Is this the new Dennis Moran?

Hopefully

As long as he's not a Tricky Trindall we'll be reet.

It's not that I wouldnt give them time - and if both showed the same amount of potential that Burrows and McGuire did then I would be foolish to argue against it - its just that I only see Lomax as having that potential. Last year the majority of supporters were blown away with having a local half back pairing - and quite rightly - however I have never seen what Gaskell brings to the party - and the more I see of him the more ingrained that opinion is becoming. Weirdly enough I have been watching both Lomax and Gaskell from amateur days (my son played in the same age range) and while Lomax was always one of the standouts at that age I cannot even remember Gaskell being a threat - infact in his own team there were more threatening players, but I dont let that cloud my opinion and different people mature at different times - I have yet to see Gaskell mature, and the place to mature certainly isnt in the first team at saints - if he gets to play in the next 3 games and shows as much potential as even Wheeler (till the Wigan game), let alone Lomax then by all means I will eat my words - but that seems a long shot to me.

Yes those are the games - apparently he is a world cup winning full back - if he was truely deserving of that accolade then not only would he have impressed in those games and Wellens may never have gotten back in. However the overall opinion (if my memory servers me right) and definately mine was that he was not up to the job at Full Back and he was signed as a half back lets have a look at him there - history has shown that he isnt up to much in that position either.
Good players - especially those professing to be good enough to take a position in the best team in the world - do not come into a club and play poorly - they play to their best ability so that they earn immediate respect from the rest of the team.

Gaskell is no world beater, but he combines better with Lomax and runs the game better than Hohaia does from the halves and has a much better kicking game than Hohaia. Watch the quality of some of our tries at Wakefield when Gaskell was involved (Wellens 2nd try and Meli's hat trick try in particular) and the quality is much better. Sometimes he's overly greedy but when he does pass wide, he's quicker at doing it than Hohaia and naturally commits defenders and brings others into the game. He's got alot to learn, but him and Lomax are currently our best options at 6 and 7 IMO.

When the goons signed Moran he was coming off a top season for the broncoes when he was challenging for MoS. they then ruined him as they did the rest of the half backs they signed in that era. Green is a pudding, full stop.

I often wonder why Gaskell's detractors compare him in his first and second year to some of SL best half backs in their pomp. Of course he isn't as good as them as you remember them at their best, he isn't anywhere near his own best, never mind anyone else's.

Spot on.

IMO the only way he will get to his best is by being played but Rush just doesn't seem to want to play him.

I guess because Rush took a failing team, and by bringing in a settled line up, including Hohaia at 6, has turned it into a better team. Still not good enough, but the fact that he has improved them shows that he has had some success.Would he have been so successful with Gaskell at 6? We will never know. But it will be interesting to see if Brown rates him highly enough to start ahead of Hohaia, or whether he still believes that none of our halfs are good enough, and brings in fresh blood.

We have won games but we might have done that anyway, regardless of who was in charge. Are we a better team under Rush? No.


We got to a Grand Final with Gaskell at 6 last year so if we hadn't been as 'successful' with Gaskell at 6 this season then chances are that would have been because Rush isn't good enough as a coach (which frankly I suspect is the case anyway).


I doubt he'll be allowed to bring in fresh blood in the halves. We have enough of them already! We're crying out for a couple of feisty props but it's unlikely we will get them either. We do have a turnstyle of a centre coming to join us though so that should be, er, great.

I understand why the initial change was made, and I understand that they went with a consistent team for a period to settle things down during a turbulent time for the club. However I think it's fairly obvious now that the combination with Lomax and Hohaia is not working, nor do I think that it's really looking any better than it did at the beginning. Lomax is less effective than he was, Hohaia looks better at 9 whenever he's played there.