When I've watched Manu iv not seen him battered ever.one tough hombre as Stevo would say.Oloughlin plays 13 whilst never at 100 percent.Think nowadays the fashion is to play an extra prop at 13.you had a ball playing 13 in Westy and he wasn't in long term plan that is probably why Abdull shipped out cos Radford certainly didn't see him as a superleague halfback

sheens must give atkins a go agaimst Halifax he may be the answer for an astute kicking game ,and creativity, minns, Heffernan, greenwood, carney, clark plus a couple of quality additions, you have suddenly got a different outlook on things.. hopefully,, want Halifax through but think we will win on sunday

Westerman is a big bloke though and does a big shift in defence. abdul just isn't physically up to it so you'd be putting extra pressure on the other forwards

Then your defensive patterns (and I don't mean Hull's I mean whichever team) need to reflect what players you're playing in what positions.

It could warrant a whole new thread on the players that Rover's have on their books (and I might start it but I'm a bit busy) about who should be playing where, but there is real fact that we have a massive amount of players but do we have real quality?

And that's down to Sheens.

Journalist John Davidson says we have 3 or 4 still to sign for the Middle 8s and plenty of cap spare. People should take time to digest these signings and consider the fact we have won this competition at a canter with a far weaker squad than will be fielded when it matters.

Not sure I agree. Can't be d to research players heights and weights but I'd say not much difference between the 2? Abdull certainly has shaped up since his arrival.Quite ironic I'm defending a hull player against a hull fan .I don't want him as a half but at present he is our best option.This situation may change if you believe the rumours. To put it in perspective I like Donaldson for us and until his injury he was probably our best forward but he is probably a squad player in superleague at loose man.Abdull offers more at 13

No Jim Davidson jokes or Salford Kiyan will be on throwing a tantrum again

On a Jim Davidson theme I heard snooker loopy song on the radio the other day and disturbingly remembered all the words to it

westerman 6ft 4 and 107kg and abdul 5ft 11 and 101 kg according to club websites but it's not just wieght, it's having your body physically conditioned to playing in the middle of the field over a number of years. Having seen both play plenty I stick to my original views that abdul is 2 or 3 years away from being ready to play at loose man in SL. Defensively he just isn't ready yet and will be a real weak link if sheens does play him there. warrington in particular would have a field day against a weak middle defence

Thought Abdull was over 6 ft looking at him compared with our forwards. I see now where I went wrong

This has always been my argument against Abdul playing 13 too. A lot of Hull fans want to see him at 13, and I can understand why, he's built like a forward, he's got lots of skill, and fits the Knocker/J.Smith/Cooke mould we've seen in the past at Hull.

However, Hull's 13 as it currently stands needs to make 15-20 hit ups a game doing the hard yards and do a shed load of tackling, and I'm not sure he's physical ready for that yet.

The thing is at Hull would he need to do that, you have a team that are primarily all built like forwards, your wingers take a lot up as do the props and 2nd rowers, Griffin as a centre is also capable of running it in hard. Why do you then need to flog the loose as well, let him play the extra pivot role with more of a freedom to take on the line.

The team top of the league have a relatively light 13 in the shape of Milner and he seemed to be doing ok.

Shock, I agree with the Rovers fan above. Hull need to play a pivot at 13, as Shaul doesn't have the skill set to do that. We can "sacrifice" a prop at 13, for a pivot due to the size of the backs

They do, but Milner has been conditioned over the years to playing down the middle, and isn't used in the same way, he's not used as a pivot. Conditioning is different to size. You can be the biggest bloke on the pitch, but what use are you if you're blowing after 10mins?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Abdul at 13 for Hull, it'd massively improve our attack. I agree with Wilde that by having Shaul at FB, we don't have a 3rd pivot, and our attack suffers for it.

My point was, the way Radford sets up the team, Abdul isn't quite ready to fulfil the 13 role at Hull. Could we change to a ball player loose? Yeh of course.