So, you are "bagging" a player that had 2 absolutely seperate ACL injuries on different knees and played the vast majority of last season, albeit a disjointed season ?

Think we look ok in the wings and centres. We have options at halfback too but it all depends on the pack. We look short on quality, big aggressive backrowers and anyone with a decent offload or passing game. The Aussies seem to have heaps of options (as usual) but we're missing some big names now from the pack that kept us competitive in recent years (Graham, S,Burgess, O'Loughlin).

Fullback is another matter, the Aussies have heaps of amazing options, the Kiwi's have one and we have erm, ummm...

Sam Tomkins and Niall Evalds.
I think there is a pack that can compete, but lose any through injury and we are replacing them with players who are nowhere near as good.

Correct.

Half back wise they should all be fighting it out to partner Williams, he’s had a great start to year and is Wane type player. Lomax would be my guess.

Tomkins
Makinson
Sarginson (again Wane a big fan, he signed him twice)
Gildart
Johnstone
Lomax
Williams
Walmsley
Clark
Thompson (hopefully he recaptures 2019 form)
Farrell
Whitehead
Bateman

Cooper
TBurgess
Connor (can cover centre/halves/full back)
Bentley

Farrell? Really? Good club man but not good enough at international level.

At the moment, I’d go with:
FB - Tomkins
RW - Makinson
RC - Hardaker
LC - Farnworth
LW - Johnstone
HB - Lomax
HB - Williams
P - Walmsley
H - Clark
P - Thompson
SR - Whitehead
SR - Knowles
LF - Bateman

S - Watts
S - Burgess
S - Sutton
S - Ratchford

Comfortably the best back rower in SL for the last 5 years.

Plays for Wigan so he's instantly crap.

Yes, I was debating between those two!

The position I think is most difficult is hooker. We’ve so many options and all of them are different ‘types’ of player.
Roby is consistent and never has a bad game - but does he have the spark to trouble the best defence in the world or does he just become someone who distributes the ball?
Clark has the unpredictability and the ability to run from the ruck. That will worry defences and if they play massive forwards, he’ll exploit that.
McShane offers something different again. He can run from the ruck, but he’s like an extra pivot too. He’s the most dangerous of our options when it comes to playing in the opposition’s 20.
Then we have Hodgson. Talismanic for Canberra, but I’ve not seen him have one good game for England.
All are great players. I think it comes down to what we want from our hooker, rather than who is “the best”.

1. S.Tomkins
2. Makinson
3. Farnworth
4. Gildart
5. Johnstone
6. Williams
7. Gale
8. Walmsley
9. Roby
10. T.Burgess
11. Bateman
12. Farrell
13. Thompson

14. Clark
15. Copper
16. Sutton
17. Whitehead

Reserves: Connor, Percival, Lomax, Watts, Philbin, Hodgson, Currie

We're well off at hooker. I'd go with Roby, Clark and McShane. Hodgson is good when he's on song but he sometimes overplays and this disrupts things. Even Canberra fans were saying that last season until he got injured. He's done it a bit this season too. It's a difficult one as he has a great kicking game and whe he's on song he's great around the ruck.

Roby seems to go on forever and if he's on form he should get in. I like Clark for his athleticism and speed and McShane has a bit of everything.

I'd just go with the three most in form and fit by the end of the season. All would be good enough.

McShane is a great plater to have in the squad and could give us some different attacking options.
However, if both are fit, I'd go with Roby as starting 9, with Clark off the bench

McShane also has the advantage of doing 80 minutes.
That gives us another bench spot and probably two extra interchanges. In the big games, that's quite an advantage.

That exact same line has been peddled on this forum, every year, since its inception and every year since RLFANS inception our pack has been mullered by the aussies with the exception of about 3 games.