No other coach in SL would play Whiting on the wing. Every other coach in SL would play Whiting in the back 3 and anyone with a brain would give him some responsibilty with the ball. He had a bad night the other night as did quite a few others but once again he had to cover a lot of ground cos Turner didn't read the play when they scored from the quick tap.

Lauiki goes. Never ran his weight apart from his debut and is a penalty machine.
Washy goes, he wouldnt get near any top 8 sides starting 13. The one time the other night he had to catch the ball and pass it outside he dropped it. He can only go in one direction!
Turner goes, not good enough for me at the highest level.
Dowes goes, good servant and not had many chances but we need some real presence off the bench.

Rubbish, Whiting for some reason decided to shoot out of the line at Atkins even though all his inside players were in slide defence as proved by Turner getting close to Riley.

Lets face it, if as PG has said he wants to make us a top 2 side, who out of that starting 13 would be good enough to keep??
For me only
Briscoe, Yeaman, Houghton, Moa, O'Meley, Westerman.

Hopefully a big clear out in the next few seasons.

You can add Manu to that list too, they are the 'spine' of the team that we should build around.

the rest have had their chances, or haven't ever been good enough.

Whiting is versitile but the wing position stretches his abilities. He has come in and done a good job there at times against players like Richards for defending the jump but to put him against an out and out speedster is risking it. Hence why he tried to shoot out of the line early.

I think Whiting and Washy should be ok as squad players if we get a good core 1,6,7,9 going next year. This will improve everyone's game and give us more structure, communication and set play/dummy runner options. Not every player has to be a star. If we get playing the right way, blooding young players in a successful team becomes easier and then success breeds success.

See Melbourne Storm: strong core 1,7,9,11(Blair). Some old warhorses and some promising youngsters and they are breeding SOO/internationals in all positions. Duffie, Widdup, Nielsen and Proctor not being far off.

Whiting is a great club man and a good back up player because he is generally safe as houses but he doesn't have speed and quality we need to challenge the teams above. Does anyone think he would walk into the starting 17 for the top 6 sl teams? I don't think he would. To be honest I'd rather send him elsewhere and have quality players with the back up players being Cunningham, Green, Aldous, Kent and a couple of other youngsters. That's what Saints, Wigan, Leeds and a few other SL clubs do. Get rid of the average and have a balance of quality and youth. Harsh but I think it needs to be done. I'd say bye to sharp, dowes, lauaki, radford, phelps, burnett, obst and whiting. Full on clear out!

How on earth can you say get rid of Whiting and then list half a dozen totally untried youngsters as the back up?

Personally I would add Tickle and Manu to your list.

The key word there is untried! Give them a go and see what they can do I say. As stated look at the amount of youngsters other SL teams bring through. It puzzles me because the junior leagues and under 18's and 20's tend to be competitive and strong. We might find a couple of hidden talents.

I agree.

What we have to consider is how would certain players improve with better coaching ?
Would Washy improve if we had a coach who would bring the best out in him, by playing to his strengths instead of dumping into whatever position is vacant that week.

A new coach and Bomber will no doubt be going throught he squad and marking up people for the chop. Most of those already mentioned will be on there way

Cant believe i forgot big willy
totally agree

Fook me. We usually have to wait at least until the off season before the clamour to get rid of Whiting begins. I don't know what the bloke has to do for some people to see his worth. Even if you don't rate him as a starter when everyone is fit, he's one of the best players to have for cover in the entire British game.