I see he is still posting the anti Walker nonsense. Shown up for it last time, and wrong again here. He should have gone to Fev yesterday to see what Golding can offer, and it wasn't very much. Fev looked a much better team with Turner at Fullback first few games, until Leeds forced Golding on them.

I don't care about Golding. I care about the Leeds fullback and that's Walker. He may be 19 but the job requires him to stop tries - both himself and by organising the goal line defence. My opinion only, but he's not very good at either yet, and the way we're going a Connolly-esque fullback would boost the team massively.

Since Connolly we have only had one decent defensive fullback, and he was forced out and also had anti agendas against him. Didn't see a lot of emphasis put on defence then by the same posters.

If people actually watched games instead of highlights they would also see that Walkers defence is not a cause for concern. Is there better? yes there is, but then you lose the other aspects.

Agreed Walker is not the reason we are shipping trys for fun. Also a lot of posters on here are quick to say throw the youngsters in, and when we do give a youngster a chance they expect them to be the finished article - Walker is 19 and still learning his trade in a side that is low on confidence and has a very leaky edge defence.

On the Catalan game, I thought again we looked to have improved a bit but our lack of confidence means if its close we are always in danger of throwing the game away (like the London game) I thought Merrin and Hurrell were excellent, yes Hurrell lost the ball a couple of times, although I would argue the one where he threw the ball away the ball was clearly knocked out but he has to work on his ball retention.

Watkins looked to have a bit of confidence back after his horror show against Wakefield but still has a way to go to be fully fit, thing is what do you do, that will only come with game time. I think we can win against Car, they are not the outfit they have been over the last couple of years, my only worry is if we get off to a bad start we don't look capable of clawing a big margin back.

Whilst our defence isn't very good, against CA's the best form of defence is attack. We have to assume they'll score points, especially on our right side.

I think if you speak to Cat fans their right hand side defence is about as good as ours, we need to be attacking them, Hurrell and Hanley could cause them a lot of problems, I would also be kicking to Eden at every opportunity, he is every bit of a liability as Briscoe is for us.

My worries run a bit deeper: not only do we look incapable of clawing back a big margin, we have definitely been incapable of hanging onto a lead as well.

In other words, we cannot control a game. There are deficiencies in the pack, not least the "grabby" style of tackling that gives lots of metres and loses the wrestle. We might overcome these were we to manage a very high completion rate and then combine that with decent last plays. But we don't. Myler's dribbling the ball into touch might be good game management when we're hanging onto a lead with 2 mins to go but is useless when we need desperately to increase the margin we're leading by with say an hour left.

Cas aren't the side of a couple of years ago, I agree, but unless we rectify further shortcomings I simply don't think we can keep them at arms length. They may not have the strike power they once did but they still have enough. Everyone else has up til now, Salford excepted, and cas aren't the worst attacking side in SL by a long stretch. They would need to have a very, very bad day for us to win this. Not impossible but long odds for me.

Come on everyone it could be worse.

I think what we’re seeing is the same old split between top 4/5 and the rest, but the rest are more even now.

I’d expect one or two of our competitors to fall off a bit as this season goes on and injuries take effect.

We desperately need to keep in touch with Hudds and London in the meantime though.

Could it!
Bottom of the league, played more games than our immediate strugglers, the next win not even on the horizon.
Looks pretty bleak to me.
The club will be offering memberships as a BOGOF deal next season.

See there’s one silver lining for you. We have the best youth team(s) in the country at the moment and some of the best facilities.
Those things won’t translate into 1st team results this year but the future is very bright.
Ward, Ablett and Crosby are still to come back to the side, and in some games we’ve been very close to the Ws.
I also think we should get better with drier/warmer tracks and more time for new players to fit in.

If our silver lining is the return of Ablett and Crosby things really are bleak. Let's not kid ourselves Ablett is shot just as JJB is.

I asked someone close the team last week what was wrong with Crosby the answer was "knee, ankle and wrist" if he was a horse he would've been put down by the sounds. Another great signing.

Huddersfield and Catalans had won 2 out of 10 at a similar point last year with Warrington not fairing much better, there is time for us to clime to the mid table which is where I thought we would be this year, and Cats and Hudds were playing much worse than we are this year.

And conversly didn’t Leigh start quite well in the season they were relegated.

Don’t get me wrong I would like us to have a few more wins but its not over by any means is it

Waiting for the return of Ablett will depend upon how well oiled his zimmer frame is.
Ward's return is like waiting for the second coming.
As for Crosby ............
Nice stadium but what atmosphere will it generate against Dewsbury and Batley.

At least there will be the return of the airport derby!