Jesus hope Roberts is not going to be another injury ravaged Wire player.

The new Gary wheeler.

Out of the SL are we the club with the most injured/unavailable players out of the squad after game 1?

Is this just bad luck or a symptom of signing inured players, keeping injury prone players or suboptimal conditioning and rehab?

(5/25)
King (Toby)
Crosby
Akauola
Roberts
Patton

Patton is available. He pulled his ham 2 weeks before game 1 but it wasn't as bad as initial thoughts...and my post.
King and Crosby were both out of preseason with long term injuries and not released because they have a contract.
So...
We are left with 2 players from your 5 we technically signed injured.

Toby King was not out preseason with a long term injury.
King picked up a hamstring problem in the pre-season victory at Rochdale Hornets, but is expected to return very soon.
Why would we want to release him?

From what i hear about Roberts, hes had an injection in his knee, and shouldn't be out long. Didn't get a time scale though. Worrying though that hes had a knee op preseason and now he is already missing games. Or maybe we shouldn't of rushed him into the team last week!!

Hindsight!!

He did sod all. could've put a cardboard cut out on the pitch and it would've offered the same. It was Atkins and Russell who allowed Ryan Hall to stroll right between them. Ratch copped a load of stick for that tackle, he managed to get across from the middle of the park. not an easy thing to get in front of someone whos at full pace and you're running sideways.

Why? Lineham is our natural winger and Roberts is the only centre who will be able to bring him into the game. move atkins back and youre effectivley taking a winger out the side.

While Goodwin was good on Thursday, was there any evidence that he is a ‘wingers centre’ any more than Atkins?

I don’t recall Lineham being passed the ball, and the chance Goodwin had to put Lineham in he cut back inside for his own try.

Not knocking him, and may be just the conditions and style of the game, but he looked more of an Atkins than a Hiku.

When Lineham played for Hull, he was on the right side. Move Lineham & Goodwin to the right. Then Atkins back to the left.

We've watched Atkins for many years. We've seen Bryson Goodwin play one match. Bit early to be judging a guy who played centre for New Zealand more than ten times I'd have thought?

I think Price is more qualified to play Goodwin where ever he thinks he'll get the best out of him and the team as seeing him week in and week out.
Many of us didn't know the first think about him. Other than subscription tv and early rising in the morrows how could they?

For two or three seasons now we have been starting the season with injuries so are we missing the boat when it comes to signing the right players ,trying to save money by buying crocks or are our rehab & training methods not working ?

Like I said, I’m not having a go at him. I just didn’t see anything to suggest he’s going to be a creative type of centre, which is fine, sometimes a direct centre can be just as effective. I just wouldn’t want to set the bar too high expecting a Lyon/Gidley style ‘wingers centre’. Atkins has been effective for us, and I hope Goodwin will be as effective, hopefully more so.

And regarding the NZ caps. That doesn’t always suggest that a player is going to be a world beater. Mr Asotasi probably has 20+ caps and was mediocre when he played for us, at a similar age/time in his career.

I watched highlights of an NRL game and the commentators stated they thought Goodwin was one of the best Bunnies players last year. I’m inclined to trust those guys more than my own eyes based on one performance, where I actually thought he looked head and shoulders above the current England first choice Centre opposite him anyway.