Thats the point with Mort that I`m trying to get across...........he is allways coming into the attacking line looking for the ball, and he is very quick with good hands.
Give him a shot at 6 and see what he can do for us, wont do us any harm and he may shock us TBH.

Totally understand what you,re saying.....However the Leigh supporters do not have the patience...If the lad pays at 6 it would take time for him to develop at this level. Refer to any of my previous posts....I for one will be patient, for i know we shall reap the rewards.

Like any young player coming into any team they must be given time to develop, the problem being here is that there are too many terrace coaches who offer criticism without it being constructive mainly because they know sweet FA, another problem with Morty at HB at the moment is that it is a problem position and some fans want an instant fix and if they dont get it then they label that player as no good.
Plus most are missing the best anology of a full back into a stand off in the great man himself, Woody went on tour as a full back and came back a star.
Watching his play ATM I feel that for some reason he has dropped a yard of pace over the last 12 onths now whether thats due to injury? certainly at the minute he lacks that explosive pace that a good 6 needs or the organising ability that is required if not a speedy 6, but playing alongside Watson doing that role could bring him on, but if it didnt work instantly then he would be crucified by the public he loves, plus IMO we dont have a coach with the ability to bring it out of him.
people a couple of weeks away were banging on about having patience becase we are a young side are now on thier backs for just that reason, ohh who would be a Leigh rugby player we have some of the fickiliest fans in the league.

Totally agree.

Even if we did play Mort at 6, the usual suspects will be out calling for his head and Leigh to sign an Aussie stand-off with the money we don't have.

I have to say I dont think its a bad idea giving Ian a crack at standoff. He seemed to break the line a couple of times and came close to about four or five times.

Well despite my moaning, which I incidetally don,t do unless a player consistently underperforms I am going to embarress Optimist now cos his is a top class post.

Lets get real we have no brass,a lot less money than most and can,t afford to buy stars. Morty loves our club like our star man who excels every game.

Every Leyther who goes regularly to our games, and I see at least 500 every away game needs to put a fiver a month into Lisa.

So ok Mort at 6 Chris Hill I think he could play anywhere. Donlan fullback drop Madden Smith to replace him. Rudd and Higson centres. Bench Hobson Morrison COOKSON and Reay.

Now hooker for me O,Connell although Durbin is exciting......................usually...................... in the opps 20 metre area.Not today though.

Not at all frank. My ascendency into middle age means i'm no longer prone to


Actually a very good point regarding L.I.S.A.

What is obvious is that the lads are playing with great heart and little skill.
Barrow dwarfed us yesterday and it eventually told, but only after a very dodgy forward pass, a crazy interception and that bomb turned the tide.
We won the game then lost it, our tactics second half were stupid at best, we had nobody controlling the game and leading the team. Kelly made some daft subs just after HT, which ensured we were dead late on.
The game I watched saw us hurt them playing short up the middle, forcing their big forwards to turn and work hard. Our best ball would be 1 yard either way, we dont have a 6, why try turning Marsh into a Wally Lewis - he cant do it. McConnell made more breaks yesterday than the entire season. 2nd half we started throwing the ball about - why? We dont have strike players wide and we are flat and static.
IF we have signed Pryce then that gives us a wide player who can score, IF we can find a 6 we will compete with anyone.
Anyone fancy chucking a ton in for a 6? 200 fans would get a good un for the rest of the season.

Well I would Maurice but regular fans, who are not members of LISA, actually joining LISA would ensure we had a better team and more importantly secure the services of our outstandingly best player.

My best mate joined after I pestered him and he,s really tight. A fiver a month and you wouldn,t miss it if you missed a packet of fags or a couple of pints a month.it,d do you good too.

Yesterday at the match a couple of season ticket holders told me the turnstyle operators stopped scanning the entry of season ticket holders so maybe there were more people there than announced.

This team isn,t far off becoming a good side, we all know what we need, joining LISA is the best way.

Mr Chairman recently posted AT might pack it in at the end of the season. For regular fans,and we haven,t got enough,they should take that on board.

Well if AT's packing it in we need to be ready now. He has bankrolled us these past few years so without him we havent got a club unless we secure new revenue.

we need a new standoff all together reay and donlan never get a pass in open play if they do its a suacide pass you can see there frustration when all we do is keep it in the forwards

Playing players out of position interesting debate. I don't think Marsh should be at 6 - infact at the moment he shouldn't be anywhere near the team until he gets fit and picks his game up. He hasn't played well this season and every aspect of his game seems to have dropped from last season.

His defence is poor he's too slow in attack and slows us down and his kicking game has gone right downhill. Ridyard or Rourke should be played at 6 and Marsh try Marsh at 13 see how he goes in the pack.

Mort should stay at full back, I think despite him playing junior rugby at 6/9 or whatever he is now suited the the full back role and with time he will get better. I don't think he has the creativity to play at 6 and I don't think we'd see the best of him there or out on the wing. I think in our last two games behind Hill and Taylor he's been our best performer.

He's run the ball back well beating players and making half breaks and he can score tries, he showed excellent backing up skills yesterday and finished it really well. Obviously he's a great goal kicker too. If there's any area that worries me about Mort is his positioning but hopefully that will come with time and experience.

Although Donlan would be an obvious choice at full back and were we'd see the most out of him, i'd like to see Mort develop there and Donlan stay in the centre were he can play and were if we get the ball out he can still have a big impact on the side.

Donlan does actually want to play FB and as he says thats what he was signed to do!

I don't think Nicky Stanton is getting the plaudits he deserves right now he has been outstanding the last two games the heart of a lion.

So what do we do? Hinder Mort's good progress at the expense of Donlan? I'm not disagreeing with you as I know Donlan as it is, is the better full back but there is nowhere else to play Mort IMO and as he's been playing doesn't deserve to get dropped. It's a tough one.

Agree with Stanton - he works hard and is very quick and good making yards forward, not bad in defence and took a great high ball yesterday under real pressure.

Donlan is the better fullback out of the two but is it fair on Mort to take him out of the team when he has had two good performances in a row. Quite a few people are suggesting that we play him on the wing, has he ever played in this position? I think his abilities are wasted if we play him on the wing, however, I wouldn't mind seeing him at 6.

Totally agree regarding Stanton, the guy constantly takes work off the forwards and is always looking for work by going into dummy half and if he gets into open field he will be hard to catch.

Stanton to 6 then.
Donlan must play FB, Mort to wing. Best players in most effective positions.

We have

1 young lad - coming on nicely at full back, has played occasionally on the wing, or at 6 or 9 at times in his junior career but came through our academy in recent years playing most regularly at FB. Bags of confidence despite taking a big step up to the first team, loads of pride in the shirt, good goalkicker & scored the matchwinner against Widnes. Not the finished article & still learning, but needs game time to improve.

1 SL player who wants to play FB. Well known to us as a FB playing in a distant previous spell with us. Has since played regularly in SL, but from what I've seen probably as often on the wing as at FB. Despite this experience hasn't broken any pots in the wings/centres in NL1 since returning, although that could be down to lack of service. Also re-signed for us as a captain but leaves all the on-field communication to other players.

We either persevere with our policy of giving young players their chance, and see the results in years to come, or we shuffle everybody about to try to get the best we think we can out of a SL signing that IMHO hasn't exactly set the world on fire so far.

Donlan may be more like the finished article at FB than Morty, but IMHO he was something of a luxury signing when we had already discovered Morty at FB and had other players like Alstead & Maden who could cover there if needed. We also more desperately needed quality in other positions. In our current squad built so much around young players he should be there to help players like Morty develop, not hinder them. I don't mind them switching occasionally if we're under a lot of pressure, or if Morty's form or confidence start to suffer, but generally in the interests of developing our young players this season Morty gets my vote at FB.

Great post which basicly says the money on Donlan was wasted because he is pants as a highly paid centre.
Who does our recruiting?

Would have hoped that Donlan would have perhaps taken Mort under his wing a little and educated the lad in the art of full-backery. Mort's positional play has been shocking on the last tackle and perhaps a bit of a lesson from Stuart would help him along!!

Exactly! Why pay so much money for our big signing and then stick him at centre were he is nowhere near as effective as he should be. I do rate Morty and he deserves a spot in the team but we have a class player in Donlan and he needs to be used in his best position. I would hope that Morty can fit in somewhere else.

Well my view is if we don,t get a decent stand off we have to use one of our squad.

We have choices Ridyard Marsh Stanton Higson Donlan or Mort.

Up to Neil Kelly of course.

Another thing if Watson is missing Saturday will we win ?

Nope

Well my view on the stand off birth is this. Given Sunday's performance from the current incumbert, young Riddy after scoring a commendable 4 try's in 5 games and after clinching Leigh the points at Sheffield must be feeling extremely unlucky to find himself dumped in the reserves.

Doesn't make any sense to me to pull him out after he'd scored points and won us the game in the last minute at Sheffield.

Only Neil Kelly can give us all the answers but some of his team selcetions recently (barring injuries) are a little strange for me.

Riddy was poor in the Batley game (granted he wasnt the only one) - nothing came from him and it would appear that he's been out of favour since.