Heres an interesting thought.

With Hastings and French being alien to each other and French never really playing half back before, why dont we start the season without them? Play Tommy and somebody else at 6 for the first handful of games and allow Hastings and French the extra time to train together since Hastings is not back until January. When we do play them, the weather should be a little less wintery and they will have a far better understand of each other. They will also be a little fresher at the end of the year due to not having played as many games.

Why dont we leave George Burgess out for a bit seeing as hes never played with this team before or leave Bibby and Clarke out too .........

You missed off your regular

emoji Mr Frisk.

Because props are easier to throw into a team. Halfbacks are not, especially when one only trains with the new team for a month and the other has never played half back properly in the past and on top of that both are new to the team and each other. At least allowing them an extra month or so to work together, they will be more tuned in and have a better understand of each other and the team come mid March.

WRONG.

Brilliant idea let’s leave out our 250k a year marquee halfback who’ll probably leave at the end of the season, until the weather gets better

So lets just throw him and French in at the deep end after only training together for a month?

An extra months off season for the pair would have huge benefits for them as a pairing and the club whilst allowing us to have a closer look at the young guy.

Yes just throw them in game time will help them better imo

Have I missed something or has this site become some sort of comedy offering?

I only ask because I don’t get on as much as I used to but some of what I read lately is simply ridiculous.

First it was “inflatable players”, now don’t play your marquee half because somehow this will help him gel intraining with another partner who is potentially new to the role.

I’ve an idea how about play Hastings and work on the partnership in training until it is deemed up to standard to play.

tommy and anyone else would be alien to each other

Seen as you seem to troll through every thread you’ve probably seen my post that Hastings and French playing 6/7 at the start of the season isn’t the way to go, French should be at fullback and Hardaker at 3, Hastings and Tommy should be at 6/7, not playing Hastings because he wouldn’t be used to his partner is stupid, he’d never played with Lolohea until mid season and had 3/4 days to form a partnership, look how that turned out, French shouldn’t be thrown in with him because he’s not a 6 and it will take a lot longer to try turn him into one

Even though I have my reservations I still want to see French and Hastings as our 6 and 7, and I also want them to be given time to see how they perform running in the team in the way/style Lam prefers.

I'm not keen on Lam; I don't hide that, but he's our coach and should be given the opportunity to showcase what he can do leading a team with his chosen half backs. As a former halfback; he'll have an expert level understanding the role, time for him to show now he can put it into practice.

Failing that we do have Tommy, and the wild card of young Harry Smith; hopefully he'll get to show us how he can perform at SL level.

Where does it say he will be leaving at the end of the season?, Just because he has a release claus it doesn't mean he will leave, What if no NRL club come in for him

I can’t believe I’m about to say this but here goes; I see the sense in the idea (initially) considering the short period of time they’ll have training together before the season.

But then when you break it down it doesn’t make sense at all when you consider:

- Tommy’s HB partner would be alien too
- They’ll be training together anyway
- Training to matches are two completely different things. We need them to be firing on the pitch which takes both training and playing together

FWIW I think our halves will be Hastings/French for a sizeable chunk of the season. It has the potential to be both a master stroke and a calamitous decision.

At least we would have one settled half back in Tommy. Also gives opportunity for the young lad Smith to get some game time and have a look at him.

Hastings will obviously be miles behind the rest of the team. At least he will get more of a pre season and French will have extra time to hone his skills without the pressure of playing a game each week.

Im glad you like the idea... kind of.

If we just throw them both in, it could end up having a negative effect on confidence if things go badly wrong, especially with French. Im only talking about 4 games. we could then start Hastings and Tommy and ease French in for a few games from the bench.

Its just an idea, you know i love thinking outside of the box!

I get that with Hastings and French but I reckon if we did it this way it’ll cause more harm than good. Then again we could be shifting halves in and out all season long so your idea in that light isn’t too far out there.

It could go either way which makes the upcoming season exciting but concerning too

Which experienced pairing would you go with instead?

I don't know why you would avoid an untested pairing to allow an untested pairing of inferior quality to play together instead.

To give Hastings the extra time to compensate for his very short off season and to allow French to understand the role of 6 better.

Tommy is the most tried and tested half back at the club. Smith would benefit from the game time.

Oh god he's back again with his amazing logic...

How about this... play French and Hastings. They need game time together and the team needs time to play with them. Additionally, the coach staff needs to assess if the partnership is working, and time to assess how to fix any unforeseeable issues or positional changes.

Drop two guys who need to play together, play guys who aren't going to play together long term, then just as they may begin to perform, drop them to bring in two guys who haven't played together yet this season.

Sounds like a plan...

Surprised nobodies suggested Hardaker yet

Hardaker could play HB? Or Escare?

Play them both there, Then French to 1, Hastings to 13, Hankinson wing, Burgess centre

Now you’re being silly. Hastings isn’t a 13; he’s much more suited to prop