I'd have to agree. The last time we finished above Saints in the league was in 2004 and they do make more finals than we do even if they have been off the boil a bit in recent seasons.

Who would you drop for BJB? Shaul, Talanoa or Lineham? Or have him as back up? Doubt he'd come as that.

He's better then the three players you've mentioned so I guess any one of them

No he's not.

HTH

According to The Dentist's Diary, We were in for Walsh & Chase, but were outbid, could see same scenario ,with Dobson.

Another rumour is, we're after is Leuluai, which IMO- isnt the answer.

Talanoa I'll give you, because of his lack of pace, but I wouldn't swap Shaul or Lineham for BJB.

I wouldn't say Talanoa or BJB are better or worse than one another. Talanoas pace isn't ideal and his only real let down imo apart from that he's pretty spot on. BJB isn't exactly lightening fast either but hasn't got the work rate or aggression Talanoa has.

BJB would get game time though seeing as Lineham misses plenty of games due to injury.

Be a great signing, certainly need another winger unless Crookes proves us all wrong in the next few games.

I don't like to have too much money tied up in wingers though. Lineham and Talanoa are both good wingers and would be ahead of BJB imo. I'd rather give one of the youngsters a chance insted of spending a wedge on BJB for him to warm the bench.

Without a doubt. I just think he'd be too good to have as a squad member same goes for the other two. There all too good not to be first choice. Sign him, great signing but sign him and he barely plays. We've got a player who'll be on big money not playing and probably frustrated. Don't get me wrong I'd love us to sign him just can't see it happening. I think we'll stay as we are with wingers.

Shaul
Talanoa
Sa
Crooks
Lineham

Is very good, just need out halves to settle and I think we've got a very good team imo.

Fair point about big salaries for wingers, not sure we have a young kid coming through just get, although there us a very exciting prospect coming through, but maybe a bit too young, but think he might get promoted to the first team next year. Be good to produce a homegrown winger, something neither Hull team has managed to do for many years.

So think we may have to look outside the club, but maybe it should be a young winger with potential.

We produced a home grown winger a few years ago, just not a very good one.

Reece Lyne.

And there is the crux of my opening post, I just don't think Houghton is ever going to be good enough a distributor from the dummy half position to allow our halves to get things going as other teams do.
I don't think there is a huge amount of difference between most teams halves, just that other aspects effect how much space/time they have directly after the first/second pass from the PTB.
As has been seen, with Houghton there this restricts us a fair bit and puts that extra split second of pressure on the halves to do something especially when the top teams defences are bearing down on you.

As for Whiting, I appreciate those that are saing he's being played out of position, however when he has played in the pack he has made a lot of mistakes and given loads of cheap penalties away. I'm not saying he should go this season but unless he can nail a spot ahead of Thompson we seriously need to be saying if he isn't good enough to play other positions now (& at centre he is even more woefully short on pace) then is his much vaunted utility value is no longer there..and we should be going down the route of having specialist players even if from the u21s (or whatever it's going to be called squad)

If you'd seen Walsh 2 or 3 years ago you wouldn't have been so enthusiastic
Was very poor in a poor Penrith team.
Ivan Cleary took over , transformed the pack & Wash blossomed
Had a brilliant final season.
When Hulls pack dominate as against Hudds, the halfbacks are fine.
When the pack `bottles it' as against Rovers - its the halfbacks fault

To be honest when Hull were first looking at Walsh, I was underwhelmed.He was far from being a "class" half back many times I saw him. His game picked up in his last season for the Panthers though.
Knowing our luck Miller will really kick on next year when he's in the last year of his contact!.
As for Cooke returning, all good for me if he helps bring success to the club.