Do you know how much he is earning? I would imagine we will be paying Ali for example, alot more than him? i dont know for sure, just guessing. I may be wrong and so be it, i just wondered if you know for sure as you seem pretty certain he is on "top dollar"

Defensively solid players always get the stick. His tackle stats dont lie. I would also like to see him on the field more, but if you are going to use him as a battering ram down the middle, that is what you will get.
For me he is doing exactly what i thought he would before he arrived just for less minutes.He doesnt look as fit as i would like, but maybe they are trying to bulk him up??

If you were expecting a Clyde, Watmough like player you will be dissapointed. If you were expecting a solid defensive second rower who has then been asked to play out of position, i think he has been there or there abouts.

I heard an interview with Southern on Radio Leeds a couple of weeks ago and he said that he was struggling a bit to settle.
He said this was not due to the club, whoe were doing everthing to help, but mentioned that his partner was struggling to settle abnd he inferred that
this was not helping his rugby.
Je seemed pretty genuine and also said that it was up to him to sort himself out.
In fairness he went well against Catalan and along with the rest of the team was poor on Saturday night.
We just have to hope that Saturday was a blip and that Southern will find his form.
He is a quality, no nonsense player and he can certainly do a great job for us. Lets hope he can sort himself out and in turn this will lift the team.

fair comment. i'm not having a go at him, i just think that if we're paying over £80k for a player, then it should somebody game changing - or at least somebody that gets more game time.

i fear that we've seen this before, and that we have an nrl player that won't see his contract out because of personal reasons. how many women would want to travel half way round the world and have their first child away from their support network?

You entitled to your opinion as is everyone on this forum and im not saying your wrong im saying that i think different and im sure alot of people agree with you just as some will agree with me.Sorry if i came across abit rude, The point i was trying to get across is is a forward really known for been fast and scoring tries ? Not many people really appreciate the work these guys do and it often goes unnoticed, Yeah southern is nothing fancy but hes there to make the hard yards, Tire the oppositions pack, and tackle like a machine. The guy is hard as nails and never takes a backwards step and very rarely comes up with an error.Nothing fancy but gets the job done.

If you want to question player payments try Wilkes and Ellis first.

The Wilkes one crossed my mind too as i know he left to go to London for alot more money, more than double what we were offering. He may have taken a drop to come back, i dont know??

As for Southern, he was playing reserve grade over there. I cant see him getting mega bucks. Wont be the highest earner, but wont be at the lower end either. I would imagine that the players that had other offers ie, Ali, Mellars, Wilkes, Ellis, Fox & maybe Smith will be the higher earners. With maybe Raleigh & Kirmo not far off having come from Ken Davy's payroll.

Like i say, its all guess work. Irrelevant of what any of them are paid. Saturday was not good enough.

Trying to guess wages is not very helpful - they're paid somewhere between what they and the club thought they were worth when the negotiations took place.

All that matters is that Saturday's display is proven to be a blip, when they go out on Friday night and play with effort, endeavour and sufficient enthusiasm to play a jaded Cas side off the park; if not, I'll worry.

he is not on 80k , i doubt any of the other guys are.

have you ever been in the superbowl car park and seen their cars???????????

very few superleague players earn 80k i would say around 10% earn that or more at a push.

to put things into perspective i know for a fact that when winterstein signed for us he earnt 32,500 pro rata for his short stay.

the vast majority of our squad will be earning between 20 - 40k

do the math 20 players x 25k = £500,000

what is our turnover? cant be more than 1.5 million ?


Simples

Yes, he does look jaded, didn't know about his wife and baby, he does look tired and maybe needs a paternity break for a couple of weeks. He looked well battered in the post match interview. We certainly don't want another Tronk scenario. Probably the wrong choice as captain as he is playing an alternative role and not on the field enough.
Mainly, the half backs need to spark to take the pressure off him and others.

Lauititi was a poor mans version of Solo, at the moment with injuries and fitness I think I'd rather have ali.

Southern should possibly be back on the bench with Kirmond & Lauititi in the second row. Think like alot of others Southern looks unfit although not as bad as what Hickey was last season. If he is carrying an injury then rest him completely and get him and Collis right. If personal problems then 2 weeks off at least is a must.

Ellis tackles like a machine aswell and gets good yardage from dummy half and if he can be incorporated in the 17 with Aiton to loose and Washbrook on the bench then why not? Somone earlier mentioned 3 hookers in the team but Wood could interchange with Ellis and keep Aiton on at loose for the full 80 with his tackling technique.

Need to concentrate on the ruck area as that has been one re-emerging trend in the season so far along with the inability to deal with the high ball on our own try line. I'm sure R.A. is banging his head against a brick wall in training week in/week out working on these issues.

They were great against Catalan and Warrington so one week doesn't make a bad team.

Anyone describing Southern as class / quality needs there head looking at and should watch some 1/2 decent teams to understand what class is. I'd describe Westwood, Wilkin etc as Class / quality some might say world class.

The difference between Southern and individuals like Westwood is huge...

Southern is an average import that does a job plodding in, and some good defending nothing more nothing less.

We have very few class players at Wakefield.. Fox / Smith (on his day), Aiton, Amor, Ali Southern is certainly not one of them.

The only 'class' players we have are Tim Smith and Paul Aiton. Southern is a grafter much like Duncan McGillivary and Monty Betham. The problem is that we have too many 'grafters' in our team who are tied to our club! We gave 3 year deals out willy nilly, including one to a player who has not played this season at all.

At this moment in time I'd describe McGillivary & Betham to be head and shoulder above Southern..

Im not writing him off just yet but needs to up his game like a lot of other players...

There are others in the team who I am more worried about than Southern, every team does need a grafter or two I appreciate he has his value. I am more concerned that strike players aren't firing, Vince Mellars looks crap and ineffective and has an inability to pass to his winger. Issac John...well, I don't know! Cockayne has been rewarded with a 2 year extension despite conceding more points than he has scored. Fox is as ever suspect in defence.

We have Wildie, Tony and Ellis rotting in the reserves and I am thinking we need to give them the chance, could they do any worse?