McGraff was given 'Basils' man of the mach award on Sunday, and was praised by him for his efforts and workrate all season so obviously the head coach doesn't agree, and having watched the game thre times now I must agree with the coach.
If anyone thought this season was going to be easy then they need to rethink and quick.

Charlie, we can play some good stuff but need a platform, Nash, Bibey, Hill, Meekin give us that Taylor and Armistead can back up as prop. Running back rowers are what we are short off and we have plenty coming in, so come crunch time we will be in the mix. I expect us to lose 2 of these NRC games with the injuries we have.
Sunday we were 50 points better than Oldham but the ref slowed it down and let them mix it up with a short 10 for them.

So we only have the GF left to get that golden ticket to be allowed to apply to SL. The way the NRC works means that you can miss out if you lose 1. Lose 2 and we won't even get to the next round. We also need to rack up the points against CH1 teams. Dewsbury and Widnes have already showed us how.

This is what im saying Derek, we should be putting Oldham and York to the Sword, but are struggling ,it wont get any easier ,as the season goes on ,Harder in fact , we MUST be ready .
As for Magraff being Basils player of the match ,i never said he doesnt try ,what i said was he doesnt make breaks ,as dont Armi, and Jimmy T, Maurice ,has already stated its strong running back row forwards we need , well these 3 dont come into that catagory, and we now need Props at a premium, thats why i fear for us , last season was hard , we dont want a repeat, i want us to do well ,as we all do, but act before its to late ,Bibey, Nash, Hilly could be out for a while , but i do have faith in Basil .

I know things are looking a bit hairy but I have faith in Basil too

IF the three backrowers from Wire come off the two i have seen sue do fill the 'role' as line breakers, something that hard to find in this division.
Basil like those before him can only work with the tools he has this will take time, something his carisma will give him.

Heywood Jablowme thinks its absolute rubbish and that your cockends for thinking it

Last season, we bemoaned the lack of quality half backs, and that has, hopefully, been addressed. We also bemoaned the lack of running second rowers and centres, and that is, again hopefully, what Ian is currently addressing.

Jimmy T and Macgraff graft their hearts out, and you always need players like that. I am critical of Jimmy's attacking ability, yet his is probably the first name I would put on my team sheet! Macgraff is only 18 and shows enormous potential - he just needs coaching and time.

Unfortunately, the injury crisis amongst the props has thrown a spanner in the works, in a position where we were probably strongest!

You can't be writing your whole season off on a few pre season games can you? The amount of times Widnes have struggled against an Oldham or a Swinton only to reach the grand final, I'm not going to make that mistake and neither should anyone here just yet.

I have to disagree with you again Mo ,

What's a prop these days ?

It's not the same as when you played in the last century

My opinion of how it works is ......

1............Full Back .... good defence and joins up in attack
2&5........ Wingers .... average defence but can catch and run like hell
3&4........ Centres .... a big winger that can pass a ball to that side
6,7&9 ....Half Backs... Any one that can mix and match and pass a ball ( and when needed play hooker )
8&10 ..... Props ....... A big second rower ( we'll see the difference when Ricky's fit )
11&12 ....Second Row...big Centres that haven't got the brains to pass
13...... Well theres no Peter Smethurst , Harry Pinner or John Westhead so that shirts up for grabs
Subs
14 ... Me ( because I'm daft enough )
15... Starbug ( for above reasons )
16.... Fred Parky ( Not for his speed but if he got snotted it would be on dvd )
17.... Lucy ..... She may not get a game but it won't half liven bath time up

Yes but look who they were playing Dewsbury played London Skolars and any CC team should put 50+ points past them especially at home, and Widnes played Gateshead who are currently full of local amateurs. We played Oldham who always raise their game against us.

well i think we need to wait to see how we do against york, and especially featherstone next week, to be fair to ian, its like asking jenson button to win f1 in a mini at the moment, no disrespect to our boys but we are one of the poorer teams in our league, this is not doom and gloom, but i do not think for one minute we will win the nrc or come anywhere near the gf, that's just the facts as i see them, the injury to hill is a hammer blow,no matter how you dress it up. but in times of adversity, re injury crisis, opportunities arise for other people, now is the time for the ret of the squad to pull together and get stuck in.

Yep...agree, after 1 game with a team who is understrength and a lot of quality players to return (plus the duel contract lads)
Don't write us off........ we will do a LOT better than most people predict.

i thought you knew some of our lot better than that