Strange choice sticking Joel at full back. Obviously didn't work as he didn't last long there. Thought he organised well but is too sluggish would rather have Riley there who can return the ball quicker.

He looked injured at the time

Monaghan "too sluggish" at FB, keep him on the wing then.... I agree that he seems sluggish and think he needs to up his game when Hodgson returns, Evans is fit and Riley is fighting for a place.

Never gonna drop Joel over Riley as wrong as it is. Joel was out of sorts yesterday at fb but then again, when was the last time he played there? No-one complaining when he scored his try laid on his back putting the ball over his head to score. Joel's best spot is wing where he is solid. Riley will always be odd one out - i dont know why because he is excellent

Maybe that is part of the problem? I wouldn't be too sluggish if I knew that someone was going to take my starting spot. On the other hand if you know you are first pick....

I wasn't having a go at his job at FB when Riley has covered well there just couldn't understand it.I would like to see a bit more from Monaghan J please on the wing starting this Friday

I've said before, when I watched Joel in the NRL (about 10 times, maybe a couple shy of that), he always played centre and he was used quite similarly to how he's used here: a target for high kicks, or a finisher from five yards out. Why we'd play him at full back I don't know, I personally wouldn't mind seeing him have the odd game at centre with the quicker Evans or Riley outside him.

for me, he's newt special! riley on the other hand could be grrreat! but to become grrreat he will need to be playing more than he is!

id love to trade JM with matt king and have riley outside kingy in the centre! atkins on tother centre and chris bridge at FB

i don't think riles is a full back, maybe a full back of old but his passing game isn't up to scratch for a modern day FB

He looked very pedestrian, is he injured?

I'm not knocking Joel as a player i just think his style does not suit Fullback. By sluggish i mean that he lacks the acceleration of the mark so is better off on the wing or at centre.

the ball return was awful yesterday , hes never been the fastest of wingers but he seems to have lost a yard of pace this year

I'd agree with that and wouldn't mind seeing him play at centre either.

There's only so much you can do as a winger if you're not getting the service from your centre or full back and he's had some pretty poor passes thrown his way this year and managed to finish well despite that (the pass from Westwood at Hudds and the pass from Riley for his try yesterday). Both wingers scored a lot of tries last year because of Hodgson creating the overlap. There's been nowhere near as much of that this year, so I'd expect Joel to score a few more when Hodgson's back.

I'd rather have Hodgson there!

I would love to see Rhys Evans back in this team.

He was poor at full back. Ball return wasn't the best, but not the end of the world as you are only talking about a few more yards with Hodgson. His positional play was ok, and he only missed one tackle, IIRC. He even made a one on one try saver.

The biggest problem for me was the lack of a full back joining the line. Ironically it was Riley doing just this that created his try in the second half after they had switched. If we don't have a proper full back on Friday we will really struggle as we become a bit one dimentional in attack.

Joel at full back [size=200[uNO NO NO[/u[/sizePlease