Unfortunate for Hall, he is one of our best attacking options, however against Wigan he was hopelessly exposed by a lack of sliding defense, he simply stood no chance. My biggest worry against Wigan was the way in which our pack was dominated, Dowes was hopeless, he was dominated in nearly every collision, Cusack was ineffective, Radford was a penalty machine, and o'meley was fighting a loosing battle. Definately time for a change in the pack, Moa in for Dowes for me.

Looking at the stats, and taking them with a pinch of salt, Dowes and Cusack are by far out least effective forwards, Cusack makes the fewest metres per carry, at less than 6, as expected Lauaki (9.09) and O'meley (7.69) top the list, in 3rd place is Moa with 7.38.

To add to that Dowes has missed 10 tackles and made 142, thats a miss every 14.2 tackles, fitz tops this list by a street mile with 265 tackles and only 5 misses (53 tackles/miss), Radford is next with 37 tackles per miss, then Yak with 21. In terms of penalties, Radford has conceded the most, at 4 in 5 games, fitz 5 in 6 but with many more mins, and manu with 4 in 6 games.

Suffice to say that in terms of going forward, Dowes and Yak are bottom of the pile, however, Yak can and does at least find he knees and elbows and get a good, quick PoTB. Added to the style of play, means that we make few metres, when Yak and Dowes are on, and we struggle to dominate teams. Moa in!!!

Agar plays Hall at full back in a really poor team and then drops him and sends him out on loan when there were far worse players than him. Hall plays on the wing and doesn't play well, but is no worse than other players and has looked one of our best attacking backs this season and then gets the chop when poorer players survive. Scapegoat.

As far as I'm concerned Whiting is primarily a centre too. He just happens to be able to step up successfully to other positions too. He has different strengths to Hall, but to infer that Whiting must always be first to lose his centre place simply because he adds to the squad in other positions if necessary is wrong.

I like Hall, btw. Just don't think he is a scapegoat on this occasion.

For some of the second half tries I would agree and have said as much. His defending of a couple of the first half tries was amateurish. Not saying I agree with Agar but the level of his defence was not good. I have said elsewhere he wasn't the only culprit.

Whiting should play whenever he is fit all this talk of utility is misleading, Whiting is a centre first and foremost. As for Hall I'd put him on the bench, he'd be far more use than Houghton but teams don't like to put backs on the bench anymore.

I haven't actually used the word 'scapegoat' as I'm not convinced that it's appropriate. This is the first time that Agar has had to choose between Whiting and Hall at centre, and I think it's more likely to be evidence of the way he prefers the centre to operate rather than a specific response to Friday. I find it disappointing but not surprising.

Whiting for me is a fine player, but primarily a Loose/Second Row forward who can fill in well in other positions, including centre. That's largely down to my preference for a centre to be a potent attacking threat rather than a more defence-oriented role, and I appreciate that others feel differently.

For me this is further evidence that Hall will never feature prominently in Agar's plans as his style simply does not fit the way Agar likes his centres to play. For his own sake, Hall should now be looking for alternative employment somewhere where he will get regular first team games in the position where he excels. I think we'll be the poorer for his loss, but if we're not going to use him anyway then there's not much point in him hanging around.

Lets get it right, out of position or not Hall had a poor game on Friday.

As far as this week goes, I would rather go for Hall at centre but Whiting started the season really well there and when he had to move to fullback then Hall scored a belting try at centre. So it's probably even between them in the centres this season so Agar has a choice of the two to make and has gone with Whiting. I don't have a problem with it as such but it's a choice of attack v defence. Hall is the better attacking option and Whiting is the better defensive one.

Whiting bombed a chance to put us level on Friday and his defence was very very suspect too. He played very poorly against Celtic and bombed 2 chances there. He's too slow to be a centre and his defence in the last 2 seasons hasn't been great either.

Poor decison IMO, looking at the Bradford centres of Nero and Sykes, Hall would have been perfect against them, his pace and footwork could have caused all kind of problems, they arent very good goign forward either so defence shouldnt have been a problem, not that Halls defence has been while playing at centre.

I also expect Moa not to play, think Agar is playing safe, which i dont like, too much like last season IMO.

Time will see (long term not short) if he has made the wrong decison.

I cant see Hall at Hull next year, and I wouldn't blame him, even if he went to Rovers.

If he leaves we need to look to sign a Winger and play Briscoe at centre next year.

I'd be very tempted to bring in Tuffour or Lyne now, Briscoe to challange for a centre position, I can't help but think the current battering he's getting on the wing is detrimental to his progress.
If Halls still at hull next year I'd be amazed.

Just not sure either are ready for the first team, Lyne looks the better player but is still too young to be playing every week IMO.

Lyne also played most of his junior career as a centre.

Not sure what the options are, the Raynor thing didnt help.

Need to look for winger for next year, I have changed my mind about Calderwood, he must be kept IMO for a year due to the lack of backs at the club.

True about Raynor, it makes you wonder what type of pay off he and king got and if we could bring in a targeted player now.
With regards to Tuffour he's 20 now and should be ready for a first team apperence but as was said Agars playing it safe.
Calderwoods a must resigning for me even if we do sign a new winger we still need 3 in the squad ready for first team duties.
It will be interesting to see who resigns in the coming months.

I think for this season i would stick with what we have, unless we get a few injuries. If we where playing Quins or Salford at home I would be tempted to give Tuffour or Lyne a game on the wing, keep Briscoe there for the moment, I think everyone knows that his big weakness is dealing with hight kicks, I know that he has been practising them this season, hopfully it will contiune to improve. I would be tempted to put Whiting as his centre partner, so he can help out or even swap them when we are defending in our half, so whiting can deal with the kicks.

I have heard that the club where interested in a winger for next year, think Aaron Murphy has been mentioned, but havent really seen him play, Richard Owen is OOC but is more of a FB, but has played on the wing a few times.

I certainly wouldnt use a quota spot on a winger, just feel that it is a Waste, unless it is a Vainkolo type winger.

I like Hall a lot, but Whiting deserves a shot. Lets not forget a couple of weeks ago, man of the match, (ok at fullback) but then dropped to the bench.

I hope that this is simply Hall being replaced by Calderwood. I think it probably is and we will see Hall back at centre sooner rather than later.

A harsh assessment -
1. that pass was rocketed behind him, hardly bombed. Who passed it? I don't think it's just Hall's defence that needs work.... but having said that, these are things that he can improve on.
2. Whiting scored a try against Wigan so his pace, whilst not the best, does not stop him being in the right place right time ([ia la[/i point number 1).
3. His defence is much better than Hall's - no debate. It's hard to judge his defence over the past couple of years becasue of injuries and the number of positions he has played. However this year, comparing him against arguably the best specialist, Keith Senior - Tackles Whiting 97, Senior 98; missed tackles 6:3. He doesn't seem to be doing so bad (obviously for some of those stats he was not at centre)