I know this guy has his critics, but having watched last night's game on tv when are we going to start supporting him? Practically every time he took the ball in he was twisting in the tackle looking to offload. IMHO when we do start backing him up we could break a lot of defences.

He had an excellent game last night, then again so did the rest of the team.

very underrated is dave armistead last season when fit & also this season. in SL when they throw the ball around & always get the ball out of the tackle everyone says how good was that, when our own players do it all you here is keep hold of it,go down with it etc etc its baffling at times

He played well,but chris hill was the player i was impressed with the most.

we get to see that every week.i couldn't believe he didn't get in the championship team of the year last season miles better than any other prop imo

When Goulden came on he was excellent he was a tackling machine

sorry to disagree but i am still not convinced yet bout dave armistead yes he does twist and turn in the tackle but then throws the ball anywere even IM last nite had to tell him to keep it simple

Infinite times better in terms of knowing when to offload than he was last season though - a Mark Leafa-style work in progress, I reckon.

I'd like to see the stats on how often the team with the most offloads wins the game

which will then be contradicted by the stats that prove that ' completions ' wins the most games

I do feel however that the number of offloads last night was a big contribution to Barrow looking fatigued more than us at the end

When you as a defender think that a tackle is made only to then see the ball in the hands of the opposition again the physical and also mental tiredness increases quite dramatically

Apart from the fact it is also a lot more entertaining

Get a stat for 'completed offloads' and you're laughing.

i dont think offloads & completion rates need to be seperate issues.i think they can go together.does that make any sense

No excuse for anything other than a ' completed ' offload , it's what you do with them once you have completed them that is important , and like most things , the more you do it the better you get at it

i wish i could have put it that simple

Army last nite was excellent put in 100% effort and played with a lot of grit top wraps to him
best game ive seen him play thought he was good watching it at the ground last nite but ive seen it three times since on sky and wow he did,nt half work his socks off

Takes time to settle in a brand new position, some may laugh but I see JT and Tommy Goulden both making the transition to prop sooner rather than later, especially on the (hopefully) grassy hard pitches to come.

On the subject of Jimmy T, I've seen big improvements in his attacking play this season, which has arguably been his only weakness previously.

I've posted before there's no such thing with the Aussies as a bad off load, they throw it anywhere backwards its up to his twelve mates to catch the damn thing, if it don't happen the get bolloxed for not being there, we call the player for off loading without support. When we start to think that way we may actually start to beat them.

Totally agree with the OP Army was excellent last night. Keep it up and he`ll prove to be a regular on the teamsheet.

I too thought he played well, keep it up.

I saw more off loads against Barrow from Leigh than i did all last season put together
A massive improvement in Leighs attacking play

Wasn't Jimmy off the pitch when they had their dominant spell?

Armitstead, worked his backside off. Always a threat, twisting and offloading, and isn't missing tackles or being lazy like he was last season. Finally looks 100% fit and showing the form we bought him on.

Think that is a bit harsh.....he was obviously carrying an injury last season (as was Donlon) IMO.....but both played - which says a lot about both their characters, and how paper-thin last season's squad was!!

It's no co-incidence that both now appear to be injury free - and both have had a really good start to the campaign!!

Matt - I know what you are driving at with the comparisons to Leafa.......but that lad was what I described as a "Serial Off-loader"!!!





I think 'Armi' weighs the options up a bit more!!