Quote Michigan red="Michigan red"To start you need to chop out the dead wood, Gleeson, Meli, Puletua, Howarth, McPherson (not dead wood but too injury prone), Lee (not dead wood but we can get much better), Smith (unless he pulls up trees for the rest of the season) Rapira (like McPherson is too injury prone) and then obviously Morley is calling it a day. There is a significant amount of money to be spent there.'"
There has also been a significant amount of money invested in these players. If the Doctor is thinking along the same lines he has waved away a lot of money for limited return.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red"I think S'au is a very good signing and don't know if Williams would make a decent centre, think Ford is well worth a shot at SL rugby as we see other teams blooding centres of his age.'"
S'au is getting stronger. I think if he stays fit and has a full pre season of training & conditioning he will be a major contributor for 2015. I hope Ford is given an opportunity before long to show what he can do at super league level.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red" Think we'll end up with Tomkins and again like Ford think Owen is well worth a shot at SL.'"
Owen is an impact player. Most teams play with two specialist hookers and Owen is very effective against tiring defences and he is the quickest distributor of the ball from the ruck that we have had in years. Perhaps its a Salford thing to have slow predictable distribution from the play the ball.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red" I have heard of a few people that Moi Moi will be a Salford player next season and think he is more than capable of being a hit in SL.'"
Yes more than capable, but he will be 35. Good short term signing. He can be a hit if we have long term additions to compliment the signing.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red" I think Sneyd will be scrum halve next season has he has proven he can play at the very highest level and doesn't look out of place in a top of the table team. He also fits the bill as an excellent kicker.'"
Yes and we certainly need a kicker with consistency (and not consistently bad.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red" As for the full back if we do manage (is the 48 hours up yet?) to sign Locke there's just about the best full back in SL right there. If we don't sign him and Les Catalan are really interested in Theo try and get Escare from them in the deal as he looks like a quality young player. Not sure if Mullaney is that bad but do think he is nervous as hell behind a team of players who look allergic to tackling.'"
I would have liked to have seen Locke recruited pre season when it was announced that Tomkins was signing for NZ. I dont know how close we came or how interested Locke was. Ive seen him play many times on the tv for NZ and ive always been impressed. We do need to select a player and stick with him though rather than chopping and changing. Mullaney has been hit and miss so far but if we give him time to settle and play in a settled time we may see an improvement, hes got age on his side.
Quote Michigan red="Michigan red" I think the problem at lose forward is we have chopped and changed, pick one from Dixon, Ashurst or Walton (for me when he played in the back row at Widnes he was immense) and stick with them allowing them to grow into the position.'"
Yes we need to start at the top though, settled coaching staff followed by a settled team.