It's a good job Shawy isn't in charge Frank, you'd be spitting feathers!

Normally a fan, but was he on the pitch tonight?

i too am a fan, but he was shocking last week for wire against rovers, and i said to my mates that tony smith would " farm him out" this week.................no good to us though if his confidence is low.............whilst i would obviously like to watch players like "unit" over morrison, the DC lark only favours the S/L clubs, and makes gameplans uncertain.

lee mitchell.

personally I'd send them all back and bring in some loanees at least three being backs.

I think I'm inclined to agree with you. At the beginning of the season the DCs were not getting in their Super League teams and they were very commited to our cause. Last night I thought they lacked that commited desire and looked jaded. We just cannot continue with the threequarters we have availiable, last night the Batley wingers were absolutely ourstanding in attack and defence! Every team appears to have pace other than ours, it is an urgent priority now so, the forwards may have to be sacrificed to improve our team.

I also feel that the D/C system heavily favours the SL clubs. Ged Stokes (although he may not be the best example to follow!) has said that he will no longer countenance D/C deals - he is opting for loans, where he is guaranteed the player for at least a month.

As for our D/C players - well, Mitchell and Emmitt have been getting a lot of SL rugby lately, so they must have something, given that they are turning out for top SL teams. Obviously, they are picking up bad habits there!!

I agree except would keep Emmitt (particularly at the moment)... but who might we get in? We certainly need some real pace at centre or wing.

Keep Blythe and Emmitt and drop the other 2 as we hardly ever see them........ sign a speedy winger and a H/B on duel or loan to replace....I`d go for Penny as out of favour at Wire (will score more than he lets in)....... poss look at Brad Drew also.

The money we pay for DC's is akin to a reserve players salary at this level. These deals are much cheaper than loan deals. It is financially a very good deal for the club. For example if we wanted to get a player of the standard of Blythe on a contract we would have to pay twice/three times what we do now! Plus Blythe trains during the day with the Wire first team and then comes to us in the evenings. He gets all the physio and recovery resources that Wire have and it costs us nothing. The only down side is that he may get called up to first team duty and miss playing for us. We can not afford to sign another player under the current salary cap, fact. So would I rather have the four DC's we currrently have or one avereage Championship player?

Just a neccessary evil at the moment , would I prefer to not have them ? , Yes , but there are not many clubs at our level that can afford to turn them down , hopefully one day the competition and the clubs in it will be strong enough to refuse what is a very lob sided deal

I'd avoid a dual contract halfback at all costs, look at Kyle Wood and Batley, he only played 2 games for them. That would be worse than not having one due to the amount of time a half would have to take to get used to calls etc.

Personally, I dont like the system.

There is no doubt they add quality to the team (I'd sign the lot if we could ever afford them) but its only short term gain, provides uncertain team selection, and unsettle fringe players.

If I was in the first team squad, busting my balls in training but being kept out by a loan player, and only getting a first team call when he wasn't available, how can you build up experience and match fitness?

I'm sure Basil thinks its the only option open to him with a wafer thin squad, but at the end of the day it's another step away from the Championship being a breeding ground for the SL elite.

Wood played almost all games but just on the bench as he was not first choice 7 and was used at six and Handforth moved to 9.

Well we would not be second thats for sure without them but having said that i think its caused a lot of disruption within the team or thats what it looks like but only those close to the team will know whether it has or not ,if we could manage a decent run with them it would definately be to our advantage .