..................the bickering must stop.

But for Derek Beaumont it is unlikely we would be in existence, such has been his support for the Club, he has almost single handedly saved us from extinction, BUT his stand on the Gareth Hock affair has gone on far too long and with only 5 days to go to the game, it is Paul Rowley I want to hear from with team news, his views on where we will win this game etc etc. Derek has had his moment, now stand down from the microphone and let the coach and the players take over from now and let the Hock saga die until after the game.

The tweets haven't been pleasant, the responses haven't been pleasant either and I don't mean just from the two leaders but from fans as well.

I know PR supports Derek in everything he does and quite rightly so, but I thought his comments in R L Express on Monday suggested he was getting fed up with the situation as well, stating that he "didn't like Pantomimes" and frankly, that's what its been.

Everyone has a view on whether Gareth Hock should play or not in the Cup game. My own opinion is that he shouldn't. I have no problem with him joining the Club at all, when hes fully fit he will be awesome for us but when he came on as sub against Workington he was obviously way short of fitness and the Sheffield match on Sunday suggested to everyone that he was still below par in the fitness stakes. At the moment we have a pack of forwards who are athletes, any combination PR wishes to choose will run their boll**ks off for the cause, and their fitness wont be in question. If he decides to play Hock, then the maximum fitness of the side will be undermined........everyone has their opinions, and that's mine.

Marwan Koukash is another character of our sport, like Derek in many ways, for example, but for him, Salford wouldn't be part of our game anymore. The contract between Salford Red Devils and Gareth Hock is a personal thing between them, had Salford not been drawn at Leigh in the Cup we would never have heard about any contract. Now we have, its up to Gareth Hock and Salford to sort it out. The match on Saturday is all that matters to Leigh fans, let us go on and celebrate a good win without any legal stuff afterwards.

The Watcher now believes that both Hock & Moi Moi will play agin Salford on Saturday & in fact there has been little if any doubt about Fui Fui playing in the match, it has all been a bit of a smoke screen/ bluffing from Leigh Rlfc

Do you not feel what has happened has taken the weight of pails shoulders? Paul and Gareth will have known for weeks what will happen master stroke imo that allows Paul to focus on the team and gameplan

Looks like apart from Sarsfield PR can pick his best 17.

Re Salford they are missing some good players but I rate Dobson and their hooker.

Whoever PR selects I'll go for Leigh by 20 just to annoy someone who is Angelic.

IMO i would not select hock. Simple reason he is not fit enough, don't care about legal issues, my opinion is purely RL related. Its not like we are short of quality fit forwards, the same applies to FFMM, any doubt over his fitness don't play him.

Your logic is sound Wolrab and I believe lines up with my points on pages 1 and 2 of the 'Performance ?' thread.
Anyone less than fully fit (whether that means match fitness or recovering from an injury) is liable to not being able to give of their best against Salford and worst of all, is susceptible to more damage. Trying to demonstrate their commitment to the cause can so easily mean losing more game time when we need them most. We need both Fui and Gareth at their best for the most important part of the season - ripping up the Middle 8.
Much as I would love to see us take Salford, this tie is not our top priority for this season.
We have an excellent and big squad - in my view this is not the time to take unnecessary risks with any of them. I include all of the squad in this statement - I am not for one moment suggesting that Fui or Gareth should be treated any differently than anyone else.

Although I have previously said the same that Hock shouldn’t play due to his lack of fitness, I’ve now changed my mind , as like you’ve put this isn’t a must win game (as great as it would be) and he’s only going to get fit by playing, so go for it.

As for Fui again as much as I’d love him to play as the noise increases when he runs in etc is fantastic and would be get for all viewing both in the stadium and on TV, we shouldn’t take any risks, if fully recovered he plays but any doubts not worth risking, more important games to come.

Agree with the OP that the Twitter 'banter' has gone over the top at times, and not reflected well on either club. Hopefully it does have the effect of taking attention off the rest of the squad, rather than being a circus that distracts the them.

As for Hock, with the legal situation, might be wise to leave him out given the other props we have available, and build on the legal case should we need it in middle 8s. If he does play, given his match fitness (or lack of) he should come on in 10-15 min spells as an impact player.

Twitter was very good last night with Marwan finally playing with the banter, in fact hes promising a guest apperance in the north stand.

as for Gaz Hock fitness ill leave Paul to decide on that.

I might be better in the East Stand then

A lot of Leigh fans keep saying don't play Hock because he is not fit he will never get fit unless he plays some game time ,the more the better ,you can train 7 days a week for months , but it won't beat on field gametime both Gareth games have been decent and he will get better, he will be busting a gut to get one over on Salford ,to leave him out would be crazy,the Seagulls players looked to be trying to get at him on Sunday but he didn't bite,I think signing him will prove a great decision.

Probably 'the' most rounded post of this thread.

Agree on absolutely every point made.

I would still love the lads to do it on the day though & put the Fear of God into whoever ends up in the 8's.
The 8's are everything as far as I am concerned.

Agree on not risking Fui if he's not fully fit, I hate this "Oh it's only the Challenge Cup, the league's what's important attitude." but Fui is getting on so will be more susceptible to injury & will take longer to recover; the last thing we want is for him to go out with a niggle & his knee to completely go 10 min in putting him out for the rest of the season. Hock, can't really say, he's still not as fit as he should be but will be getting there & Rowley will be better able to judge him better during the week. As for the whole issue with him & Salford makes me more inclined to play him, let Koukash do whatever he'll do, get all the shouting & arguing done and move on so we don't have to go through all this again the next time we play them.

I think the final decision whether or not MOIMOI,or HOCK plays will be down to SKY TV,as they seem to decide everything else about RL.

You can't blame SKY for looking at a future investment...Do you really think the cameras are there to see how Salford perform!