Connors not coming back. He'll be on marquee money at hudds

I can't see Balmforth being with us next year. As pointed out by others, a succession of coaches have overlooked him now. Even Cummins has enforced the decision to overlook him saying that he's not ready but even that logic goes out the window when he says things like he's young and inconsistent and he's fighting for the position with Danny Houghton. It's not stopping them giving other youngsters a run out despite some of their inconsistencies (something that Cummins admits is natural due to their ages and development). And we can all see that DH is not the player he was and needs spelling better so surely there's an opportunity there to give him a run out. Add in the fact the we all suspect DH is retiring at the end of the season and it just seems so strange that the club isn't trying to give him game time to get him ready to step up.

His face doesn't seem to fit for some reason.

I hear from a reliable source (sorry cannot say who) that it’s an attitude issue more than anything else. No doubting the lad’s ability but keeping it there is another thing. Don’t shoot the messenger!
I’ve nothing against DB and would like to see him progress with us.

Any coaches that persist in Danny doing 80mins aren't worth listening too imo.

Give DB a go he cannot be worse than what we are getting.

Fishface
Attitude is just another negative to add to all the others like unfit,switches off,or not ready, yet even these second rate coaches we have now in charge say Balmforth has what we need like fast play the ball and speed from dummy half.
Funny that because isnt that exactly what we are looking for.
My take on it is that no one at the club has the balls to drop Houghton given he is a club legend and there is more to the Balmforth situation than whats been reported.
If it is attitude then given how he has been overlooked so many times would you blame him.

Houghthas been a very good player and will go down in memory for tackle 52 but isn’t a Legend imo.His tackling game is 2nd to none but had never had the attacking game to put him up there with the top hookers.

This is part of the problem as to why we are in the position we currently are. We'd rather flog a player who's seen better days, persist with him rather than try someone different.

still say there is no one at the club prepared to say to Houghton sorry Danny but your dropped and we are going to try something different

Il play devil’s advocate here….If Danny knows he’s “gone”…and let’s be honest he is…Why doesn’t he hold his hand up and say lads,I’m done or is he happy to be flogged for 60+ minutes a game and pick up his wages no matter the result…..could this season tar him a bit given what he has achieved at the club…like I say,playing devil’s advocate and be interesting to see what other posters think.

Harsh to say a player who has clocked up 450 appearances for us isn't a club legend

All a matter of opinion Jake…just think legend is bandied about too easily

First of all, Danny will rightly be remembered as a legend for the club in my opinion. You don't play the amount of games he has for the club and not get classed in the legend category. Throw in the fact that he was part of that team that finally won at Wembley and that monumental tackle plus his Man of Steel award... if he's not getting legendary status then I don't know who is.

There's some good points made here about whether anyone at the club has the guts to tell him he's done, does he know he's done, and will it tarnish his achievements. I think that agree with the first one. We've seen coach after coach keep flogging him for 80 minutes for a number of seasons (60 this year) and I think we have all seen that's been detrimental to him for awhile now which obviously raises the question as to why the coaches can't see that or don't want to see that. The same could be said for Danny himself. Sometimes it's hard to see your own faults so maybe he's in a bit of denial and thinks he's still offering as much as he once did (certainly not knocking his effort by the way, that's still clearly there for all to see) and he needs someone higher up to make that call. As for tarnishing his reputation, it is possible that it might do that in the short term but I think in the long term people will just remember the good stuff and won't be remembering that he maybe played on too long.

I can understand houghtons friends fighting his corner , but legend he isn’t . How do you become one when you haven’t played 1 game of international rugby , or is it based on his defence which has been exceptional. He’s been flogged because he can do 80 minutes, because of his limitations, and also because we’ve never looked at anybody else , probably because he’s hull born . Decent player and a good person but legend , why ! We’ve had a lot better hookers but not called legends over the years , or does that only happen when you’ve played a certain amount of games !

Our only ever man of Steel? How do you define legend?

It shouldn't based on international caps, the international game is a joke.