I think Saturday will be very tough game and they have recruited some decent players for this year.

It's obvious Royce sees this as a tough game and wants his best team available and looks like wello is part of that.

I'm not saying we could throw anyone out there, but if we are going to push the same 17 out there week in week out, regardless of fitness and match practise then what's the point in having a squad.

I know what your saying but we all might as well come to terms that wello will always play if he's fit enough to take the field.

Hope he proves me wrong and has a storming season

I hope that he proves us all wrong, but surely the starting point from the coach is that no one has a safe place, not even the captain. You have to take a spot off someone. Makinson earned his spot in the GF, it's now down to Wellens or whoever to prove in training they are better and take it back, not be waiting to the last minute to see if he is fit.

you're entirely correct, but as we all know it wont happen. If fit, regardless of form, Wello will be FB

I agree but the same thing happened two seasons ago when foster IMO was our best player for the last month of the season and played very well against Wigan in the grand final but then didn't start the next season as first choice.

Good point. Form from last year is not indicator of success this year but I imagine that effort on the training pitch is.

To be fair that threw me at the time too.

I just assumed the new coach did not have a clue who the players were. A bit like when he was surprised that Lomax could play halfback. We all knew it he did not. Now he's had a year at the club, you can only hope he knows the players better, but knowing them better can lead picking names rather than form.

Am I right that Royce is on a 2 year deal, so he needs to win something this year, I can't see the board happy with 4 potless years.

Not necessarily. If we played dazzling all year and then lost in another Grand Final that would probably be enough for us to extend. Despite my early criticisms (and those about our defence need to be answered quickly) he pulled the team together and got us to the Grand Final after beating the champions in consecutive games. That was a pretty good turnaround so he has some credit in the bank for me after that. Make another final and as long as we don't look like we've gone backwards I'd consider it. Early days though yet.

I'm by no means a Royce hater, and he did do well last year. But it's more about what the board deam as a good enough result.

I like Royce and think he did a very good job last year with the injuries etc but I'm not 100% convinced he's the coach to push on to be champions again.

Fair enough he got us to the grand final with a bad I jury crisis but out rugby at times was shocking. The was about 4/ games where foster saved us with his kicking.

I hope he gets a fair crack with injuries this year do we can see the real Royce and how we play.

Some of that at least will be because we were forever being messed about with injuries, so couldn't gel as a team, and we had so many inexperienced players on the pitch at one go on so many occasions. I'm surprised we landed third to be honest and I'd given up on the GF weeks before we got there!

I agree, that's the reason I wrote that I hope he has a good run with injuries so we can see how he'd have us play.

Like I said, I like him but still undecided on him at the moment.