It's exciting me have depth to discuss.
On Smith he has more experience and he is still young. Not a stat watcher put I'm pretty sure he gives less penalties away. Though Mason does edge him in the more explosive sense, I feel we need the safe and experienced option... Otherwise my selection would of included Leeming starting and Wood starting centre.

I'm sure Wakeman is good but seen only a highlight video of him. Could make anyone look a World beater on a highlight video.

I'm hoping for plenty of squad rotation this year.

Indeed you could- perhaps you would also like to look at his very impressive stats which back up that video. Top tackler in his team, most metres made and more hit ups than anyone in the competition,over 1200 metres made after contact....more than anyone else in the competition, 80 tackle busts, 9 tries.

i agree id prefer murphy on the wing but cant see who will go centre at the moment, gaskell is def a good shout thats the other option id go for with murphy on the wing though not orsmby, think murphy is very under rated as a winger for us

id have roberts in our starting 17 all day long

Good stats for his side in his league. Super league is a different more demanding tournament. It's played in a different country in conditions new to him.
I'm not saying this is my number one team throughout a season. Nobody could possibly know who will shine.

The first few rounds when players are trying to work on things I think it'll be safer to have Smith in.
I'm not sure what Stone wants but it seems he's a player he wanted a couple of years down the line.
It'll be interesting to see who he plays.

good to see discussions, shows we have options!

stone and co should be able to find the right formula, as fans we can only hope they get the right ones.. we cant see them in pre season , they will and whoever impresses should get a chance to shine

got a feeling could be another signing too yet...

mamo and wakeman maybe a bit behind with not having a proper pre season with us... so maybe mason/clough will get ahead of wakeman and mcintosh/gaskell get first shot ahead of mamo for sure early doors

It seems RS is impressed with Mackintosh and I wonder if he will be given a chance on the left wing or possibly centre - I don't know whether he can play centre I'm sure others do. Gaskell would be an option and if he can get back on track could go well.I would be happy to see Murphy on the wing also. I'd have Wakeman on the bench I think, if he lives up to the clips and stats he could give us the boost we used to get when Eorl came on, lifting both the team and fans.
I was confident before this week but even more so now and really looking forward to the season

might be a good time to catch widnes first game up with them not replacing brown as of yet

shame we wont see mamo till march maybe

Tricky first game on that awful pitch- remember last year one of their games early on when the ipitch was played on whilst covered in snow. A lack of an experience fullback on that pitch won't help either- I remember one game where Murphy struggled terribly when he had to fill in at fullback on that pitch.

l really would like to see Leeming getting the 9 shirt, its his 5th season in the first team squad, and in my opinion he looks good, never lets us down, and will surely kick on under the Rickster, Would like to see Hinchy at 13, as he doesn,t inspire me at 9. OK we don,t have a back up 9, and we may have to re gig to spell Leeming, but l really like him, he has great physical presence, young, fit, would love it if he could do a Roby ,or Houghton and do the full 80.

with the late signing of obrien i now put him at hooker as our number 1 interchanging with leeming

hinchliffe to loose forward

cant see mellor getting in the 17, gaskell give the number 4 shirt so him at centre and murphy on the wing, dropping ormsby.

lawrence to drop out or to the bench , we need a squad so he will get his games.

some bulls fans seem to think we will be all bulls players now?! but as far as i can see only 2 or 3 will get in the 17 ...obrien, gaskell and ferguson

You'd put a 23yr old hooker with no SL experience before a 21 yr old with a couple of years experience? Based on what? Age? Not sure I'd agree with you there. Neither should we be peeing off our hone grown players especially as he can walk away without us getting a fee a la Connor.

O'brien has SL experience doesn't he

And he has international experience too

True - I remember him playing against the Giants.

o brien and leeming can interchange, calm down.

ive seen o brien play before against us too so he does have sl experience and got dragged down to the championship like ferguson/gaskell with relegation.