Posted in another thread but may be better suited here.

After we saw a marked improvement on Sunday with the team as a whole and the time has passed for rotation, what's our strongest line-up for the rest of the season (barring injuries of course)

We need Mullaney as our 7 he is miles ahead of seijka and if Jimmy can't see that then I doubt hes the man to lead us.

Shaw/mendeika
Williams
purtell
blythe
etu
gaskell
mullaney
clough
O'Brien
sidlow
Pitts
olbison
addy

Ferguson
halafihi
crossley
lauaki

Needs to be our team for the remainder of games I think.

It's a shame your club could not afford Samutt.

Given the size of our squad, it's not that surprising also as we currently have owners who pay players based on what they're worth rather than what the players think they're entitled to we were hardly likely to throw money at a potentially expensive mistake.

Don't get me wrong, Sammut won games on his own when he played at Bradford. But that wasn't every week and those weeks when he wasn't winning games he was quite anonymous

Thats what i'd go with however going on Jimmys previous line ups, i suspect it will be Mullaney at 1, Siejka at 7 Gaskell at 6 With Walker replacing Halifihi

Speaking as someone who [generally] loved watching Sammut, I have to say that yes, he was anonymous some weeks, but on some of the weeks he wasn't winning games for us, he was busy losing games for us.

Shaw, Etu, Medieka, Purtell, Williams, Gaskell, Mullaney, Clough, O'Brien, Sidlow, Pitts, Fergie, Addy. Subs, Lauaki, Crossley, Olbison, Blythe.

I'd go:

Shaw
Uaisele (I actually think Ulugia is the better player but he seems to have gone awol)
Henry (still not made my mind up about Henry)
Mendieka
Williams
Gaskell
Mullaney
Sidlow
AoB
Clough
Olbison
Ferguson
Addy

Crossley
Fleming
Pitts
Blythe

I'm not happy about having to put Henry in at centre, but at the same time I don't think Purtell is good enough either. In an ideal world I'd put Blythe there and would have either Walshaw or Petersen on the bench. Petersen would be ideal because he can cover loose or hooker, but of course we have no idea if he's good enough or not because SOMEBODY didn't give him a run out during the regular season!

And we never will with peterson, Henry would have been in my team but his form has really dived over the past month or so, he was starting to really improve i thought.

Cant really comment on Ulugia as i never really saw him play,

Shaw
Etu
Mendieka
Purtell
Williams
Gaskell
Mullaney
Clough
O Brien
Sidlow
Pitts
Olbison
Addy

Halifina
Ferguson
Lauaki
Tahiroui

Siekja/Blythe/Crossley/Fleming/Walshaw/Henry to support and play when injuries occur

Ulugia was a drop ball specialist against Featherstone in that first half, which had them camped in our half - something we could do without.

How do you see your chances in the 8.
You've kinda been under the radar with all the Leigh loving but I reckon the SL clubs won't enjoy coming to Odsal.

I can see us winning our games against championship opposition provided our key players are fit but agaist SL opposition I'm not sure we have the quality. Perhaps we may sneak a win in the 4 vs 5 game if we're lucky.

Not sure whether we lack the quality Bullseye. Gaskell,
O'brien, Mullaney, Clough and Ferguson are all quality players IMO

To be honest Poptart, we've not performed great. We've sort of being doing just enough. The month leading up to the Fev defeat we were performing really poorly and the wins were papering over the cracks. The Fev result wasn't out of the blue, it had been coming for sometime. We were missing our 1,6 and 7 which would massively effect anyone. But we were just sluggish, tired and just all round poor.

We have the players to get promoted, but it's whether we perform or not. Certainly need to be much better.

I agree we have a few SL quality players but we certainly, and pretty obviously given the difference in cap, don't have anything like the same depth.

I suspect we'll give sides a run for their money, and who knows, with a bit of luck might even get a result against one of the SL sides, but let's be honest, it's not like the cup where a bit of complacency might creep in, these are 'must wins' for the SL sides too. They, after all, actually have far more to lose than we do.

The way I see it is that in the end most of the fixtures will end up being foregone conclusions. Yes, there wil be the odd 'surprise' or maybe even 'shock' but the final table is pretty predictable within a place. But that one place is what its all about. The thing is, the main protagonists will each have a couple of really key fixtures, and so it will all boil down to what happens in those.

You can make a case for an SL club "having more to lose" but it doesn't wash. If (for example) we played Wakey in 4 vs 5 then BOTH teams have EXACTLY the same to lose, that is a place in SL2016. It's not as if we could play footloose and carefree, on the basis that well, we're a Championship club, whatever, if we lose, so what. No, losing that game would be every bit as much of a disaster for us as it would be for them. If anything, our players know far more keenly than Wakey (or the other 3 SL clubs in the mix) what they have to lose, because most of them have already been there and done that.