Well if hes no better than Howarth we should get rid now.
Thankfully I think the kids a lot better and would do a better job than both.
Incidently Brown said that Gaskell was exactly the type of player we needed at standoff but changed his mind after three games.
So maybe he needs to have a rethink if hes ruled out Swift

Playing Lomax at 6 might work but would probably tempt the club to cut corners again and leave him there when I suspect 1 is his best position (in the modern game). Hopefully he will be our Darren Lockyer , he will rip it up at fullback for us for a few years and then as he matures as a player he could be moved back to 6 or 7.

Simple Solution is sign Longy for the rest of the year



1.Lomax
6.HiHo
7.Long
9.Roby
Waterboy. Wello
Rochdale Subs bench. Howarth

When Lomax is fit you put him in his best position which is Fullback.

He is electric in that position.

Putting him in the halves will turn him back into an average player.
People seem to be forgetting that in the modern game teams dont play with a scrum half and stand off. They play with a halfback who controls play down the right and one who controls it down the left.
If we therefore moved him back to the halves we would be reintroduced to the ineffective Lomax we saw earlier in the year.

The way i see it is that Makinson is being given an extended run at fullback rather than having Wello or Swift there, because the coach wants to improve Makinsons game awareness. He needs to learn how to read plays better, so that he knows when to be "johnny on the spot" to finish off an attacking move. Fullback is a position that demands you read the game both in attack and defence. In attack its about being able to spot the gap and know when to join the offensive line. These are all skills transferable to a winger or centre and its an area Makinson currently lacks.

Lomax will flounder at 6 alongside Wilkin as we'll be just as predictable as we were with him and Hohaia at 6 & 7. Put him back at 1 when he's fit. If we actually had a decent 6 or 7 in the team I may have had a different opinion but we don't.

I reckon that Swift won't go anywhere near the halves fro the same reason as above, others failings may well knock his career back years .

Agree.

We're not a team littered with stars but Lomax at full back is one.

Simpler solution would have been to give Gaskell more than 3 games before binning him off.

Gaskell or no Gaskell I'd still have Longy back. Something more than is in the public eye has gone on with Gaskell , it must have.

Agreed, whilst TM is OK at FB JL is a lot better.
Will it be worth swopping them just to see what JL can bring to the halves and thus losing what he bringd to FB?