The permanent move was at the start of 2011 (McDermott's first year). But let's not forget that McGuire was missing for the first few months with his serious knee injury and then struggled for sharpness on his return so it was an obvious move to make. Sinfield was probably our best player during those McGuire/Peacock absent months.

Also Tony Smith played Sinfield at 6 in all of his first 3 finals ('04 GF, '05 WCC & CC), so even Lord Smith thought he could do the job there in the biggest games.

I think host is the position we need to recruit in. We should be looking at paying a fee to get the best we can.

Burrow, Sinfield, Sutcliffe in the halves.
Ward, ablett, jjb, Achurch back row
Delaney, peacock, leuluai and singleton mainline props

Has it occurred to you that prolonging the career of one player has had a detrimental impact on the rest of the team in critical positions - to move him has meant at least 3 other players having to be moved to accommodate him?

Great player that he has been you have acknowledge this is a team game. McGuire has still managed to retain his place so that is not even a relevant point here. The players most impacted are Burrow and Ward. Ward from being a talented ball playing forward was expected to do the hooker's tackling which resulted in potential career impacting injuries. Burrow his impact has been completely dimmed due being played out of position. The captain can play for another three years so all is OK.

Glad somebody else apart from Juan agrees Delaney's future lies in front row

I've been saying exactly this to friends for a while. There's no denying that Kev is a legend, but him playing at 6 doesn't benefit the team.

When he played at loose, he didn't play as a 'drive it in, suck in defenders, bust tackles' forward. He was a ball player and organiser who played in the middle. He moved to 6 because of injuries and for whatever reason hasn't gone back. His lack of pace wasn't a factor before, but now he's playing in the halves with Mags, where both are lacking in the burst, it leaves us short. In a position where you need to keep the defense guessing, we're too easy to read. Add to this that we've lost Webb hitting the line, and Robbie playing more at dummy, it leaves our attack lacking

Plenty of good posts about at the moment....not least this

Quote: Sal Paradise "Has it occurred to you that prolonging the career of one player has had a detrimental impact on the rest of the team in critical positions - to move him has meant at least 3 other players having to be moved to accommodate him?'" Defensively, all we've done is swap Sinfield's position with the centre. That could have happened with Burrow/Mcguire/Sinfield being 7/6/13 or as they are now. viewtopic.php?f=17&t=559249&tsmp=1380481768 Attack wise, I think the move to 9/7/6 is simply a case of moving them closer to the ruck rather than having three wide pivots.

Quote: Sal Paradise "Has it occurred to you that prolonging the career of one player has had a detrimental impact on the rest of the team in critical positions - to move him has meant at least 3 other players having to be moved to accommodate him?'" Defensively, all we've done is swap Sinfield's position with the centre. That could have happened with Burrow/Mcguire/Sinfield being 7/6/13 or as they are now. viewtopic.php?f=17&t=559249&tsmp=1380481768 Attack wise, I think the move to 9/7/6 is simply a case of moving them closer to the ruck rather than having three wide pivots.

McShane 2013:

Ultimlately probably has himself to blame for not featuring at the business end.

He was given enough reasonable game times and starts (in the end), but never produced a good enough level and never saved his best performances against the stronger teams. His best contributions probably came against Quins and Widnes away.

He was probably put under more pressure than most of his playing peers as we was dropped or chopped around alot (started...bench....not played...dropped etc) and I felt he was trying too hard out there and then making poor on the field decisions.

Will our 2014 squad list read Number 9: Paul McShane for the third year without really being in our team? Or is it best to let his career develop more naturally and get regular game time elsewhere, e.g. 2012 @ Widnes?

The general consensus seems to be that McShane hasn't done enough to be hooker but I'm not sure it's as simple as that.

Firstly, I don't think McD sees hooker as a specialist role in itself, he is happy to split the role into whoever can do which bit of the role. Indeed, I think he sees the halves in the same way. Hence, the number on the shirt is almost irrelevant to the role on the pitch.

Secondly, has McShane had three 1st team games in succession?
Maybe my recollection is faulty but it seems like one good game, one not so good game, then dropped for a number of games ... but when out on loan and playing on a weekly basis he was mentioned favourably in despatches quite regularly.

I could go on but the rest is about McD rather than McS.

I think the lad (McS, that is) would be better at another club who are willing to put some faith in him, if such club exists.