Too right. Possibly four or five games before the relative merits of players and their performances can begin to be judged by the fans. Peter Gentle works with the players most days so is in the best position at this stage to know the possibilities.

A lot of people worrying about Arundels defence. He's known for being a great defensive player. He's played 1n a half games after a yr out nearly and shoulder surgery. 1it takes a few games to get confidence back into broken body parts and 2 will have been a little rusty to say the least.
I've probably seen 70% of all the games lineham has played in hull colours. He's raw and can get caught out defensively, and has fairly regular at 20s level. He's no doubt improving and last yrs 1st team run will have helped, but remember we were playing decent as a team so he got a fairly easy ride against mostly lower end opposition.
Don't get me wrong he's gonna be a superstar I think, physically most gifted winger in the league probably but no need to rush. Peter Gentle obviously sees it the same and has near enough said so on a few occasions.
Crookes will no doubt get destroyed in a blacklock hall n sharp kinda way though because it's not people's preference, and if he has 1 bad game the moron element of our fan base will try destroying n undermining him!
I personally think crookes could go well for us.

well said airlie bird

Just out of interest, who knows Arundel for being a great defensive SL player?

Why are folk considering Pitts/Johnson for the central role? It seems to me every season Whiting's performances are wiped out by a large number on here! On all known form, Whiting starts before either of these in this role. How anybody can even contemplate not doing this is beyond me.

Think gentle said it himself a couple of times, plus from talking to a few couple of players about him.

I don't rate his defence at all but I was meaning more with the ball you never see him taking a straight hit up to take some of the workload off of the props which is why Lynch and O'Meley looked out on their feet against Rovers as they didn't have any support from the 13.

Personally, it's because I think Whiting is better out wide. He runs good lines and is one of the best at the club at timing a pass when drawing the opposition cover defence to put a teammate in, so I'd like to see him rotate in the 2nd row.

He's so useful to us Carl that I wouldn't disagree. I would start him 2nd row and have Galea on the bench. The point I was making is that others don't have him in at all in favour of Pitts (how on all known Hull performances can this be?) and Johnson (who very few know anything about to make this sort of judgement call).

To me Whiting/Galea cover the 2nd row alongside Ellis who plays 80 and Green has to be on the bench as direct replacement for Ogre. One of Heremaia/Horne will be there for utility leaving a toss up between Johnson/Pitts for the final sub space.

I would like to see 4 forwards on the bench with Whiting providing the cover for the backs if needed, I seem to remember last year at the KC Gentle doubled up using Whiting and Manu on the left side very effectively against leeds, wouldn't be surprised if the back row didn't swap around each doing a short stint in the middle channel and running hard out wide (or at least that's what I would like to see).

This would mean no Heremaia. It was alluded to earlier that he could be a waste of a bench spot. I would go along with this too but I think we know PG won't.

I thought Pitts was very good against Cas, and have been told both he and Johnson played very well in the other 2 games. Johnson will be propping anyway, so I don't really see how his inclusion reflects on Whiting or people's thoughts on him anyway.

I wouldn't be against Whiting starting with Westerman on the bench, I mainly went with Westerman to start over Whiting because I think he's had marginally more game time than Whiting in preseason. I definitely wouldn't leave Whiting out altogether, though, I agree with you there.

From what I've seen and been told, the backrower who has made the least impact in preseason is Galea, but I don't see him being left out TBH.

I must see it completely different to you as I want him out wide because all I see him do is cart it up when he plays 13.

Will be disappointed if Pitts misses out. Seems to have put on some decent bulk in the off season, his work rate is massive and he's a clever player, much like Whiting. Oh, and it's his ex club.

I would possibly agree if our half back pairing had at least had a few games playing together. Since we don’t know for sure how well they will go, I think we need Heremaia or even Horne on the bench.

Leeds could well be stronger in the halves, so we might need to mix it up a bit.