pretty dejecting knowing it'll be Hoy and Lovodua/Houghton in the halves, and it must be pretty dejecting as a young player seeing underperforming players playing out of position getting a crack over yourself.

My prediction.
25. Davy Litten
5. Darnell McIntosh
,3. Carlos Tuimavave,
4. Liam Sutcliffe
2. Adam Swift
1. Tex Hoy,
14. Joe Lovodua,
30. Scott Taylor,
9. Danny Houghton
13. Brad Fash,
17. Cam Scott,
11. Andre Savelio
15. Joe Cator

12.Jordan Lane
10. Chris Satae,
20. Jack Brown, ,
33. Brad Dwyer

Smith has been quite consistent in his messaging about young players tbf, he has to feel they are physically ready for the rigours of SL rugby. Perhaps he doesn't feel some of them can handle it yet, you just have to trust his judgement.
That said, both Gardiner and Stavelely have featured so they must be considered ready so I really hope to see both of them in the team.

Having watched Dwyer, Lane and Lovodua, I'm sure they are ready for SL.

Will certainly be interesting to see who makes the 17 from the 21 man squad. Again disappointed that the club haven't brought Balmforth in to the fold to give him an opportunity considering we are without both Clifford & Trueman this week. Lane has been abject all season give or take the odd glimpse and Lovodua who unfortunately offers very little and Dwyer who other than the odd game as been disappointing yet still seem to be selected by TS.

Maybe there a reason that Balmforth isn't been selected due to the cap or other financial reasons but TS has consistently spoken about giving the young players an opportunity this season yet with 3 games to play and looking at the 21 squad there little evidence of it.

Maybe I'm just getting cranky but just starting to all feel a bit deja vu.

The general tone is cranky atm, understandably.
Perhaps I'm an eternal optimist or its just the relative youth of my 30s and I have this crankiness to look forward to.

I'm surprised we've not seen him this year. He looks physically capable of plaing SL. I guess centre has been a position we seem to have been okay at with Scott having such a good year. I assume we've got Wacokecoke next year too.

It looks like Newcastle will be relegated on Friday. I wonder if we bring Balmforth back for our last two games.

Cant say Balmforth is not physically ready to play 30 minutes off the bench.
Something not right here and i can only assume Smith doesnt rate him

I was more referring to the Reserve and Academy players howevee I agree about Balmforth in that I'd have expexted to see him at some point this season.
Could be any number of reasons though. Might be cap related, might be that the coaching staff think playing at Newcastle is better for his development than 20/30 mins off the bench or it might be that Smith doesn't think he is good enough yet.
They must think there is potential there though otherwise they wouldn't have kept him on another year.

I'm sure if the qualify for the Academy 18s and under they don't go on the cap, so I presume if Staveley and Blamforth play the go towards the cap. Staveley played in the cup which I don't think counts on the SL Cap, but would like to see Staveley or Jebson get a game on friday.

The Salary Cap only counts for the top 25 paid players at a club.

Not sure where Balmforth and Staveley fit with regards this.

If we are close to the cap with this squad someone wants sacking.

How does it work with the players we're released and not replaced with regards the cap?
Does whatever amount we've paid them off count?

Yes the payout counts.

The way round this, is to loan or free transfer out-of-favour players to other clubs (Championship Clubs too)

The players` wages then count on the other club`s Salary Cap.