What you do highlight is the biggest problem MK had when developing a new team. Namely, getting players of a certain calibre to buy into his vision. This season, for me, HH is the stand-out signing (Away from the playing side of things) as he came from the best Club in SL at the time and was a regular first teamer. All our other signings have been what's left at the time (Meli, TP, Morley, etc etc) wit Chase basically made a sideways move, as did Smith. Our overseas signings have been solid with Sau and Tasi standing-out. So HH is the anomaly but when you factor in his Dad's connection with the Club, growing-up around the Club, and him being a fan of Salford since being a kid it makes it to my mind, obvious why he chose a good offer from MK. So far, for next season we have already upped the quality of signing so far from this year with Locke and BJB. So Salford seems to be becoming a more viable prospect for players than it used to.

With regards to HH, a good analogy is when Manchester City purchased Robinho. Regardless of his performances (or lack of...) on the pitch, he was a marquee signing and a statement of intent/ambition from a club aiming to do better.

Correct - but he came for the money. Nothing else. Certainly not the Manchester weather.

I'm more than happy to accept that HH went to Salford for the money - after all it's a short career and you are always just one bad tackle away from retirement.

Red John/The Butcher seem to be suggesting that it's his love for his home town. I still find that hard to believe.

This is getting like a tabloid story: one simple factor to explain something complex.

HH, and other stars, will have many reasons for the decision and some he will not be able to explain to anyone but himself. So boiling it down to money v love of Salford is making it too simple.
As Butcher keeps repeating, the factor of a "challenge" cannot be underestimated as part of the formula for the type of players MK wants to attract.

Whereas you seem to be suggesting it was for the money and nothing else. As Butcher has pointed out, there may be a whole range of factors, and it doesn't just apply to Harrison Hansen. Why did Gareth Hock join Widnes? What tempted Paul Cooke from Hull to Hull KR?

It may be that Hansen is on better money than he was at Wigan, but to suggest that it was money and nothing else that tempted him to join the club he grew up watching, and that Salford would have to triple his salary to tempt him away from the much loved Wigan is just far too simplistic.

And that's my point about the criticism of Noble,he could only buy what was available so he's had several failures.
He's also had successes ,the most obvious being Sau and Tasi who most fans would never have heard of.
He was also part of the team that persuaded HH and Hock to buy into the project

Brian Noble did a lot of good things, and I wish he'd stayed at the club and taken up the role as football manager because he comes across as very knowledgeable and erudite. However, I get the feeling he's slightly past his best as a coach, and some of his decisions have been baffling. Why send a young, sharp hooker with a full season of SL behind him off on season long loan and replace him with a player who isn't as sharp and, really, isn't a specialist hooker? Why not make more effort to keep Jodie Broughton and, instead, replace him with a much slower winger? Why was that winger not moved to the centres where he seems much more effective? Why replace a young prop with one 10+ years older and little better? Were there really no goalkickers available? When your three-quarters are desperately lacking in pace and depth, why send someone like Niall Evalds off on season long loan?

I like Brian Noble, and think it's a real shame it didn't work out. We don't yet know whether Iestyn is the right man for the job, but I'm afraid I think Nobby wasn't.

Fair comment.
I think Mullaney was signed partly because he is a goal kicker and,as I understand it, a prolific points machine.
So far that's hasn't been proved correct but he did come highly rated

I think back to the Devilution launch when a fan asked Brian Noble if he had given serious consideration to who would be kicking this season. He snorted a reply along the lines that of course he had.

I like Mullaney - I think he puts in plenty of effort, he's relatively young and he's looked good going forward. A top Super League kicker he ain't. Not sure who Noble had in mind as a back up...

Anyone got any update with the injured

Bingo. I was behind that end we were attacking second half and a few Salford fans sat near me were going mental about the decision not being given - no mention of the players stood there watching Hanbury pick the ball up and run past them.

I'd also agree with you, Talent Spotter and Walshy. Whilst I don't think we're playing as catastrophically as Wirecutter's needless meltdown suggests, I certainly don't see too much in the way of improvement from where we were after the Hull Cup game. I'm not in relegation panic mode, but we do need to pull a win or two out of the fire in the next few games.



Didn't you have a go at me for "snide remarks" recently? Whilst I accept a lot of people had a major problem with the style of rugby being played under Noble (with fair reasoning), we can't let any change in style mask the fact that we haven't actually taken any real steps forward. We're still making silly mistakes, we're still quite poor in the tackle and something just seems lacking. Even after we've scored, the body language from the players taking up their positions looks languid and down to me. Hopefully it's a minor problem that can be worked out, but we're far from this amazing improvement people seem to think we've made.

Didn't you have a go at me for "snide remarks" recently? '"

Well I for one can see this `amazing` improvement. Perhaps we all have a different slant. If someone knows how to do it maybe a good idea is to put a Poll up to see how we all feel? Leave that to someone who knows what to do.

Whilst I like many didn't think Noble was the right man long term, he should've been given the full season to get us in the top 8, with a potential move upstairs at the end of the year if this was achieved. We would've sneaked 7th/8th with this squad playing the apparent dour Noble way IMO.

Hopefully Harris will come good however the upcoming run of fixtures don't full me with much confidence.