It was both IMO.


Extremely debatable. Carvell is a huge loss (even given the amount of time he spent injured), we're worse off at SH, and we haven't improved our backline noticeably.

We've had some problems with the squad for a few season, and they have yet to be addressed IMO.

True, though Crocker actually missed playing time so is that a benefit for us as he will be fresher?
Thorman is hardly a concern as he'll get as much pre-season as the International stars and thus will be fully prepared imo.
Washy or Raynor I can't disagree with.

Thorman is not is full training as yet.

Is he starting tommorrow?

Dunno

No $hit sherlock..........in 35 years of watching the game i didnt know that was what the tackle was about.

I agree Dykes was a better Scrum Half than Thorman - when he played we won when he didn't we lost, simple as. But it's all very well having a better SH if he plays but poor Dyksey sadly couldn't. So given that Thorman will start every match hopefully with Horne I'd say we are, on balance, potentially better off in the halves than last year given last year's injuries there, particularly as it frees up Berrigan to play consistently at hooker. (Of course, if Dykes and Horne had played every match with Berro at hooker than who knows where we'd have been last year?)

I've already stated Carvell is a loss - yes you're right a huge one - but Crocker is here, Kingy is fit (played great last year until injured), Whiting (most exciting and underrated player IMO) is back, and we've yet to judge Maloney.

Plus who knows yet who Father Christmas forgot to leave and whose arrival may be imminent?

So lots to be positive about, so I'll stay that way until there's a need to be otherwise.

Maybe, maybe not. On paper Thorman < Dykes, but if Thorman stays fit he could be beter than the random rotation of Dykes/Lee/Berro/R Horne etc that we had to endure last season. Agree about Carvell and the squad balance though.

I don't disagree with that assessment, but the statement was that the [isquad[/i had been improved, not the team on the pitch. I think the squad is actually no better or possibly slightly worse on paper. I expect us to field better teams on matchdays, though.


It's a worry, but there was no realistic chance of it being fixed given the Carvell situation and existing contracts.

See my response to Mrs. B. Possibly a tad pedantic, but there you go.




Our second row is not the problem. Our front row is. King didn't play [ithat[/i well last season, and has a tendency to blow hot an cold. He's also picked up a few injuries lately.


I think you'll find that Santa's sack is most likely empty.


I'm actually not as depressed as my posts might make me appear, and I'm looking forward to the season. It just about has to be better than last year, after all.

Yes SL.

I don't rate Rangi Chase, he offers nothing that we need and will get from Thorman.

Blind optimism can be very dangerous.

Can't comment on the rest of the season (well, not without looking into it), but that generally wasnt the case against rovers!

OOOPs, read backline as backROW hence the justification



Still think Santa may deposit the answer though

Ok - the games we did win he played in (generally)

Well what was the point of you claiming you didnt understand what i meant then

Leeds
Saints
Catalans
Warrington
Wigan
Bradford
Huddersfield
Hull KR
Hull FC
Castleford
Wakefield
Harlequins
Salford
Celtic

Optimism is a great thing to have, even better if it's blind but I just cannot be positive about the coming season. Some people are talking as if our squad last year was full of quality and capable of greatness before the injuries hit. It wasn't ! It was a squad that still lacked quality in crucial areas and still had it's inadequacies that had not been addressed season after season.

Had we gone through the season with average injuries, IMO we would have finished around 6th or 7th and many of the pundits had us exactly there in the pre-season build up.

Since then we have some key players back like Horne and Whiting, fit and raring to go (hopefully) but we still lack real quality in crucial areas and our squad just doesn't match up when compared to the better squads in SL.

Last season we lacked a big no-nonsense prop, we still haven't got one and now we've lost our best one to add to that.

Last season we had serious doubts about our halfbacks (especially SH) and serious worries about the prospect of Tommmy Lee finding his way back into the halves. Nothing has changed there.

Last season we lacked pace and strike in the backline and although IMO Calderwood is a good signing, we still have a very worring gap in the centre spot inside him.

Crocker will hopefully turn out to be a fantastic signing but for me, the backrow wasn't really an area that needed much attention. In an ideal world, I would have liked to see Radford somehow encouraged to go elsewhere and replaced with a second rower more in the Lee Gilmour mould.

In general our squad doesn't look any stronger to me but I think we should have a stronger starting 17 most weeks and therefore should finish a little higher up the table. Before any aspirations of top two though, I think we need to see maybe 5 or 6 players out and 4 or 5 coming the other way.

Well why did you say it the Aussie way to start with........the Aussie league isnt the Bee's Knees of everything you know.

I think Catalans will do well but cant see them finishing 3rd again i reckon either 5th or 6th

A tackle is a tackle

Awsome.

The Aussie way







Your obsession with me is most amusing



Fair dinkum if i said 5/8th

Not obsessed at all....just cant see the need for all this leg speed and collision talk.


Only in Blackpool.

Just wondered what everyone thinks the table will look like at the end of the year. Mine is

Leeds
Saints
Warrington
Catalans
Wigan
Hull FC
Bradford
Hull KR
Huddersfield
Quins
Castleford
Wakefield
Salford
Celtic