No coincedence that we are often a lot weaker and lose a lot of our go forward when Watts and Paea go off and are replaced with Bowden and Green? Maybe this could be offset with playing Green or Bowden from the offset and bringing one of Watts or Talyor on but Radford doesnt seem to want to play this way

Absolutely. It seems so obvious.

I actually thought bowden looked good on Thursday before his injury. He put in a great run shortly before it (May even have been injured getting tackled from that run). Seems to be picking up a lot of injuries though. green is OK in what he does but he doesn't do enough of it. He needs to be playing more minutes and putting more into games. As it stand, paea and watts do about 60% of the graft and the other 3 do the other 40%

There's 160 minutes of prop in a game. Watts, Taylor & Ellis could do that themselves tbh.

Your maths is as good as UptheCream's counting.

i would be interested to know what people think the likes of bowden and green compare to some of our past front rows like dowes, higgins and thackray (not the absolute 1st choice men like omeley, lynch and carvell)

I like Bowden , I think he could do well for us and kicks on , I'd put him infront of Green atm though .

Id compare Green to McNicolas and Bowden to, well nobody tbh. Hes the epitomy of average and one of the reasons we are where we are. I doubt he'd even get a club in the championship. One decent run a game (and we dont always get that) is Hitro Okesene territory

Don't talk silly, he is a solid prop,who so far hasn't lived up to his potential so far, bit injury prone aswell. Did really well in the games that Paea missed, but needs to be more consistent.

He will get signed by a few lower SL teams aswell as every championship club if available.

The props aren't a big problem for Hull if used correctly.

We are 2nd to Leeds in metres made, so forwards are generally doing there job.

I dont rate him Dave. Hes been playing first team two years + now and how many great games has he had? How many moments where hes amazed as i cant remember any and before you ask between sky, going to games even if it isnt may these days, highlights and press ratings i draw my opinion

Dowes was miles better. Bigger minutes. Better defense, Braver, Gave a lot more

He is ok, not as bad as you make out, my props would be

Watts
Taylor
Ellis
Green
Feka
Bowden

In that order, gives us a bit more balance than this year.

Big year (again) for green and Bowden form and injury wise.

Dowes was great in his early Hull career.

Ewan Dowes was an excellent prop back in the day. Circa 2005 he would have walked into any team. He faded after that, but for 2 or 3 seasons he was one of the best props in the league.

As for the front row now. I'm pretty happy with it. I've said before that the quality of Green's work is top notch, he just doesn't play enough minutes. Bowden does what he does. He's not brilliant, but he's no worse than most teams 4th/5th prop.

The big priority for the entire squad, not just the front row, is that we get a top hooker signed up. Preferably one that will spell Houghton rather than one that will watch Houghton finally keel over in exhaustion from the stands.

should be keep feka on - does he give enough to the team, fitness and injury concerns too. i like him but wonder if we could
get value elsewhere.

however salary cap probably prevents too much movement, we have greater needs elsewhere in the squad and as this is a front row thread i think we need a back up hooker as a bigger priority

Better than Higgins, not as good as Dowes. Depends which Thackray, he was brilliant for a year but pretty erratic for the rest.