I personally would go with Crookes on the bench over Donno, I think this is he season Crookes has got to really get some bulls game time under his belt and gie Macca some selection head aches.

We've seen what Crookes is capable off when he's been out on loan.........time for him to do it for the bulls

Sculthorpe injured already?

Whoops! Time for a thread merge!

Been injured a while. Not played in any pre-season games.

Welcome to two months ago.

It's a difficult choice but I thought we needed two props on the bench with Godwin and adding another forward left us a bit short if we need to shuffle the backs during the game.

Suppose you could move Menzies into the centres if necessary and have Donaldson on the bench instead of Crookes.

I'd go with that 18 and Worrincy would lose out for me. I'm not yet convinced his workrate is high enough.

I think we'll end up with one prop on the bench in Koppy (assuming he's fit) and Hall will probably spend some time there (probably after a stint on the bench after starting in the second row).

It would be Worrincy and Sheriffe to miss out for me, but I don't think that's likely. More likely to be Crookes and one of Donaldson or Whitehead (with the other on the bench).

1-13 will probably start I think.

If Reardon doesn't make it, i see it this way

Sykes
Sheriffe
Crookes
Nero
Halley
Kearney
Orford
Lynch
L'Estrange
Scruton
Hall
Langley
Menzies

Godwin
Kopzcak
Worrincy
Donaldson

I've not really been impressed with Crookes in the games he's played. Could see Whatuira having a field day with him.

dont think theres any serious doubts over reardon being fit to play so cant see crookes being in with a serious chance of playing tbh

ps has someone explained quota rules to you yet b4c2010 or are you still insisting nero will count on quota next year

you seemed quite insistent on the t&a forum the other day

nero is a kolpak player who was playing in superleague before the new quota rules came in in feb 2007. as such when he signs his next contract he'll be re-classified as federation trained. same loophole that various clubs are using to get more than 6 overseas players this year.

you've got it right now. we have 5 overseas quota players ( menzies,hall,l'estrange,orford and kearney) + 1 non federation trained player ( nero).

next year we're allowed 5 overseas in total. all 5 can be overseas quota or we can have any combination of overseas quota + non fed trained as long as we dont go over 5 in total. we already have hall,l'estrange,orford and kearney signed up, so theoretically we could reatin menzies or bring 1 overseas player in to replace him. Nero, if we re-sign him, wont count on overseas allotment at all.

your right about this loophole being a bit stupid but once all the players who were playing in SL in 2007 have retired it will cease to exist so its only gonna be an issue for a couple of years ( and could potentially allow us to bring big les back in the meantime I think )

Sykes at full back? No thanks, I'd sooner see Kearney at FB with Sykes at SO, he's not good enough in defence to play full-back.

Newton injured already?