If we loose Evalds through stupidnes,in my opinion the club is going nowhere.Last year he was the best thing since sliced bread.Now he can't get in.I personally said Five seasons ago,when Theo had is fan club,that Evalds was the best prospect we had at the club.If this kid gets fed up,I am sure he will be snapped up by one off the top clubs like a shot.Then we will see how good this kid will be.Because in my opinion he can go right to the top,I know I will be shot down by all and sundry,but that is my opinion,and if he does go I for one will wish him all the best.

rlSalford Squadrl

rlWire Squadrl

Can Gidley mysteriously be added to the squad at the last minute?

Not bad when you can bring someone of the class of Ratchford in as his replacement.

Gidley and Darryl Clarke's out too. Brad Dwyer may have to do big minutes.

Dwyer is a good kid. Ripped us to peieces in his return game for Warrington after being on loan down London.

He is a good player and I'm not having a sour grapes moment here, but, with his form and effort we didn't miss Higham at all. I don't think he can do a full shift though, so a conundrum for us at 6 and interchange 9.

Tough game, I think we might justhave covered Gidley and Westwood, but, not Clark as well. You lads seem to be at Full Strength?

Bar Vidot and Harauki then yeah full strength.

I totally agree with this Evalds should be starting every game for us he is easily better and more effective than O'Brien who to be fair is playing very well but i would pick Evalds over him every time. If we do end up losing Evalds its a huge mistake by the club.

Evalds is a brilliant support player which is how he got most of his tries last year. O'Brien his a link player who is proving to be a good third pivot. The coaching team feel that,at the moment, he is the better bet which has been demonstrated in our matches this season. Both are not 100% reliable under the high ball but competent tacklers. The coaching staff want a big set of three-quarters so Evalds is unlikely to get a role there especially when Vidot is fit. Last season, when push came to shove, Evalds swapped positions with BJB. Against current thinking in RL, I like to see a back included in the replacements and feel Evalds is good in this role. He has come on a couple of times in the centre against tired opponents and been effective. I hope the coaching team are working with Evalds on his pivot game so that we have more competition at full back or when O'Brien moves into the halves when injury strikes.

What about Evalds doing a Peter Edwards and move from centre to hooker?

We want to have a culture at Salford where people automatically don't walk into the team based on who they're. This happened last year and we had players who knew 100% that they were going to get in. This year it's different. O'Brien so far has been good at full back licking up well and acting as another pivot. We can't drop him on the basis on keeping Evalds happy as we did last year with Chase and Fages. If he does decide to leave because he won't wait and train hard to earn his spot then we don't want that type of character anymore at Salford. We all know what agents are like and I hope Evalds looks at the Fages situation and learns from it as he doesn't even get picked for the 19 atm.

It's no wonder he's getting in ahead of Evalds if he's resorting to that type of thing

Excellent post - I just wish others will see the benefit of that 3rd pivot to our system. Evalds is a finisher and a good one at that and we will see the benefit of that this season hopefully. To suggest he is going anywhere is madness anyway - why would he want to give a Maserati back?

And just as things appear to be getting a lot, lot better, I am happy to leave the judgement calls to Tim Sheens and Ian Watson. Real good feeling now about this season. Can't wait for my next game - Catalans away.