Academy players in our starting 17? Not enough, yet. At a guess there'll be Shaul, Lineham, Yeaman (inevitably) Houghton, Hadley, Green, Bowden will all play at least 15 games injuries permitting. Then there's probably 4 or 5 others that will probably get half a dozen games, the likes of the England academy captain Jansin Turgut, Lancaster, Logan, Abdull and maybe a Tyson-Wilson or two.

Ben Crooks was beyond our control really, thought he was the complete player after one season and thought he didn't need to put the effort in.

Not sure where you got the impression Hull are the leading light in this area? I'd reckon that goes to Wigan, Leeds & Saints. Wouldn't you?

Ok, you can have it on a technicality, not really important is it?

Hadley, Green & Bowden will only feature to that extent if your imported forwards are injured, which is what I assume you mean by "injuries permitting". The rest can be discarded, as "half a dozen" games doesn't meet your 15 games a season criteria which we established yesterday was the benchmark.

Are you a politician, so our starting 17 is worked on everybody being fit all year, yours is worked out on evrybody being injured for 15 games a year. I'll reiterate if you had no injuries you'd have a max of 4 in a starting 17 that has 8 imports.

They're amazing these forums. If you come on here its all about FC and if you go on the FC one its all about Rovers.

I reckon if fit, Green will play just about every game, our props are Paea, Watts and Feka, with Green and Bowden fighting for the 4th spot.

Firstly didn't Lineham come from York? Hull will have Houghton, Yeaman and Shaul as first choice starters with the rest competing and hopefully(for them) making strides later in the year. Rovers will have Green and Cox on our starting 17 with the likes of Welham and salter very close and as with FC the rest hopefully pushing on during the year. On to topic my first choice 17 would be
Dixon
Sio
Goulding
Blair
Manatello
Campese
Kelly
Weyman
Carille
Walker
Larroyer
McCarthy
Donaldson
Bailey
Cox
Green
Boudebza
Possibly Horne in there on bench

I very rarely come on this board, but can someone just tell me who our 8 imports are please? Unless I've missed someone I count only 7 (and one of those probably won't be in our first choice 17). I reckon it's likely that we'll have a minimum (not maximum) of 4 academy players in our first choice 17 (Shaul, Lineham, Houghton, and Green or Bowden - I'd personally go with Bowden), maybe 5 depending on Yeaman (I wouldn't include him but think Radford might), likely 5 (or 6 with Yeaman) most weeks with Cunningham, and maybe as many as 7 with Hadley taking the bench spot over Thompson & Whiting.

Contrary to some recent giddiness from swallowing a bit of Pearson's 'Hull is awesome' bluster and some junior rep selections, this isn't actually that much (any?) better a situation than we managed a around the cup win years, but it is a damn sight better than we saw under Agar and at least seems to be heading back in the right direction.

Wrong forum, doofus.

Agreed. Still amazes me how Kath Hetherington pulled it off. Talk about perfect timing.

No, it's not. As long as they're not injured, the players I listed will play at least 15 games in 2015.

Why do you think I listed the 'half a dozeners' separately? Deary me.

Hadley, Green & Bowden will play at least 15 games each, Hadley will be our bench 2nd rower and my first choice front row would be Watts, Paea, Bowden & Green with Feka backing them up. As I think Radford's will be.

We don't care.

The amount of replies suggests otherwise, dearest.

I guarantee if you keep it to your own forum, we won't miss it.