Fair comment Andy, you're obviously better informed than me (not difficult!)

As far as SL is concerned you generally know what you're getting but the overseas lot can be risky. Too many IMO come for a holiday - look at Roy Asotasi who's done nowt for Warry in a season and a bit and Willie Tonga who's already looking like a mistake for Les Cats.

We've been dead lucky with FuMo (either that or Mr Beaumont really does know what he's doing

)

Good point about our 2005 signings also - the vast majority were woeful.

Some weren't even that good!

I don't think that my opening post looks too far off this morning.


[i





We love you, Leythers, we do!!![/i

Two players who quickly spring to mind who are off contract next year are Manu Vatavia from the NZ Warriors and Paul Gallen from the Sharks.Manu,s still a beast when anywhere near that try line,and he still has pace.Paul Gallen,well he has cult status with the Sharks and he can play 80mins if needed,and he,s fearsome.

As an outsider from another forum. Really enjoyed this thread. I cant imagine why the team would be changed too much if you go up. The super 8s will be the measure for your lads.

Bringing in so called stars are costly players. Can your setup pay for it over the seasons. Cas could not. Anyway your Maurice voiced on our forum that SL is rubbish this year and I agree with him, with the exception of Leeds who "are" SL at this point in the season. It was an uncomfortable realisation when the Ausies travelled here, in the bad weather and scooped the lot.

On balance you could enter the SL with what you have.

Im going to argue that you are still way off. It was a great win for Leigh and there is no taking that away but I said to my mate about 20 seconds before Leigh scored the crucial try in the second half that Salford were simply going through the motions and I couldnt see how Leigh were going to score. Given Salfords injury crisis during the game it was no real surprise to see Leigh in the mix come the end of the game but during the game I must say I was disappointed with a lot of your forwards and honestly expected more as they were dominated for long periods of the game by the Salford pack(I actually said the same when Leigh played Fax, that if anything would let Leigh down this season it would be their pack) but I thought your backs were superb and totally outclassed Salfords backs.

If that team had to travel to say Leeds or Wigan next week then you would put good money on them getting a good hiding and not been able to back up after the effort they put in yesterday. I still think 6 or 7 players would be needed at the very least just to even have a chance of avoiding the bottom 4 (thats if promotion is a given which I no longer think it is).

GFB I'm not sure how to say this,

BUTTON IT

you keep rabbiting on about what Leigh lack,yet keep trumpeting Fax and RM ,we Leythers know what we need for SL we don't need you to tell us ,come along to the LSV in May watch your beloved Fax and see the Mighty Leythers in action, I still chuckle at your view of the Fax pack bossing ours.

Have a word with yerself.

The side effect of Salford's injuries that hasn't been mentioned is that they had an extra 2 forwards on the field, so makes sense that we want to get it to the backs while they would win the forward battle. Also we gave ourselves a lot of defending to do for a second successive week, which didn't help.

Was worried that we would be a bit light in the forwards when the 17 was announced. Would expect it to improve as Hock's fitness improves and Likes of Moimoi, Wilkes, Acton come into the team. Emmitt did his job well (workhorse, long minutes do nothing wrong etc...) but we were too reliant on Spencer and Hopkins to drive us forward, thought Spencer did well though.

Considering we were without Wilkes, Acton and Moimoi, and up against a good SL pack that only wanted to try and run over the top of us all day, plus the fact that we're only used to facing mainly Championship, part-time packs every week - I thought we defended amazingly!! Goulden, Beswick are tackling machines. They're like Rocky Balboa. Keep just coming back for more!

I have watched the match 3 times now (live, LCTV and SKY) and rugby league won on the day. It was a great game and Leigh deserved it overall.

And, Leigh are hard as nails. And that's something else team spirit gives you.

Nobody will want to play us in next round.




I could talk all day but I'll shut up now...

You must be in a bad mood Charlie. Trouble at home ?

Not forgetting our injuries, playing 80 min with 1 hooker, 2 1st choice props missing & only using 3 of our players on the bench, Salford's injuries weren't that big an advantage.
Regardless of who dominated during which portions of the game we've just beaten the 4th place Super League team who have been on a roll with one of the most expensive squads in the country. I'm not sure why people have this idea that if we're promoted to SL this year we have to win the thing next year. Yes if we had to travel to Leeds or w!g@n next week we'd probably loose but so would most teams. Promotion was never a given but I do think it's looking more and more likely; if we are promoted we don't need to avoid the bottom 4 next year, personally if we're promoted I'd take staying up & avoiding the million pound match as a big success. This is why we've got these strange Super 8 groups rather than just straight promotion & relegation now; it's not about going up, replacing your whole squad & dropping down again in financial difficulty; it's about building, we've been building for the last 3 years or so now, every year we just add a few extra players and loose a few and every year we get better, I expect that to continue & I expect us to slowly work our way up Super League over the next few years just getting a bit better year on year, which is how it should be done.

My own perspective is that we caught Salford on a bit of an off-day. However, we had a bit of an off-day ourselves in some departments. The key for me is the will to win that we have. The other factors in being ready for SL are our off-field professionalism and our fanbase. Both these have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. We are no longer little Leigh. Surely there cannot be any doubt that we are a bigger club than Salford and one or two others in SL.

The Middle 8s should hold no fear for us now. It doesn't give us an automatic right to go up, but we wont be shaking in our shoes. The pressure will be on those 4 SL sides. We will have the carrot and they will have the stick.