Agree with all of that, we desperately need to sign some senior players to replace those you've mentioned, or we need to create a new leadership group from within.

We also cannot keep having these injury crisis's season after season

That's what I'd go with, only issue is playing Houghton at hooker for 80 minutes, but hard to see how that will change until Connor or McNamara are back.

Be interesting to see if Griffin plays, think he will if Taylor or Satae are out.

Yeah, ideally McNamara would be at 6, which would let us use Lovodua at 9 but sounds like he's still a few weeks away.

Agree on the prop situation too. Think Taylor should be okay as he passed his HIA (I think). Satae will be a big miss if he doesn't make it

A must win really if we're to keep our hopes of scraping 6th and getting knocked out of week 1 of the playoffs...if Cas win and Salford best Toulouse we're out of the 6..although Toulouse are the form team in the league at the moment, the only team to have won their last 3 games...

Simm and Longstaff were signed on initial 2 week loans wasn't they? Will probably be extended during the week.

We must be aiming at stringing back to back wins against Cas and Toulouse. It's going to be tough, both sides have found form but with bodies coming back we should be able to put up a good fight. Feel like our season will fizzle out yet again should we lose these two.

Think Longstaff was a 3 week. Simm 2 week, then assessed weekly moving forward.

I'd imagine they'd both be here till the end of the season at least

For me and I know some will freak out at this (can't believe I'm saying it myself) but I'd be tempted to put Johnstone in at 9 as while he doesn't offer a great deal, for me currently he would be more effective than a very tired Houghton and have Balmforth on the bench to come on after 20mins. Its not just the playing 80mins in a game but the fact its still week in week out and Danny is still not recovered a week later and that was clear as day against Wigan from the start. BH can't keep expecting him to do it week in week out even when short on numbers and expect him to offer anything or be effective, Houghton needs leaving out to allow him the time to recover similarly to how Gaz Ellis was rested some weeks after tough games and long minutes he played.
We need to seriously up the pace we play at with much quicker ptb and line speed (both in defence and going forward) and we aren't going to do that playing a tired and worn out Houghton.

Walker
Simm
Mitch
Wynne
McIntosh
Lovodua
Gale
Sao
Johnstone
Evans
Lane
Mau (if fit)
Fash

Satae
Taylor
Brown
Balmforth

If Satae isn't 100% and Mau is fit Longstaff comes in on the bench.

https://rugby-league.com/article/60529/ ... view-panel No bans for us this week. Cheyse Blair missing for Cas. Surprised he only got 2 games.

https://rugby-league.com/article/60529/ ... view-panel No bans for us this week. Cheyse Blair missing for Cas. Surprised he only got 2 games.

Resting Houghton will not really help him or the team. He has not been a SL quality hooker for the past couple of seasons. Even fully rested I doubt he will bring anything to the table. He has been a good servant to the club but needs to recognise when to say enough is enough.

Thing is , we don’t even know if Lovodua is the answer at hooker yet.

I’d love to get a Parcell / Levi type of hooker and play Lovodua at 13.

Definitely agree about resting Houghton but I'd look at putting hookem in the half's and get joey in at 9 because after all the hype at the beginning of the season with his performances I feel he is becoming just a OK sl player at 6. Wigan away and magic are the only 2 games where I thought he was good at 6. Really need benny back

I don't disagree to an extent but he would be far more effective if he was rested and able to fully recover and then spelled with a player such as Balmforth arther than flogged for 80mins then expected to do it week in week out even on short turnarounds and the heat.

I'd tend to agree with you on having Hookem come in if we had a 7 that was on form and had actually shown any sort of form over a period of games but sadly with Gale we have seen little from him in that respect so asking a young player to step up week in week out under those circumstances would have a bigger negative impact that positive on the player and team.

Houghton won't be dropped, Hodgson doesn't have the balls, won't even sub him unless the game is gone.

I agree and i have said several times he is too loyal to certain senior players.
Its stupid because we have a little pace now at full back with a player who can back up breaks and also make breaks himself then all the momentum stop at nine.
Hodgson really has continued to flog Houghton without interchange or any real thought process in what he wants at nine yet week after week he sees opposition nines destroy us with speed from dummy half.
It looks like he has now seen the light with Griffin,but no doubt there will be an excuse of he tweaked something rather than coming out and saying he is dropped and Taylor should be next in the firing line when we have more players back.
He wont drop Houghton but his master stroke for Friday will be to have Johnstone on the bench.

I really don't buy that BH has favored players.

He's dropped Gale, Reynolds, Shaul, Griffin, JJ off the top of my head this season.

Last season he didn't have any issues dropping Fonua or Faraimo.

He's made a big decision of Sneyd. Which admittedly we could've signed a better replacement, but at the time most were positive about Gale.

The only one you could say is Houghton, but the injuries to the spine has probably meant that Joey hasn't got the run at 9 he wants. JJ not being good enough and green academy lads probably hasn't helped either

Just watched the trys again and this and following the Rovers game, I'd drip the whole left side of Griffin, Simm and Longstaff. Simm was responsible for 3/4 trys due to an error and one on one misses. Big game from Walker needed as he went from Hero to Zero.

Walker
Martin
Wynne
Mitch
Mcintosh
Hookem
Gale
Satae
Lovodua
Evans
Mau
Lane
Fash

Sao
Taylor
Brown
Houghton

If Taylor and or Satae are out, bring in Longstaff and Laidlaw.

Agree unfortunately Hodgson isn't brave enough, Andy Last was

Taylor also

Not sure Last dropped Houghton as such. He missed four consecutive games in the October. I can't remember if that was an injury.

He played every other game, although he was mainly used off the bench.

I've not seen any Academy games would you say Martin is in front of Barron now dave for a wing spot?

All this talk of he hasnt got the balls to drop people. What a sac of s hite. He picks who he thinks will do the job. His jobs on the line in the long run so he thinks yea keep playing my Bessies. He might make wrong team selections definitely. He's slowly but surely weeding out the players and moving us in the right direction. It's not a quick fix. Some on here would want a new coach every time we got beat.

I dunno, it would take some balls to pick a player who you think isn't the best choice. Deliberately picking a worse team would be very bold.

If you asked everyone on here to pick a 17 most would be different. He sees what goes on and who in his opinion plays. I honestly believe we are going in the right direction albeit a very bumpy ride. IMO we will get in the top 6 which is an improvement. Nevertheless we are well off a top 4 team ATM.