I'm sure at some point Derek said we got to SL a season earlier than planned therefore we started the season with a number of players brought in to win the Championship and attempt the 8's we also brought into SL a number of novices quite a few have not yet made the step up. Getting through to SL late in the season gives little time to find players and which star players are going to be tempted to join a team with no SL experience including the coach? Apparently Hardaker was close but who can blame him? So here we are with 4 loanees and 2 from Bradford fire sale. Maybe a chance to get/borrow a couple from Toulouse if they dont make the cut.

Actually it was a two year plan,and executed extremely well. This seasons goal is survival in SL,reagardless of how status is retained.

How many loanees did we use in 2016?

Is it locked yet ?

No ?

Ok, here goes ....

Too late to change the Coach.

Higham & Tickle will retire at seasons end which will see new signings.
Burr & Clare from Bradford look decent signings to me, be glad to get Clare back.
Ethan Ryan would be another good signing, again from Bradford.

You can't just show overseas players the door when they are contracted.
I would like to show Green through the door but he couldn't go through it (well I haven't seen him go through a defence yet)

The loan signings in the main have been garbage or not used because they are garbage.

The average age of the squad 'should' come down for 2018 & squad size (numbers) should go up.

We lack pace & attacking flair/ideas, needs addressing.

If we are in & lose the MPG then we are truly screwed, maybe for a very long time too. RFL will 'probably' close the shop in 2018 after admitting Toronto + 1 & KR being promoted (if they are).

Should we survive then I would look to either promote Cooke/Purtill or bring in a proven & rated coach & release N.J. Whatever it is that N.J is doing is not quite good enough & the team don't seem to be 'a team' anymore.

Ste ,I agree with most of what you say on here,I think we handed out longer contracts than we should have done,for me Stewart, Vea,and Patterson are not SL standard, I agree about Higham and Tickle and feel Green should join them, I'm not convinced about Burr,and I hope Mortimer and Langi prove successful.
I agree about our loan signings ,they have been very poor,again I think the MPG awaits us,hopefully we can win it.
As for the Coach?I think Jukesy should stay for now, but think something is wrong with the team and team spirit, I don't know what though.

All in all ,we have gone downhill since the second half at Wakey,granted we beat Wigan ,but a weak Wigan where everything went right on the night,can we recover this season?Yes but we must improve big time,also I don't think McNally and Hampshire are SL standard.Derek has done his best in trying to supply good players ,we are now light on props ,I just hope Hock returning and a bit of team bonding will rescue us come the middle 8s.

Stewart and Patterson are more than proven at this level - Patterson however needs to be in the second row certainly unfair to expect him to cover centre- Stewart has been disappointing, but his record suggests he is a class act

DB has made it perfectly clear during the last week that the coaches (all) are not at threat

Col,I just think Patterson is getting to the stage were SL is to much for him, he would do a great job in the Championship though, as for Stewart?You can't play off your past record,Paul Cooke was a very good stand off, his record speaks for itself , but I wouldn't play him on Friday night.

They played well in the thrashing of current Super League Champions although, you say Wigan were a weak side! How many Internationals did Wigan have on the Field? As for McNally, I've never seen Greg play anywhere near as bad as Mitch Brown did against Wire! he looked like an Old Man

I know if Gregg and Hampshire were paired at Halfback they would be our quickest combination and not without skill either

Kirk as always I respect your opinion,Wigan have an abundance of talent and internationals to call on however,they had a fair few 1st choice players missing when we played them, not that it wasn't sweet to beat them,by no means am I a Wiganer

but I do rate them and Shaun Wane highly and don't think they will be far away when it matters at the end of the season,I've also said everything went right for us that night.

I know you rate McNally highly and I respect that , but his defence isn't good, not many came out of Fridays game with a plus, Gregg is a good Championship player, and I think Hampshire would be as well ,you never know Jukesy might give them a chance before the end of the season.
Again this is only my opinion,we all want the same end product , a successful Leigh team,hopefully we may get it.Take Care.

I was originally in favour of Brown at full back, but can't leave McNally out because of his defence when we're already leaking 40 points a game. At least he might give us some shape in attack.

Hampshire should be on the wing, as should Clare when fit. Wouldn't be any problems with pace in the 3/4 then.