True. We went out and signed some Aussie forwards "oh why aren't we playing our youngsters instead?"

We decided to go with Sutcliffe in the halves "oh why didn't we sign an Aussie instead?"

Hmmm there's a severe lack of context here imo.
1st off our current plight cannot be described in anyway as a Coach giving youth a chance its completely the opposite its throwing whoever the next prospect is who can walk into the 19 & trying to make do.
Wrt the Coach lets be honest look around the SL at other clubs robbed by injuries yet they are performing & in many cases winning games its thst simple.
The departures/injuries have exposed our Coach imho as not being able to adapt & left us as rudderless off the pitch as on it.

I actually think too many people are placing too much emphasis on the absence of Sinfield & Peacock. Sinfield hasn't exactly disappeared off the face of the earth. He's still around and he still talks to them. A lot of these guys played hundreds of games with him and Peacock, has someone just come along and erased their memories of what they might do or say at certain points. It's like when Tony Smith left will players have suddenly forgotten everything they learnt off him, no. You don't need Sinfield there to know not to drop the ball cold or not fall off a tackle.

Not saying Sinfield's influence wouldn't be missed at all but it shouldn't be missed to the extent where you drop down to 11th because you can't even do the basics well. The attacking style we played with last year wasn't exactly a style created with Sinfield and Peacock in mind and was largely off the cuff so surely it isn't as vital to have that organisation there when your attack was all about off the cuff.

What youngsters? we are not playing youngsters, we are playing people over the academy age group, people who could have been ready earlier had it followed which you now moan at people for saying earlier, or at least know what we know now. Doesn't make sense your post.

So who, in our treble winning year, should Handley Golding Lilley and Sutcliffe have replaced so that they would be ready for this year?

Replaced? who said replace? It is development you concentrate on not replacing at earlier years. Handley is perfectly capable, and looks perfectly at ease, so not sure why he is mentioned, but then again look how many games he got before this season, which kind of backs up the point.

Sutcliffe isn't out of his depth because of his age, he is out of his depth because he is not capable of playing stand off at this level, a point quite a few could see previously. That is different to that suggested.

I didnt expect so at the start of the year, but given how well we were playing and the fact that we battered a few of the big teams then I think the fact we lost 8 games shows lapses in concentration and under par performances that have been typical under Mac.
Given that the performances of Cuthbertson, Aiton, Ward, Mcguire, Hardaker and Mcguire were all good enough to get our player of the year most seasons, and we had easily the best balanced squad in the league, it is not far fetched to say that a 2004 style 50 point season was attainable.

McDermott being lined up for Hull KR? I can't believe it, one of the most sought after jobs in the game. Guess I'll just have to hold my hands up and admit that I was wrong in regards to his post Leeds career.

Exactly mate, I was worried that we might miss Sinfield in tight games or when we were trying to hold a lead, but Im pretty sure it wasnt him who was getting all the quick PTBs last year or organising the defence.

Is Watkins not capable of playing at this level? or Galloway? or Falloon? or Hall? or Burrow? because they have been a lot worse than Sutcliffe, stop using him as a scapegoat to the problems of the whole team! People were all saying he couldnt pass and he threw an absolute peach to put in Ablett against HKR but that doesnt count because....

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Well we can't be playing 15/16 men at the same time so they would need to replace someone for those games they played. Handley replaced Briscoe out of necessity, so for Golding to get that game time we would have needed to drop Hardaker Hall or one of the halves. For Lilley and Sutcliffe we would have needed to drop McGuire and Sinfield. We do that last year to find out if they are good enough for this. Find out they apparently aren't and don't win the treble last year. Sounds a great plan.

Here is a prediction. Liam Sutcliffe will play stand off for England in a major international. He is far far far better than you give him credit for and is far from the reason we are struggling. The scapegoating he is receiving right now is 1 of 2 obvious reasons youngsters aren't thrown in like you argue for.

He won't be lined up by Hull KR. Peacock is doing a very effective job there in his recruitment for next season, and I just can not see him wanting to work with McDermott on that front.

Again you are not looking at it correctly. Replace is to be permanent. Resting someone and developing someone else is not replacing, it works for both players. It is this that was moaned at previously, and not what you are saying was moaned at now. That is how it should have worked.




You can predict all you like, but cloud cuckoo land thinking is hard to come right. You also said Aiton was not important to us and was an average journeyman. Yeah you were spot on there...... no really. Sutcliffe is not a stand off simple as that, I very much doubt he will play for us after this season unless he comes good in another role. He isn't scapegoated, as this was pointed out before the season started. Scapegoating is in hindsight not before it happens. Infact I actually said after been at Saturdays game on here that he looked very comfortable at centre, so it is hardly that he is been picked at.

Not for some time mate, I reckon the way the England team is ran they will pick any player getting regular NRL games even if they are playing as bad as Widdop is right now, they even picked Williams and Matty Smith over Gale mate, they are clueless!
The mantra must be that if there isnt an NRL player in that position just play whoever plays for Wigan

Best he can hope for is a squad place and a few games from the bench but he wont get that this year given how we are playing

The reason this country has produced precisely 0 world class halves in the last 20 years is that attitude, as soon as a young English half has a bad run of games they are not good enough and need moving to fullback or centre, therefore they dont develop. But if a 30 year old Aussie plays exactly the same it is just bad form

Tomkins is the perfect example, he could have developed into one of the top 6s but instead of trying to improve parts of his game, he was moved to fullback to give him 'more space'