However "rubbish" Deacon is, his record surely offers evidence to the contrary?

The evidence is clearly that he offers nothing but kicking. Most of the organising I have witnessed comes from the hooker at PTB - Lowes & Newton. It is interesting that 'organising skills' are the one skill that can't be measured or proven. If you compare the much maligned Jeffries stats from last year he stuffs Deacon in all these offensive areas - Tries, Try assists, Metres gained, Carries, Tackles, Offloads, Attacking Kicks, Runs from dummy half, Tackle Busts, Clean Breaks.
Every half back has organising responsibilities & abilities, the only reason it's trotted out for Deacon is that he has nothing else to his game.

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Unfortunately Deacon needs to do more than organise to be rated as a top scrum half in SL. Just because the team are rubbish when he's not there does not mean he's a great player. He lacks pace and does not take on the line enough IMO.

When half backs fail for other teams a reason oft-cited is that they are playing behind a beaten pack, yet if Bradford have one of the best packs in the league, surely Deacon should stand out more and be a match winner in your favour. Unfortunately he seems to have been anonymous even when the pack is on top in the games so far this season. The likes of Burrow and Long are still able to make something from nothing when the chips are down - not a trait I'd associate with Deacon. Even his kicking game isn't as good as it used to be.

I would rate him firmly in the lower half of a league of SL scrum-halves, with Jeffries firmly rooted at the bottom on current form.

Back on topic, Lee Smith will be out of contract at the end of the season but I doubt he would want to go to Bradford unless they offered him markedly more money than Leeds.

I wonder if this lends credence to the idea that Bird was just a ruse to make it look like the Bulls were trying to spend up to the cap and be in the hunt for 'marquee' signings, when in actual fact it is just a smokescreen for more cost-cutting.

I'd be feeling short-changed if I were a Bulls fan (other than my current passing interest in them as my second club ). Ok, there is no point in signing someone for the sake of it but I'd like to think the club would be in the running if a quality player (a back in ANY position) became available...

Tbh without his magnificent goal kicking, would we still think Deacs was even worth having in the team. I would, many of you wouldn't.

Deacon's kicking was dire tonight. It takes a lot of skill mind to miss all the open spaces and find the opposition player with every kick so fair play to him.

Apart from that, his failure to back up Menzies break despite it being on his side of the pitch, virtually all the tries down his side, getting trampled repeatedly by Hock, crap pass to Jeffries while attacking the Wigan line, his bullet pass into Burgess' face, inability to keep up with fatty piggy Riddell's break, passing to one armed Newton on the sixth, being totally shown up by a 6st kid with 2 games SL experience, his cross field kick to Sheriffe, he directed the team like no-one else.

In his defence though, he did get a bang on the head last week.

Feck me, I've slept all week but turned up for work every day.

But you are not a Superleague quality scrum half.

Oh hang on...

Actually I still have delusions...

Also the forwards in the office failed to lay a platform....