I think one problem we do have which may have been overlooked is the fact that we don't have any natural centres at the club aside from Chamberlain, the following have all played centre at some point this year:


Chamberlain- actual centre
Hardaker- played most of career at full back but made a late transition to centre
Barron- Winger
Briscoe- Winger
Rapana- Winger/Fullback
Litten- Fullback


Out of all the above the only one with any real size and pace is 35 year old Tom Briscoe. We need some real size and strike in the centres, looking at players like Nui and Hanley at Leigh, Wardle at Wigan, King and Tai at Wire etc... our centres don't carry that same threat.

It's not a late transition for him, in fact im sure he started out as a centre at Leeds and played mostly at centre since he signed for Wigan. I would argue he is an actual centre, a better option at full back than Rapana but sadly is our best option in the back row until Lane and Cartwright are cleared to play.

I'd like to see Litten go to 1, Rapana to centre whilst Will Pryce is out, Davy still raw in centre but his one on one tackle was shocking Friday. 

All I can say is Lasty got stuck into all of them at training yesterday regarding the players attitude of believing we only had to turn up against Cas and win. My thought exactly I think we believed our own hype after beating Catalan and then put in a dreadful performance, still think we are building and there will be bumps in the road(Huddersfield at Magic and Castleford at home).

It was definitely an attitude thing, the little things we've been doing well this season weren't there, we made Milnes who's shocking look like Nathan Cleary. Things like decent line speed, kick chase and kick pressure were non-existent and our kicking was probably the worst its been this season. Our contact in defence was appalling, they looked knackered after 20 mins.

Litten doesn't have the passing game for full back, I'd put Moy there first (although it's also an area for development for him).

Litten is slow off the mark too and was exposed a few times in defence when he played FB previously.  The club obviously see him as a centre, not a FB so we'd likely see moy there before him but it's a moot point as we'll go with briscoe and litten in the centre and rapana at FB.


Cartwright seems loyal and the type of coach who will stick with players

Yeah I agree with the bottom part. I see him as the type who has let the players know his feelings about Friday, but rather than just start dropping players straight away he will give them a chance to put things right again this weekend. Maybe if a few players underperform again he might then ring a few changes, but I see him going with an unchanged team. Possibly Watts back in for Laidlaw (who I don't think has done bad at all (very solid defensively)) but Watts will strengthen the bench (if fully fit)

If anyone from the forward pack is to be dropped it's Ashworth imo. Thought he was atrocious against Cas, almost walking the ball in a lot and quite often just passing the ball on instead of taking it in. 

Don't think Ashworth will be here next season

Looked like he's been told he won't be getting a new contract to me.

A positive move from the club if true and evidence we're moving in the right direction.  Ashworth has shown glimpses of what he can do but isn't consistent enough for me.  We need players in the forwards who are 7 or 8 out of 10 week in, week out, not 9 one week and 5 the next.


For me every player we sign now needs to be either better than the player they replace in the squad or someone good enough for a team challenging for trophies - preferably both