anybody heard any rumours of ocarroll leaving? seen his twitter before and he had retweeted something ainscough said www.twitter.com/freddyocarroll

anybody heard any rumours of ocarroll leaving? seen his twitter before and he had retweeted something ainscough said www.twitter.com/freddyocarroll

or maybe i got the wrong end of the stick and he was going on about the operation he has just had ruling him out for the season?

yep.

Looks as though Deacon won't be hanging up his boot's just yet.

Meanwhile, win or lose on Saturday, Deacon is poised to extend his playing career.

He is coming to the end of the first year of a three-year contract as assistant coach and will sit down next week to put the finishing touches to a new playing deal.

"It's in the pipeline at the moment," he said. "I don't feel ready to hang up the boots, I'm hoping for another year.

"I've had a brief chat with Madge and he seems to want me to play again so we'll sit down after the final and try and sort that out."

rlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME

If that's true, I can only see us getting a new 9 if Sam's moved permanently to FB.

Personally i would be happy to see how MM and TL get on rotating at 9 for a season.

Only thing that concerns me about this is the disruption that would be caused if PD gets injured. Lets be honest, there is a pretty high chance of that happening.

Bad move if he is signed-on IMO. Then again i would be happy to be proven wrong.

If he gets injured then we would hopefully bring a youngster in to cover (Mellor) the same as if anyone else got injured. Or we would have the option of moving Sam into the halves.

I would hope Deacon would still only be 3rd choice HB.

That is true, but if it did happen i think TL would more than likely get put back in the halves, instead of getting a regular shot at 9.

Saying that mind, Sam could well partner Finch next year with Amos at 1 and Deacs acting purely as cover as you alluded to.

Which would be better IMO

agree with this, I still don't particularly like having Deacon in at 6, especially starting in a grand final. His kicking game might be good, but there's a reason Bradford didn't want to keep him around. You could see how much Leeds were targeting his defence and running right at him all game, Saints are just going to do the same, I hope we don't come unstuck

Considering we've been out-kicked in a lot of games this year, I'm delighted he'll (probably) be starting.

I thought he stood up to the tackling job pretty well to be honest. In fact when called on I think considering he has never been seen as a tackler he has done well all season in that department.

True, but only if he is fit enough to actually kick a ball.

He never really had the kicking duties against Leeds and TL / ST did most of the kicking.

And when he did kick donald shat himself and Joel scored. Deacon should be kicking every time when possible.

Spot on. If he plays he kicks imo If our kicking game is good that will make it very hard for Stains.

Timana Tahu's contract with the eels is up apparently, what does anyone think to getting him in?

He is 30 next few weeks but I reckon he's looked good in a poor eels team (from what I've seen), was doing very well up to the Origin incident and definitely has the class like George to do very well for the next 3 years.