His he ok or what

No he was supposed to be still 2 weeks away for last weekend so he will probably be another month

To be fair we.dont need him.back . Doing fine it's about time we managed without him as we didnt a few seasons ago . He will retire gracefully this season I think and will retire a legend

With the number of games he is not playing now, surely he should be thinking about retiring and letting a younger player establish himself in the loose forward position. The same goes for Leulai at Scrum Half to allow Smith to establish himself in the team like Castleford did with Jake Truman, the moment he became too old for the Academy.

Trueman who was played off the park by TL last week?

I really don’t get the clamour to see players retire if they are still contributing in a positive way to the team.

Depending on recruitment TL could be a very important player for us next year.

His leadership and ability to play in the halves or 9 could be absolutely vital in helping us nurture the likes of Smith and Borough if managed correctly.

Lockers I think sadly his time has come however. I’m his biggest fan but his lack of game time, even after a prolonged period during lockdown shows his body simply can’t cope with the rigours of SL anymore.

I'd like to see Tommy go around again,he absolutely snotted one of the cas players in the tackle at the weekend

For me a lot depends on how much they’re earning. If Lockers is happy to take peanuts and be wrapped up in cotton wool until the big games and business end of the season then I’d be happy with that. If Tommy is paid like a utility player not an international scum half then I’m happy if he stays on but If they’re taking up a large chunk of the cap then maybe it’s best if they go, Tommy is certainly contributing but what are his wages?

Yes, Trueman who was played off the park in the academy grand final by Josh Woods!! and a 17 year old Harry Smith
I agree about keeping Tommy on for one more year especially IF we do lose Hastings.
Onto Lockers, I do think we'll need him when the games start coming thick and fast even if it's only to give the youngsters a bit of a break. Remember bringing Graeme West back fore his swansong v Cas when he hadn't played for about 18 months

Lockers always takes a few extra weeks to recover than first reported at the time of the injury. The time will come at the end of the season for him to hang the boots up and I think we saw against Cas with him up in the stand with the headset on that his move in to coaching is close. I’m hoping he can get a run of games in towards the back end and finish on his terms and in the manner he deserves.

I think Tommy Leuluai is different though. He looks pretty fresh and whilst I’d hope we didn’t need to have him starting in 2021, he would be a quality squad player to have covering 7 and 9. He would ease the transition of Lockers retiring as well as some other experienced players leaving.

Last I heard Lockers is due back this week vs. HKR?

For me it's not that much of an issue as his salary is massively reduced on the cap and he is still adding a lot of value outside the 80mins on the pitch.

All comes down to cap space and what they offer for that % of cap. SOL as a player/coach with little cap space similar to Deacs in 2010 would be a big asset IMO because I still believe we look a far better side with him in the team

Is this true? I was told the dispensation for home grown players was stopped.

It has, aswell as the player being there a long time dispensation

He would be definitely but there has to come a ‘passing of the torch’ moment. Personally I don’t think it will be this year, he’s had a good break due to CV19 and will probably be good to go in 2021. We do look better but we also need to look towards the future.

Something which is starting to stand out from the games over recent weekends is that players are dropping like flies with injuries. It could be a coincidence, but the COVID disruptions in conjunction with the rule changes which are speeding the game up lead me to think that it probably isn't. This is before the schedule starts getting jam packed with the rearranged fixtures.

Having strength in depth is going to be even more important this year than it usually is, and even if Havard/Byrne and the others are going along fine just now, having SO'L to come in could really easily be the difference between winning a trophy this season and not.

The rule changes after lockdown and mid season were baffling IMO. Next season would have been far better. Just as an aside, I’m getting sick to death of the rules constantly being tinkered with. Just leave the game as it is for goodness sake, the NRL, SL and international all play under different rules yet we sit and wonder why no one takes RL seriously.

Agree that they should have left it until next season but disagree about us not continuing to evolve the rules. It's kind of like the law IMO, the players and coaches keep finding new ways to exploit the rules so the rule-makers keep needing to amend the rules to keep up with them. I think most people agree that the '6 again' rule has been a good addition, and I'm sure you will agree that we needed to change the rules to stop players deliberately playing the ball into the defender on the floor or throwing the ball at offside players for a cheap penalty.

If they're constantly thinking of tweaking rules, they should definitely bring this one back:

[urlhttps://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/mole-brisbane-broncos-chairman-karl-morris-sacking-pressure-wayne-bennett-return/bf192c04-f5cd-415b-97ee-77d0a1f951d5[/url

They tried this late 80s/early 90s when we were winning everything. Didn't work. We kept the opposition pinned down in their own half, got the ball back on the halfway line then racked up another try. At least with the scored against team kicking off the scoring team has to go the full length of the pitch to score.

Think we also had it in the early 2000's when we were winning nowt!



Still think it would be better than receiving the ball back after scoring.

Start of super league it was. 97 and 98. (May have been done earlier too I suppose)

Either way, it didn't work IMO and there are far more "important" rules that need changing first. The 'tackle in the air' rule is stupid with genuine attempts at the ball being penalised as no common sense is applied.

I agree though that SL, NRL and International games should be played under the same rules.

Maybe not so fine after all?

One game back and he's gone again, You couldn't make it up like

We only play him in the big games because we can't win them without him

We’ll wheel the legend out again next Saturday and it’ll be like he’s never been away. I think it was the post game BBC coverage last week that described him as a vintage Aston Martin that you just bring out the garage for special occasions and it was bob on.

As he did last week, he’ll bring 5% out of the lads around him next week and that alone is worth it’s weight in good.