He is a good player no doubt BUT at Cas he was seen as a great prospect until he started to think he was better than he was and started taking liberties and stopped putting the effort in.

Justin Morgan saw something in him and brought him to Hull KR and he was top notch for the first 1 1/2 season until again his attitude started to emerge when he started to become a liability on and off the pitch (Willie mason once called him a 'Galah' which coming from Mason makes you wonder, He left the scene of an accident etc).

He transfers to Hull FC and is again top notch but he has dropped off those levels again.

I hope he ends up finding his form again because he is great to watch when he plays well not matter who he is playing for but history points to what his reaction is once he has his feet under the table and it isn't that.

Surely it takes more out of the defence having to stop big heavy 19st blokes. You only got to look at Bradford when they was a force. They had Vagana, Meyers, Radford, Peacock, Fielden, Morley, Lynch all in the same squad. Those blokes are have got to have an advantage over a light mobile set of forwards?

That's one of the most mobile packs ive seen! Were did Gentle say he wanted a lighter pack?

Oil barges could turn quicker than those lot.

They all just had brute force with the sheer weight of them.

Maybe people are looking at it more by who he has signed rather than what he has said ?

For example the signings of Pitts @98Kg (who Gentle did say he thought was a front rower) and Johnson @99Kg perhaps led people to believe that he was happy to play lighter forwards than previously. These two in particular are a fair bit lighter than the 104/105Kg+ of Lynch/OMeley etc. Bowden would appear to be our heaviest forward @108Kg but hasn't had a lot of game time.

A lack of size is a problem, I can't disagree with that but our forwards have been competitive in most games.
The lack of creative, skilfull half backs is THE problem.

We have several problems and size is definitely one of them. Look at Hudds they have size right across the park. You can't always have it in the backs I accept that but our forwards should be monsters. We must improve the size of our pack.

I also think we have too many similar players in the back row, we need some strike off the bench.

Galah. I like that word.

Birds, an idea for the upcoming hunks thread.

I'm already thinking superheroes. Whiting is Superman. Biggs is Thor. Ellis The Crimson Chin. Got legs, this one.

Ooh, yes. Lineham the Silver Surfer, O'Meley is Thing. Young Shaul is Peter Parker swinging up the pitch. Cockayne is Dick the new Robin.

Size is not the problem it is about strength, technique & aggression. Watts appears to gone backwards in all 3 areas for me. We have not replaced Moa since last year and we will certainly miss O'Meley.

I seriously doubt you will miss O'Meley with the arrival of Paea.

As a replacement I agree, however it would have been a treat to have both, or two similar quality players.

I'm not sure if that strengthens or weakens your argument. Watts has clearly lost some size (probably the most notable in the entire squad), so that's quite possibly a big factor in why he's gone backwards.

Mediocre was probably badly worded on my part. What I was trying to say was that he came on like he could be the next big thing then his application seemed to go downhillHis technique became seemingly lazy and he became a penalty machine, laying on too long and struggling (or not trying hard enough) to win the collision so leaving hands in. It was certainly not down to ability but almost as if he wasn’t putting in the hard work in training, becoming complacent?? This was backed up by Sandercock not even picking him (and the rumours around his attitude being off) then his ultimately being allowed to leave without a fight.
I’ve not seen enough of him this year (only your tv games and the derbies) but what I have seen seems very reminiscent of his latter months with us. Must admit I thought he’d bucked his ideas up in his first few months with you.