Comes as quite a shock for some people

Never doubted it myself.

It's just funny that for all of last season certain individuals supposedly held in esteem by the "s" (sychophants) on here would deny it.

I (and others of course) have also stated for what seems like eons that Delaney would be a better second rower.... and that the likes of BJB should not be shipped out to other clubs (and is indeed wasted on the wing).

Burgess was the biggest improvement and was a very impressive prop. Burrow looks back to his unpredictable best.

In fairness, I think we are seeing the benefit of BJB being 'shipped out' to Quins last season. Not least because he played under McDermott last season who has total faith in him.

Without getting into a pi$$ing comp were Buderus and Diskin not rated for their individual Rhinos performances fairly last season?
Bjb was onto a winner going out on loan and GH saw that ,Delaney was signed as a centre the other option Watkins got injured early on.
Delaney was unfairly scape-goated at times when the whole team were struggling and there clearly was'nt a back-row spot available to him.

We'll never be certain of course...but if BJB HAD been available last season to play in the threequarters (at least, if not FB) allowing Delaney to play in his patently obvious (to me and others - Bloodbath) much better more natural position in the second row who knows what we might have acheived in 2010 ???

Don't forget BJB is not a "kid"...he's 22 !!!!

Delaney couldn't have moved to Second row last season simply because nobody was there to cover centre. I'd say Watkins, who wasn't available for 95% of 2010, has forced McD to make the move and try and make it fit.

BJB is the player he is today because of his highly successful loan move to Harlequins.

1-17 impressed this eve.

I have every respect for you and your optimism/faith in the club's decisions...but:

1/ Diskin was "accomodated" IMO
2/ Why limit the options in any position ?
3/ I could always see Delaney's virtues of hard drives and good tackling...but it seemed to be incongruous to being a good centre. I am happy he is getting a run in the second row. He deserves it.
4/ "Not available to him" makes no sense. No position should be made exclusive to certain individuals only.

Lee Smith impressed?

Delaney was superb in the second row.
Ablett looked competent at loose forward again.
BJB, Bedsy, Burrow and Sini all superb.
The forwards as a unit put in a really good performance, especially considering the injuries.

Senior yet to his his stride this season, Smith looked dodgy as well. Find that one strange as he looked immense on New Years Day and I was expecting him to come out strong this season.

All in all an encouraging game though. Thought Silverwood had a superb game (save one or two decisions that went our way) and it's just a shame Eddie and Stevo still quote the rules incorrectly.

Delaney
Burrow
Kylie
in no particular order were the top 3 performers IMO in a promising team performance.

Nantwich ......
You've had that opinon from day 1 about Disko and fair play to yer but when we signed Buderus it was to play 2 hookers.
As frustrating as it was at times both warranted selection for most of the time and the same could of been said about Buderus at times especially during his 1st year when in all honesty he had about 4/5 games where he showed his true quality imo.
I don't think it was a case of "limiting" our options it was much better to get Bjb out on loan to Quinns for a full yr in SL rather than have him hanging around in the u20's waiting for injuries ,it also helped him see 1st hand SL RL week in week out rather than a couple of apearances here and there then back in the reserves.
Others saw delaneys good leg drive etc and mentioned it aswell but he was signed as RC and ddeserved to be given at least the full season to settle in that position.
There is'nt a restriction as such on who plays where but there is a "pecking order" and Delaney was'nt amongst that for the Back-row which is'nt unreasonable given who was in front of him at the time.