I'm no Ratchford fan, before anybody gets the wrong idea.....

Last year him and Patton looked ok, the Catalan game away Patton controlled the game and we looked good with a weakened side.

I would go with Gids at full back, Ratchford 6 and Patton 7. If it doesn't work, we have a space on the cap to bring in another half back.

Just a thought

Dodds' injury knackered up his pre season, and he missed the first couple of months of the season, as well as ben harrison, there was also the injuries to laithwaite and Bevans, which in particular seemed to take forever to get sorted, cox and bailey were supposed stop gaps for the first part of the season, unfortunately two of these never ever cleared up, and as said we ended up relying on them a lot more than was expected.

Didn't we sign Dodd's injured and recovering from a long lay off in Aus?

To be fair, Wigan had a lot of injuries and won the GF pot through a mixture of squad strength, coaching, and a will to win.

I think pretty much [ievery[/i team had lots of injuries last year, that's my belief as to why the quality seemed lower than previous years. Credit to Wigan, they managed a terrible situation very well and came out as the GF winners, but we weren't that far off. We did look knackered in the final, a lot more so than in the previous games, I think we'd reached our limit by then (and we didn't exactly have a massive bench to rotate with, did we); we didn't have the attacking spark we needed but we still nearly won (or at least nearly drew level with Atkins' try) and we also kept Wigan to 12 points so we can't have been doing that badly... With a bit of luck we could have won everything, and while that doesn't mean we can't find criticism, I do think people are overreacting at times

This was my agenda most of the season.

I kept blarting on how Hull FC won't make the GF of finish top.
Hull were the only team not to be smashed by injuries. They went almost all season with the same team and yet couldn't pull clear of Wire Pies and even Saints came back at us all.

I called it that they would not win the LLS or make the GF. I got some stick from the Hull fans sayin I was disrespectful...no I wasn't, it wasn't a pure ruddy guess. "It logical Jim"! Yes well done Hull, it was a bigger achievement for the club as a whole, it'll not be repeated next season. 5th spot at best.

IMO, last season was the worst SL standard across the board and the easiest SL to win. That is why even with making the finals, I call it the most disappointing season I've seen under TS, probably ever.

There have been many a season we've been exactly where we were at (deserved) and a two or five where we've over achieved....but never can I remember a season where we so much utterly under achieved. So much as it was easier to won the CC than it was to loose it!

The reason was mainly the busted and fringe weak pack, strangely a halfback, who I won't name, managing to win us games against the odds, and when our pack was in better shape, we won tough games without him.

...leading me back on topic!
We do need a quality half, the last leaver proves as much, but that pack being the best is more important.

Last year's pack was a quality forward off a clean sweep in the dullest season it was.

[climes down off soap box]