He played against us in the qualifiers IIRC

Rhinos fan in peace here.
But I see plenty on here do not rate Matty Russell and you guys know more about him than I do.
But whenever I have seen him play he has always looked reasonably good.
I won`t say a world beater by any stretch of the imagination.
But he doesn`t come across as half as bad as you guys make out when I`ve seen him.

At 1m 88cm he is certainly quite a bit taller than Matty Russell. I think Steve Price realises he has to fix the soft underbelly on our edges. Hopefully he wont be part of the sprint out of the defensive line brigade. Probably wont get out jumped to many time also.

Mitch Brown is a good 'attacking player' more strength/agility than speed. His defence wasn't great for us (even in the championship). BUT unfortunately for Mitch, the next game for us, he could be playing full back, centre or wing. Wasn't really outstanding in either position, but was a 'very good' squad player for us, and hopefully will do well, in a STRONGER team (on paper)

Personally I think Russell will do well in a team doing well. Eden at Wire last year would have been an absolute shocker, but at Cas he looked great.

A winger often gets the blame for being out of position, when he's not always the one at fault initially - [isometimes[/i I think Russell got the blame for that.

Every winger in SL is expected to support the forwards, (and Russell is very good at it) - look at McGillvary, often takes the ball in at first receiver for Huddersfield and England. With a more solid defensive line on his inside, I think he would look a much better player. If I were to pick a winger to drop next year, it would be Lineham over Russel any time.

All our backs will look amazing if this pack fourfills it's promise.
I might have a punt of Matt top try scorer and to go along with Brown for MOS.
If Eden and Gale can do it...my Granny can.

For Matty Russell to be "Top Try Scorer" he will have to double what he has scored in his whole career & do it in 7 months what has taken him 7 years. My advice is to keep your money in your pocket.

A solid defensive line won't cover for his brain farts, lack of anticpation and judgement, including jumping for balls.

He has trouble catching high balls, he has trouble catching balls on the floor, he panics under pressure and has trouble fielding kicks at the line, he also seems to lack a wingers confidence in finishing at the corner, when all other wingers are making use of the corner posts irrelevance now, he spent the qualifiers coming back inside towards defenders, making things harder for himself and getting injured.

He's not a very good rugby player.

But he can bench a lot and has a good set of abs, so, y'know..

This pretty much nails it. Strong and quick off the mark but far too many flaws to make a decent rugby player at SL level. Average as a winger and no game sense to play as a full back. To be fair though, he does work really hard for the team.

I agree with the consensus re Russell, he does work hard and he managed a few decent finishes in the corner, did he bag a hat trick in one game last year getting clattered for his trouble in the South East corner?

Saints away though, the 0-0 after over half an hour to 18-0 down in 5 minutes, all came off the back of Russell's seemingly lack of spatial awareness on our goal line, a rugby brain, doesn't compensate for his 'busy bee' contributions for a team with ambitions to be a top outfit.

However clean slate, the new coach might instill something, even if it is a bit of something that was knocked out of him at Widnes, that would be a start

It's hard yo believe he came out of wigans academy, with so many basic flaws

I've seen him finish very well, both in the corner and by cutting inside.

I agree dealing with kicks and the odd brain fart has been an issue with him, but I think these things can be ironed out, especially with a bit more confidence.

Don't get me wrong, hes far from a complete player, but I think he has a lot of improvement in him, and that there's a good rugby player in there somewhere.

Lineham, I'm less convinced - I'm not sure he has the heart. But new era and all that I'll give them both a chhance to right some previous wrongs.

But my wings for 2018 are probably starting Russell and Brown as things stand.