I predicted Wire and Wakey. I'm still believe it will be so plus Saints.

I've watched the game back and It's clear after 30 minutes that Saints' intensity far out-enthused ours. I never thought I'd say this, but some of our players need to look at the performances of Morgan Knowles and Matty Lees- aggressive, gritty and indefatigable.

While Ratchford is a great player with the ball, he is very VERY poor defender.

People run past him like he isn't there, he gets easily out-muscled close to the line and he doesn't seem to read attacking plays like a full back should.

The question is, as a full back, does his quality with the ball, outweigh his inability to defend?

For me he'd need the attacking ability of Barba to compensate for his lamentable defence....he's nowhere near that level in attack. Look at Coote tackling a rampaging Hill whilst Ratchford flaps at Percival and ducks out of stopping Regan ruddy Grace. Its not difficult to, at very least, break a player's stride.

Tough question, cop out but I think it depends on who we are playing. Sides like Saints etc I wish we had an Hodgson type full back,infact I wish we could still have an Hodgson full back,does not mean I’m anti Ratchford just not a natural full back for me.

And there lies the big Ratchford problem....good player but not a natural in any position.

I'd like to see someone for us run it in like Luke Thompson.

yes

In all fairness, Joe Philbin normally goes in hard but he’s lost some of that ‘oomph’. I wonder if giving him a starting role for some games diminished his usual off-the-bench impact? That said, none of our big lads matched them last Friday which is a worry.

Our intensity within the forwards was nowhere near good enough and that tends to obscure / bias interpretation of what else was lacking from some of our players. The half backs have little room to work, and the ball never reaches the wing because the forwards are tied up by the opposition in mid field. And of course if the defensive line is slow it simply encourages the opposition to run at you even harder. So instead of seeing the attacking flair from your best players you see their defensive qualities instead, which in some instances (Patton, Ratchford) is not their best.
Fix the intensity and you probably get a more balanced view of the players. You can guess what level of intensity we will see against Salford.

Having said all that, we do need at least one, preferably two decent bench props, and they are not going to come from the Academy in the short term.

You think Wakefield will finish second, or reach the Grand Final?

Sorry which bit of my post didn't you understand?
It's a free country of speech and I predicted Wakefield to do very well preseason kick off, and faced more flak for it than you could give. So don't go there.

The poster you were responding to said they thought it’d be a Saints vs Wire final. You said you predicted Wire and Wakey but you think Saints also. Even for you, predicting 3 teams to play in the Grand Final seems a bit ludicrous.

Out of those 3 will be the GF LL and CC winners.
I went Wire Wakey Saints in that order for LLS.

Can't argue with that - our pack were owned on the day.