It didn’t help Miller last season, playing alongside Holdsworth. He wasn’t given the best of opportunities during the preseason games. He has had 3 ‘decent’ games and 1 very poor game so far this season.

If an elusive experienced quality 7 became available, then sure we ought to go for him, but in the meantime we may have to keep our hopes in Miller for the short and medium term, and try to get the best out of him.

create something when they have got it...not run like a crab &.get players smashed!

Trust me I hope he kills it in SL but I am not tied into any players at all and will call every game as I see it. If Miller makes it I'll be chuffed to bits but he is now playing first grade and it is these games - not some games sometime in the future - that will determine his fate. It seems pretty straightforward to me.

What were the posession stats last night? Did we have significantly less ball?

Agreed. We don't have the luxury of giving well paid players a season or two in the first team to see if they are any good. We won't go down this year but finishing outside the 8 next year would be a disaster

I am not tied into any players either, but what do we do (who else do we have) if Horne or Rankin gets a lengthy injury?

I don’t care how “pretty straightforward” it is to you, what do you have to offer that is constructive with what we now have.

Horne, Miller, or Rankin, Miller is far better than bringing Azza into the halves, but if we have killed off Miller (because of impatience) then we may only be left with Azza in the halves.

No idea, but I reckon the majority of it was spent one out running.

Sounds like the knives are being sharpened for Radford, but is it all his fault? Do you really have the team? It's a few years since you've had a top 4 finish.

Evening statto.........

It was in our first year in SL but still a while ago

Wrong. The last time we finished top four was 2007.

Yeah, realised that just after I'd pressed submit

Didn't one of the top 4 get stripped of points though?

I'm glad Radford has given the much lauded rankin/miller combo a chance. I notice that there is little credit for Radford from those who insisted that was the way to go and who feared that the inclusion of Horne in last night's squad meant that he would automatically be selected at half back as a result which he clearly wasn't.

I would play Horne when available and leave the other two to fight for the other spot. This gives us some much needed experience there and a good deal of skill as well. I haven't seen anything to suggest that playing Horne would reduce the skill level available from a Rankin/Miller partnership. Far from it. If/when Horne (or for that matter one of the aussies) gets injured the other one comes in. The one difficulty with that is that we can't play an overseas player for Donny which is an issue.

That's how I'd use the current resources. Not ideal but as I say there's no evidence that Horne is a worse player than Rankin or Miller so for me we use his experience to help bring on the other two whilst not playing SL with a totally inexperienced half back combo.

This "mystic" half back that exists which dominates every minute of every game and always ensures his side wins, anyone know who he is ?

Because far as I can see they isn't a half back in this world that as a 100% record, all this talk of we need a player that can take a hold of a game is just plain rubbish for me. Rugby League is the ultimate team game and should any team have a weakness they will get punished, in this sport it is very rare you can under perform and still win. For me the real reason we are losing the close games is no goal kicker and bad discipline, if we didn't have those problems Thursday night could have being a different result.

Considering what little platform they had to build off, I didn't think the half backs looked all that bad. Made some errors and some poor kicks, but you will get that with youngsters and even more so with young half backs. you don't just turn into a top half back overnight it actually takes years of experience to become the full all round general. Look at matty smith at Wigan, none of the top teams would touch him 3/4 seasons ago and now he is the general of the reigning champions.

We just aint going to be able to quick fix this problem, we need stability in this position and to build around half backs rather then expecting a half back to come in and change our way. With Rankin and Miller we have a chance to do that and its a big bonus they are both very good friends. How anyone can look at them two now and instantly make a decision on if they are the answer is quite frankly stupid. I'm not saying they are going to be the answer but need far more time and investment before we find out, not just losing one game by a point. If we knee jerk we are just going down the same path we have for the last 7 seasons.

When the props have dominated this season I think Miller, Rankin and Westy have all looked to have formed a good partnership. Done more good then bad IMO.

[size=150LOGIC ALERT!!!![/size

You can't come on saying things like this. The quick fix merchants will be demanding your head.

Well said pmarrow. Agree with every word

Excellent, rational, spot-on post.

I think after your performance against Huddersfield when your forwards completely dominated you went into this game as fans thinking it would be more of the same.

We've started to play well though especially in the forwards and having Justin Poore back only toughened that area up even more.

I expected us to play poorly and lose which we did. It's been the story of our season - win well one week, lose badly the next. I'm convinced it's a mental/attitude issue

Good post - sums it up perfectly.
Miller was a top player coming through the grades,
but still a bit young & will probably be 2 or 3 years before he is the finished article

what a change ,to read a post that someone has actualy put a lot of inteligent thought into composing.

I think if people look at the win-loss record and nothing else, then they won't see the full picture. Look at the scores we've lost by. We've always been with two scores of winning every game, and we've played some of the hardest away games already. We aren't far off. Radford has got something right to keep all the games as close as he has (something Gentle failed to do).

Radford's biggest issue so far appears to be how quickly he will change the team if someone under-performs. Maybe it seems a bad short term solution to some, but it may have long term positive effects for all we know (players actually realising they need to put it all in the pitch every game). He needs time and support, and so far I think he deserves as much.

Couldn't agree more, exactly what I said in earlier post on a different thread. As for the "knee jerkers", what do we expect it was Rovers at KC Lightstream for god sake. We lost by 1 point to a team that had just beat Warrington away, these whining FC fans really need to get a grip. Leave Rankin and Miller at half back!!!!!

I shall also say great post. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Excellent! Great minds think alike