[iWell i observe judge and analyse with my own mince pies unlike you. You obviously don't trust your own judgement so you swallow whatever the club bellows. You're a Typical club apologist who can't think for yourself Sheens says this Sheens said that. Trust in Tim. Don't get me wrong i like Tim Sheens and respect his knowledge of the game but nothing has changed. Where was this so called close nit desire what we've been promised this year on Friday night.Where was the HEART what was promised. Well they're not getting mine until they show some mettle. Yeah it might take time for the team to Gel but Team Spirit if there is any doesn't take long with the right personnel it's instantaneous so is giving your HEART. Don't forget EB we've been down this road give or take for four decades now. Its the same shiote different day. We need not hope for a decent performance on Thursday night we can't afford the usual hammering by Saints. Then we can say we're a different animal this year I'm certainly not counting my chickens.[/i.

it must have been bad,even Michigan Red is down hearted.

So what prop then if not Mason?

For whatever my opinion is worth I dont think you should get too upset just yet. We all said that you would struggle to handle our size, what I didnt expect was the performances of Green and Bowden. We came out all guns blazing but you hung on well for 20 minutes. Then we brought those two and Pritchard on at a time when you were taking your starters off and we just overwhelmed you with one of the more clinical 30 minutes of rugby you will see this season. It's easy for you guys to blame lack of effort or togetherness, but when you opponents are so much bigger than you and have the bit between their teeth its very hard to do anything about it. It would have been easy for your boys to roll over and end up with a 60 point drubbing, but you rolled your sleeves up and played some good stuff at the end. We might not be getting the recognition yet, but Imo we are a top 4 team this year and not many teams will turn us over at home.

Get Evalds back at FB, improve your ball retention and play to your strengths (ie, get it wide quickly and often) and I think you will do okay this year. I've tipped you by 2 against Saints anyway.

[iPut the shoe on the other foot and you would be calling for Radfords head. You have bought wisely in the pack, whereas we've bought a pick n mix from B&M bargains for our pack. That's the difference.
[/i

I don't think it was a case of them taking their foot off the gas. They've got a big pack, their game plan was always going to be to blow us away early when the tiredness sets in. I think that is where they'll struggle this season against better teams who can stay within touching distance of them (or be ahead) around the 60 minute mark, they'll tired and leak points.

We were our own worst enemies with the unforced errors and needless penalties. We gifted them so much field possession and territory we gave ourselves little chance. Improve on that for Thursday and we're in with a shout. We've got more than enough quality to score points, it's just not giving the opposition enough of the ball to score more against us that could be the problem.

As others have said, O'Brien and Joseph to drop out for either Haggerty/A.Walne and Evalds.

I think our drop off was a mixture of a few things. Tiredness I think played a part, we went really hard for 60 minutes and a few players were blowing towards the end. However, Manu going off not only affected our defensive intensity but it also meant Frank had to play big minutes, and he looked very tired, picked up a knock too which wont have helped. Washbrook would have been able to spell him but he had to go and play out of position at centre with Logan on the wing, so thats guys out of position and two men out of our forward rotation. It just seemed like typical early season fare. We only had one proper pre season game so the players are still finding their match fitness. I also think you deserve credit for responding.

In response to FLAT STANLEY, I hope I don't sound too arrogant when I say that Hull are a better team than Salford. Or to put it another way, we are further along in our development. This is a rebuilding year for Salford, you have recruited well but it's the kind of recruitment that should have happened in MK's first year. We now have the squad that Radford has been building towards for 3 years whereas you have gaps. But you can't do it all at once, it will take a couple of years.

Would I happy to go to say Wigan and lose by 22 points. Well no. But on the other hand I watched you against Saints last year and thought, my god that was pathetic. I didn't think that this time. I thought, this is a new team and you have a long way to go but the building blocks are there. I honestly think you will do alright this year.

Sarsfield to drop for me as well for Lannon to come in.

I think this a very fair assessment as the Hull fan says it's a 3 year plan where as before it was neither here or there basically we just chucked money at any player that came.

We need to beat the teams around us ie Waky, Widnes, Hull Kr both home and away to satnd any chance at getting into the 8.

Joseph, O'Brien and Sarsfield all need to be dropped. We need to bring Greg Johnson onto the wing push Griffin into centre and use Josh Jones in the second row. I'm not a fan of A Walne, but he needs to play instead of Joseph and Evalds needs to start at Fullback. It would also be nice to see Lannon included after his pre season form. For Saints I’d go with:

Evalds
Carney
Griffin
Sa’u
Johnson
Lui
Dobson
Kopczak
Lee
G Griffin
Masila
Jones
Flanagan

Tomkins
A Walne
Krasniqi
Lannon

Worryingly I agree with everything Ave It posted. Having Jones in the squad adds the luxury of him starting in the back row and should any re jigging of the back line be needed he can slot into the centres.

I'm sure Haggarty can't play against Saints due to his loan.

They were pretty ordinary last year but have managed to improve massively why can't we set out to "blow someone away" it would seem we don't share that value, we are in the same competition and yet you have to admit it doesn't seem like it, as and I know we are one game in but it feels familiar if you get my drift.