Meli has to be the one to miss out for me when Foster and Shenton return. If you take his threat close to the line out of the equation he offers very little.

Our backline for this season should be:

Hohaia
Makinson
Shenton
Wheeler
Foster

Gardner to offer back up, although there were occasions were he occupied (or at least it appeared to me) a 2nd row position.

And for all those bagging Gaskell, are you fooking loopy?

And I am not worried about Makinson kicking if Foster is out. His technique is sound. Just needs practice at the top level. Looks like he could be a great kicker to be honest.

Got to say Wheeler looks very promising at centre, why move him.

Wheeler offers unpredictability going forward. He also has a willingness to get stuck in. He has great feet and a solid kicking game, as well as being pretty sound defensively. To be honest, I have no idea how any sane man could think Meli would be better starting ahead of him or Shenton.

I agree, leave gaz where he is and play shenton in the other centre. These two could be saints centres for the next 5 years.

Is Meli's contract up at the end of this season? (The annual question)

It sure is!!!

He should never have been given a new contract but to be fair on him, he had a pretty good season in the centre last year.

The big question is can Wheeler stay fit.

Has he ever put three games in a row together before?

Yep. Him and Perry managed a massive 6 games of Sh*thead in the physio room one day last season.

There is no [icredible[/i argument for putting Wheeler at 6. The kid has good feet and hands - but I've seen no evidence of greater tactical awareness. I mean, Wheeler can [imake [/isixty yards with ball in hand. But [idriving a team[/i sixty yards is something else entirely.

Personally if we were to drop Meli from the centres, I would be putting the better defensive centre with the lesser defensive winger and vice versa therefore partnering Shenton with Foster and leaving Wheeler with Tommy.

This would allow us to retain Foster for his outstanding kicking and more natural attack-minded wingplay and allow him to build up his confidence in defensive situations with the support of Shenton's superior positioning and arguably better ability under the high-ball than Meli.

At Wigan last season Wheeler looked class at 6 until Hoffman hit him while he was kicking.