Wud rAther persist wit addy. better than donno by a fair bit though.

Wouldnt say no to the signing but i don't see why Addy wont be better next season having a run out from LF rather than hooker.

No truth in it according to Washbrook himself.

good. while I wouldnt dispute that washbrook would be an improvement short term , he wouldnt be a major stepup up from addy,donaldson,bateman. If we want to progress we need to be patient about bringing the younger players through as long term their much better value cap wise than bringing in a ready made solution. If your going to bring someone in who blocks a young player coming through then it needs to be a player who's a genuine step up in class. Think all three off our young players mentioned as possible LF's have potential to at least be as good as washbrook if not significantly better long term. Biggest problem we have ,IMO, is that when Langley is unavailable through injury then we dont seem to have the confidence to give any of Addy,Donaldson or Bateman a shot, instead playing Elima,Hargreaves or Kopczak out of position.

They have been worried that if they did give them a shot, we might end up being paggered all season and might even finish out of the 8. Understandably, they decided against risking it.

Phew, glad we avoid that. Would have been a disaster.

Featherstone Rovers have had the best defensive record in the championship over the last two years. I would therefore suggest we should sign both their defensive coach Ryan Sheridan, who incidentally Barry Mcdermott rates very highly, and their fullback Ian Hardman, in my opinion the best tackler in that league . Play Kearney at stand-off, as someone previosly suggested, and use Sammut as an impact player off the bench.

Just a further thought. If Paul Cooke has got his mendset back to normal he might be worth a trial on a match to match basis. Not a bad loose forward a few years back.

The thing is, would defensive tactics employed in the championship be as effective in SL?

I'm not knocking your suggestion, in fact I think it's a good idea to get in a defensive coach. I just think we should perhaps aim higher for backroom staff recruitment.

Is that the same Ian Hardman that used to play for Saints? Name rings a bell.

yes. not good enough for SL, imo.

I still don't understand why a full back should be our best defender

They shouldn't.

However, it would be nice to have a fullback who you had confidence in tackling his man when the defensive line gets broken. At the moment in BK we have a fullback who is rarely even in a position to make that tackle when the defensive line is broken, never mind actually complete the tackle.

becasue its last man ? ???? the last one back to stop a potential try ?

He should be a strong defender, not neccesarily the best though. Shouldn't be shocking like BK though.

Hardman was found to be not good enough for SL having had plenty of chances at Saints and Hull KR

So you don't rate BK? You kept that quiet..

your best defender should defend a lot. a good fullback shouldnt defend a lot

I was going to comment but I've decided not to bother.

No mate, i thought i'd made that clear.

Good suggestion. Perhaps with Rob Roberts & Jamie Thackray in the back row?

stopping potential tries is done in the line. if they pour forward in numbers, one man isn't making a difference. regardless of how good a tackler he is. a decent defender is wasted at full back.

my memory must be bad then because I can't remember many (if any) one on one tackles that BK has completely failed with? As it happens so regularly you will be able to point out examples?

Must be, the last home game against Hull KR isn't that long ago and there were numerous times in that match that he failed to position himself correctly (Ben Galea try in the first half for a starters when Galea simply did a little swerve to go around Kearney who ended up on his backside).

Either that or you need to take those rose tints off.