When you look at it on paper there really isn't an issue. They just need to get everyone fit and on the field.

Oh don't talk rubbish, our season is finished, our pack is weak and we can't possibly switch the team around as we move through the season. Our season has been decided in two friendlies.

Now take your logical thinking elsewhere, it isn't welcome here, it gets in the way of some serious negativity.

The great panic about the pack is this - put our best two props (I've no idea who they might be) against the best two from Saints and Warrington, and what happened on Sunday will occur every time we play a top team. Sure, we will be ok against most of the rest.

And the great panic about our 6 is this, it is a pivotal position in which we have lost a lot of big game experience - Saints have Burns, Wire have Ratchford and the others have the likes of Carney, McGuire and Brough. We have three kids who might be great in future but they aren't ready.

If you were there on Sunday this was all amply illustrated. If you think friendlies don't matter then fair enough, I agree that the result doesn't matter, but it was a very competitive game. What Amor, Walmsley and Masoe did on Sunday may be replicated throughout the season and it won't be pretty to watch.

Personally I would have used some of the Sam money and bought Brough or Carney. And I would have brought over a seasoned NRL prop like Wire and Leeds have done. I'm a bit sick of losing seasoned pros and replacing them with kids.

Mossop - Flower
Amor - Walmsley
Hill - Simms
Peacock - Singleton/Cuthbertson
Casty - Lima

I wouldn't say where too far behind tbh. I'd say Wire and then Saints have the best pair of props.

If you add in the back row and 13 aswell.

Flower - Mossop - Farrell - Tomkins - O'Loughlin
Hill - Simms - Laithwaite - Westwood - Harrison
Amor - Walmsley - Vea - Greenwood - Wilkin

I don't think our pack is too shabby myself.

Having an experienced 6 would have been beneficial for one year max, if the three young lads aren't ready yet they aren't far off that's for sure.

Carney was a no go for anyone other than Catalan due to his previous convictions.

The wire pack looks the weakest of the ones above.

We're fine in the forwards. We have five players to go back in to that pack including the starting England second row and the England captain (and the leagues best player) as well as three prop forwards.

Offer me any pack in the league ahead of ours and I wouldn't swap it. We've been ordinary in 2 friendlies but I wouldn't write us off just yet! I only hope our rivals are dragged in to thinking we've got as many problems as some of our fans seem to believe.

3 yrs ago we beat Hudds in our second preseason friendly by 40 points, we all thought we'd walk the league. 2 weeks later when it mattered Hudds reversed that result, we went on to lose the next 6 or so too. Royce got the sack and our season was ruined.
Preseason friendly form means very little

It doesn't mean a great deal but I'd be excited as a Saints fan to think that you've got Walsh and LMS to come back in to that side. I said on your board a few weeks back I thought you were a big second rower away from looking pretty well rounded and in Greenwood I think you've got your man.

I'll be honest now, last year Saints got some unbelievable slices off luck to win the trophies they did but we've had that ourselves in the past (Wires injuries in the 2013 GF for example). This year though I'd put you as the team to beat with Wigan and Wire just in behind. I saw a weakness in that backrow that we could exploit but Vea and Greenwood have left me unsure on that. The rest of the side has no real question marks against it.

Im cautiously optimistic. Leeds will be very intersting this year, they look alot weaker

What happens in two years when Brough retires and Powell/Williams maybe haven't stuck around? We find ourselves constantly chasing after proven big signings and never get a settled halfback partnership. We used to take this short sighted approach in the early 00's and look where it got us. Maguire and Burrow aren't brilliant even by SL standards, and yet look what Leeds have achieved with them as a settled halfback partnership who know how to make the team tick. That is the approach I would look to emulate here with whichever combo of Williams/Powell/Hampshire/Smith we go with.

Why are you worried about 2017? I'm worried about what happens this season. You can plan all you like but things happen - injuries, loss of form, people buggering off to Australia.

You pick the best team available to you at the time. We all get too obsessed about having home grown players in the team, as if that gets you any extra points. It's a bit like 'motherhood and apple pie'. No-one questions the orthodoxy of - bring through your youngsters, preferably British and preferably local. The reality is much more complex.

I was reading the other day about our Challenge Cup win against Dewsbury in 1929. I was surprised to learn that even then we had 5 Welshmen in the team, 2 New Zealanders a Scot and a Cumbrian, with only 3 local lads.

I'm all for local lads doing well, don't get me wrong. But if you are serious about winning I'd rather have Leuluai and Barrett/Finch/Green in the halves than Williams and Hampshire.

If the youngsters leave, so be it, Wigan won't find it too difficult to attract decent players.

I don't care where they are from, I am talking about a settled halfback combination that we can build a team around, that's obviously not going to happen by signing a 32 year old.

We should be aiming at turning our success since 2010 into prolonged dominance similar to what Saints (13 SL/CC trophies '96-'0icon_cool.gif, Bradford (5 SL/CC trophies '00-'05) and Leeds (6 SL/CC trohpies '07-Present) have had in the past, I seriously doubt they achieved what they did by merely signing the best player available whenever anyone leaves and not thinking about long term planning.

They kept a settled spine of Long/Cunningham/Sculthorpe - Paul/Deacon/Lowes - Maguire/Burrow/Sinfield and it paid major dividends. The latter two of those combos are made up of players who barely broke into their rep teams (bar Robbie Paul) but they knew how to make the team tick, resulting in a heap of trophies.

I like the Woody Allen quote "If you want to make God laugh - tell him your plans!"

These things happen, they are very rarely planned. You pick the best players you can, you recruit the best players you can. The rest is down to luck.

Oh Wigan were renowned for being "the team of all nations" in that era. It was Wigan Highfield who played in the league from 1922 to 1933 that consisted of local lads.

During those periods I always rememeber discussing it around those times - Especially the Saints one and discussing that Saints had a steady 6/7 for Seasons 99 through to 2004/5 & Then Pryce came in and Same for another 4/5 years.

In that period we had
Smith/Florimo (That was a Big name that went down well BTW!)
Clinch/Smith (There's another name to Ponder when discussing short termism instead of long term planning)
Smith/Farrell
Peters/Farrell/Smith (Smith & Farrell seemed to split 6 between them that season)
Lam/Johns
Lam/O'Neill
Lam/O'loughlin
Robinson/Orr
Lam/Orr
Moran/Orr (Now then - Let's go out and get these Top Class Aussies again I hear you say!)
Moran/Brown
Dobson/Orr

Period covered 1999-2006 - 8 Seasons - Number of trophies = 1
11/12 half back pairings & Approx 16 half backs - Not inc. players that played occasionally such as Chester/Coyle/Reber (Shudder!) Nick Graham (Shudder!) Phil Jones etc.

Same period St Helens - 8 seasons - Number of trophies = About 8/9/10?
Martyn/Long
Long/Sculthorpe (Only when Martyn was injured?)
Long/Hooper
Long/Pryce (Who then went on to play together for a further 5 seasons (ish)

Bradford in same period basically had :-
Paul/Paul
Paul/Deacon
Pryce/Deacon

Trophies = 7/8?

Leeds established 2004/2005 through to 2012 (8 seasons)
Maguire/Sinfield
Maguire/Burrows
Maybe a bit of Dunneman early that period 2004ish
Trophies = 10ish?

Under IL
2 years of stability with Leuluai and Barrett set us up nicely IMO and then a Partnership of Leuluai & Tomkins was only broke up due Roberts injury and Tomkins Move to Full back that led to Tommy & Deacon playing together most of 2010 & 2011 with Finch thrown in 2012.
So 4 Half backs with Tommy a constant throughout in 6 seasons was a much more consistant period.
Smith & Green 2013 & 2014
7/8 seasons 4 half back pairings covering maybe 6 players Trophies = 5/6 (Dependant on LLS etc?) bearing in mind first 2/3 years was spent recovering from the issues of the previous 5 years or so I believe it was the stability of having Half backs (And Hooker & LF inc. in this) there for 2/3/4 seasons rather than 1 year and get shut and constantly chopping and changing that helped.