am I the only one that thinks we are seriously underperforming since Gale came back from injury

Nail. Head. Along with plodding forwards.

It doesn't feel any better this morning either.

When it was announced Gale was leaving London I was pleased. He is a one trick pony. Every now and again he does something magical, like a chip over etc but in the main his game mgt is poor.
Gower showed him how to run a game last night

The wheels are half way down the road, lets hope someone can catch em and get em back on quick!

I agree about Gale, i was excited when he was due back but we've been poor with him in the side and with missing Langley and now Manoukafoa we are getting bullied down the middle.

The Salford game is MUST WIN now for me, a loss and it will be tough to get back in the 8.

He certainly hasn't performed so far this year but as you say neither have several other players recently. I did wonder if our small pack would be able to punch above its weight all season. To be honest they have done for much longer than I expected. I didn't see the game last night but it sounds like certain players are really letting the team down due to some poor form. It's difficult to see where changes can be made though without throwing in a bunch of kids which isn't a great idea. I think O'Brien coming in for a few games is one really obvious change we could make, but the lack of go forward without Manuokafoa in the side is going to be really tough to address.

Morale will probably be pretty low after that performance though. As Franny said after the game, nobody likes losing a cup tie but it is bearable if you at least give it your best. Sounds like we just didn't perform last night and it might be an opportunity lost to boost the coffers and feel good factor that making the latter stages of the cup would have brought.

Wonder if a loan signing of somebody like Richard Moore might help us? We need to bring somebody in and the options would seem to be pretty limited. He's struggling for a game at Leeds right now.

Agreed. If Kearneys injury isn't serious , then I would put him to 6, drop Gale and put Kear at FB.

Even more annoyed this morning and the players need a serious flogging this week.

I think we have to give Gale a few more weeks before we start chopping and changing and moving Daniel Addy out of position again. I recall quite a few complaints about Addy at halfback earlier in the season as well. Since Gale returned from injury (ignoring the 50 or so mins of his 1st game in London) our SL opposition has been versus Wigan, Wire, Leeds and London. In all four of those matches our forwards were out-muscled and we struggled to make yards. You can put whoever you like at 7 but until we address that area of our game it won't make a jot of difference.

Obviously losing Manuokafoa for 7 weeks is devastating and we could do with one of these 'one month loan' deals (or in this case two months) to cover for him.

After a brilliant start to the season, Kearney is not playing well, and he is now injured anyway. This may mean bringing Platt back, and moving Kear to full back.

We have looked worse since Gale came back but we have played Wigan, Warrington and Leeds in that time. However, there is no excuse for losing to London, who we only beat about a month ago.

One of the problems for me is how often we attack down Gale's side. He waves his arms around like mad, receives the ball, and the attack rarely comes to anything, usually resulting in a short-ball which doesn't come off. Why don't we attack down Sammut's side as much? It's so predictable going down Gale's side pretty much every time. This is probably another reason Lulia hasn't looked himself lately. He rarely gets the ball because the ball goes down the right hand side most of the time. We know how good Lulia is, we've seen his class last year, and in his time at Newcastle in the NRL.

Diskin is too slow. It's a long twenty minutes when he's on the pitch. It's brilliant when L'Estrange comes on. He's faster, he has more flair.

Also, in the 3 SL matches O'Brien has played in, Huddersfield, Salford, Hull KR, we have WON the match. Is that because L'Estrange does more minutes, or because Diskin is slow?

A MUST WIN against Salford next week. A few months ago I would have said easy win, but now, I think we'll struggle against them.

It does appear similar to 2010. However, in 2010, the wheels came off then scrum-half Orford got injured. This year, they're coming off when our scrum-half has returned. Worrying.

Good post. A loan Prop is essential now and hopefully Langley will be available for the Salford game.

Is Brad Singleton worth looking at perhaps?
Promising prop forward at Leeds who will never get a sniff of first team action, went out to Wakey on a month long loan deal at the start of the season.

Tom lilycrop might be a more likely option. Rumoured to be going to oz at end of season so won't feature in dewsburys long term plans. They might be prepared to give someone game time now who will be there next year and let him out on loan.

I'd prefer a Prop with some SL experience if possible. Is Lillycrop up to SL standard?