Shannon McDonnell rejects new offer.

Quote: His Bobness "Correct.

Do these people actually attend all Rovers games particularly away? If they did they'd know McDonnell has saved 6 certain tries with his one on one defence.

McDonnell is the only player we have with real genuine pace, he can step off both feet and has an elusive running style only bettered by Tomkins in Super League. Yes he really is that good. His 'bat on' to help set up the winning derby try was quality, who else in our team would have done that? Nobody. So who will take his place, Sheriff?

The skills McDonnell has are pretty rare that's why teams will pay players like him a little more....except us apparently.

It is a crime that Rovers unearth such a talented player (that's the hard bit) and then let him go because we can't compete with Widnes or whoever.

If we are cutting our cloth fair enough then we need to prioritise. That means keeping your quality home growns, Taylor, Welham, Lovegrove, Watts, Cox etc but in truth most of the rest could be replaced at reasonable cost. The one's who probably couldn't be replaced and definitely not on the cheap are Dobson, Green and.....McDonnell.

The pivotal positions of 1, 6, 7, 9, 13. that's where you need quality and where you pay to get it if necessary. We are very lucky that we have class players in all those positions....and we have the cornerstone of a fine pack, the home grown/local players, Taylor, Josh Hodgson, Lovegrove, Cox, James Green.

And we have a brilliant 100% commited coach in Craig Sandercock who will be even more important to our long term well being if we are cutting our cloth and putting faith in youth. Honestly if I were Widnes I'd put a tempting offer his way he would be a million times better than Denis Betts and maybe we'd decide we couldn't afford him too.

We've got a good thing going at Rovers if only people would wake up and I include the board who are excellent at running a club but not so good at knowing a good player when they see one.

Numpties on this forum have rubbished McDonnell, Mika, Welham and worst of all Sandercock. Well they are entitled to an opinion but as I have said all season Rovers have the most talented exciting team we have had so far in Super League. We're starting to see it. We are close, very close, to breaking through to a level as good as anyone outside of Wigan & Warrington. But we cannot be letting our best players go to Widnes whatever the numpties say.'"

A good post and sums up the situation pretty well imo, people should be careful for what they wish for sometimes especialy when it concerns rubbishing players such as Mcdonell and Welham,ok, the latter may not be the best defensive player even by his own admission but is still a very good attacking player imo, plus there isn't exactly an abbundance of good quality centres in the british game at present is there?.
With regards to Mcdonell, ive said before on a previous post that letting him go could cost us in the long run as good fullbacks are also in short supply at the moment and with no one currently good enough coming through the ranks at the club, we could find ourselves scraping the barrel next season.
there an old saying, You never miss the water till the well goes dry, a saying that some on here may do well to heed.