My team for tomorrow
1. BJB
2. Tom Johnstone
18. Joe Arundel
25. Craig Hall
14. Reece Berlin
6. Jacob Miller
7. Liam Finn
11. Mika Simon
24. Stu Howarth
10. Anthony England
19. Jonny Molloy
13. Anthony Tupou
16. Tinirau Arona

20. Mikey Sio
26. Chris Annakin
17. Matty Ashurst
27. Ant Walker

Scruton wouldn't get a game at Eastmoor for me, although we all know BS will pick him and Walker will be the one to miss out.

You say that like Smith picks his favourites. The very fact that he started with Tupou on the bench and dropped Scruton, Anderson, Gibson and plays 3rd choice Howarth over Sio because he is playing so well proves he picks what he thinks is the best team to me.

Bit confused with Scruton, he was actually in the 19 to face HKR, but obviously didn't play, wonder if he failed a fitness test? Anywayyyy, my team would be;

BJB
Johnstone
Hall
Arundel
Lyne
Miller
Finn
Scruton
Howarth
England
Molloy
Tupou
Arona

Simon
Sio
Annakin
Walton

Will be interesting if he picks Hall ahead of Walton.....

PopTart, I think you will find Anderson is injured and hasn't been dropped. And I don't get what you are saying about Howarth being picked over Sio.... It's a 17-man game and Howarth is more suited to start the game whilst Sio is more suited coming on and adding impact.

The point is, he hasn't just stuck with his favourites.

And how would you know who his favourites are

Deep sigh.

Anyway, I do worry about putting Hall in the centre inside Johnstone. Both have had their defensive issues (though Johnstone had an outstanding game defensively last time out. I wonder whether Walton would be better against the likes of Atkins and Lineham

Johnstone is not a weak defender . Anyone who has played the game will tell you it's his inside defenders that's the problem .a winger gets made to look stupid cos of this . You don't actually see Tom miss many one on one's just see him out of position which isn't his fault . If he stayed on his wing then there would be a massive gap for any centre to go through . He can't win really can he

I'll give you that Fin has a good goal kicking game - buts the rest of what you say, nah.

As for Miller, can we really afford to continue to experiment with someone at 6 whose only strength is his running? I think he'd be a class centre, he did alright at fullback when asked, but doesn't really have much else in his locker. If he has, he's yet to show it. Pretty much all SL teams except us have a halfback pairing that has more than one or two qualities.

10/1 on friday, for anyone who fancies it

Finally there is someone on this forum who speaks sense!

"Defensive issues" is not the same as can't tackle.
I absolutely agree with you that the centre and second row/half back inside him make a big difference........however he has equal responsibility.
You can't jut say the other guy was out of position so I had to be and therefore mised the tackle. You have to work as a partnership and that includes him.
Putting him with Hall......in my opinion, is not a good partnership. But we'll see.

And just to be pedantic. I've played the game, but I was a long way from the wing. Playing the game does not tell you the defensive structure of the centre wing partnership.
Personally, in my time watching rather than playing, I think it's the hardest position to defend. especially the high ball and overlaps where all eyes are on you.

What do you want them to do? Hold hands?? Quite clearly if the guys inside him aren't doing their job then what can Tom do about it?? Other than get sucked in which leaves space down the touchline.

The thing I get the most frustrated about watching Wakefield this year is our slow defensive line speed, which looks like it enables opposition attacking plays to be have more fluidity enabling an easy overlap for the fullback and wing combination. Though Hull KR did not exploit this as much as say Castleford did, it is still a worry for me personally.