenny and Foster all failed to feature the following year.
The last named asked for a move to Keighley before the ink was dry on the press release announcing the above.
And Bloemy had also left by the end of the month after refusing to accept a reduced offer.
Released had been centre David Woods - who had always stated his intention of only doing the one season anyway - and Oli Marns after eight years at the club while Andrew Dunemann had been targeted by Leeds and loanees like Chris Birchall and Jason Netherton had returned to their parent clubs.
Thackray went to Castleford after moving on for financial reasons.
The big blow to Anderson was the failure of his 2002 Australian contingent to return to the Shay.
Clinch - who should also have joined the coaching staff - opted to go to Salford while Beckett and Goldspink were both apparently suspended from the club and then fired for their failure to report back in time for pre-season training. Halpenny also went for disciplinary reasons.
Coach Tony Anderson was left scraping round for replacements under a tough new budgetary regime.
He persuaded Marty Moana to return, talked Bradford into letting Birchall come back and signed Heath Cruckshank and Gareth Greenwood on full time terms.
But Tony Smith kept him hanging on to leave him without a scrum half and then TA's luck was typified by the Paul Parker saga.
The Hull utility player signed a one year deal, played in a friendly and then promptly decided he missed the East Coast too much to leave!
Anderson did sign Lee Finnerty, Anthony Seuseu and Dane Dorahy at the turn of the year to bolster his threadbare squad but they were untried in Super League and their performances at times in 2003 reflected that.
The Seuseu capture was a bizarre one.
The prop was represented by Moana's agent and friend Peter Brown (as was Finnerty) and TA got a call to say that he had landed in the UK unexpectedly and was going to watch a Conference match at Siddal!