I get why people take that position but with the national team playing so little rugby together over a calendar year I feel it is vitally important that the coach can build a consistent team with the same blokes who know how each other plays. What ai think is best isn't a case of blooding youngsters, more a long term team building philosophy, whilst of course bringing in the odd exceptional case. Continuity is key.

I see Elliot Whitehead was the top tackler in the whole of the World Cup.No surprise as he was the top tackler in the whole NRL in 2016.

The guys who have run the Bulls into the ground have a lot to answer for.Criminal what's happened at Odsal.

Just go upto Odsal now and get the answers, few of those people are still there.

I'm afraid all major the decision makers are long gone; there's little point in blaming the NCOs when the generals screw up.

Indeed. Saw an article on social media where Steve Ferres has been appointed in a senior management role for some sports development company (footballl related IIRC). In blurb they mentioned he had a long history with Bradford Bulls and Northern. They obviously didnt dig too deep into his association with Bulls and checked what he'd achieved in his role.

Quote: mat "Indeed. Saw an article on social media where Steve Ferres has been appointed in a senior management role for some sports development company (footballl related IIRC). In blurb they mentioned he had a long history with Bradford Bulls and Northern. They obviously didnt dig too deep into his association with Bulls and checked what he'd achieved in his role. www.goalballuk.com/goalball-uk-p ... pointment/ I think they did - Mark Winder, the CEO of goalball, used to be or still is CEO of the Bradford Bulls Foundation.

Quote: mat "Indeed. Saw an article on social media where Steve Ferres has been appointed in a senior management role for some sports development company (footballl related IIRC). In blurb they mentioned he had a long history with Bradford Bulls and Northern. They obviously didnt dig too deep into his association with Bulls and checked what he'd achieved in his role. www.goalballuk.com/goalball-uk-p ... pointment/ I think they did - Mark Winder, the CEO of goalball, used to be or still is CEO of the Bradford Bulls Foundation.

To be fair we could say all day what if etc. But of the likes of Whitehead, Bateman, T.Burgess etc hadn't moved on would they have improved the way they have and become internationals? Highly doubt it.

In terms of future players, I am already worrying about the potential team including Ponga, T. Trbojevic, Holmes, Gagai, Mitchell, Watson, Munster, Cleary, J. Trbojevic and of course the upcoming half and hooker at Melbourne Brodie Croft and Brandon Smith.

But as people have said, the spine of Slater, Thurston, Cronk and Smith are future immortals and I have never seen 4 Immortals in the same side before. That is a once in a lifetime spine.

Ponga is a real talent. Some of the stuff he was doing at the 9s tournament at the start of this year was crazy.

Thought Brandon Smith was a Kiwi, not that it makes much difference to Australia. I had a dig at Scott Sattler on Twitter. He was answering a Stev Mascord tweet asking what changes would people like to see for next world cup. He had the nerve to say English video refs!!!

According to the trade press Canberra are interested in Oliver Roberts.
J Peacock
S Burgess
T Burgess
G Burgess
E Whitehead
C Naughton
Joe Wardle
Oliver Roberts ?

Anymore ex. Bradford juniors to go out to Australia?

I reckon we stage it to try and only lose one per year if we can, rather than ditch them all at once. Form dependent obviously. Give ourselves chance to blood players in a strong team. Potential last tours as follows, the age the player will be at that time in brackets

2017 - Lockers (35)
2018 - Roby (33)
2019 - Graham (34)
2020 - Hill (33)
2021 - Whitehead (33)
2022 - S.Burgess (34) and Hodgson (33)

[*]

Don't know whose vehicle doubles as the 'Yorkshire Bus' but it had better be a big one - with some decent springs..

Correct. The kid is a freak and will be a very special player if his development carries on the way it is.



Ah, you are correct! He is. I hadn't realized he was named in the Kiwi squad for the ANZAC Test. So NZ will have a great hooker for a while then haha. Either way the rest of the players mentioned will be devastating.

Doesn't really matter about blooding youngsters. Pick players that are in form. If the youngsters are good enough then they'll be there down the line anyway.

That's fair enough I guess. Most youngsters get their chance when injury strikes, so they get 'eased' in that way to some extent. I think it's always a good idea to utilise the squad though and I'm not big fan of playing people who are carrying injuries, though we seem to get so many it's difficult not to at times.