Absolute twaddle.

Kelly came back from 7 months out with a knee ligament injury. He clearly hasn't looked after himself but is putting the effort in.....a 60 metre chase and tackle on Swift suggests he's more than not interested.
He was pulling Saints apart until his hamstring went. It's no co incidence that both players with the same knee injury then pulled their hamstrings. Poor medical management.
People claiming a lack of effort for our poor performances are at best ill informed.
He's ten times the player Marsh is.

Heart......Marsh missed touch in the first half. Blair gave him the ball next penalty and he gave Blair the ball back....bottled it and disappeared second half contributing a kick out on the full when we were under the kosh.
The kid needs to grow some to become a decent half back. I've yet to see Kelly shirk anything....including seconds.

You might have seen my gloomy foreboding elsewhere. That was before rovers won at the weekend, and my outlook has now been upgraded to nervously pessimistic.

He's gotta learn and be more brave that's for sure, but give the kid a chance. After all when Kelly goes back next year he might be one of our starting halves. I'd rather him have some games under his belt then being sat on the sidelines all year.

Thanks BF. You're much more accurate and closer to reality with your latest 2 posts and certainly in tune with my thought processes in this regard (if that's any consolation of course)

I hope he makes it. There's a player in there. Not convinced yet by a long way. His character appears his greatest weakness.
Harsh comparison but he's no Andy Gregory.
Recently saw the 3rd 1986 test v Australia. Gregory caught a kick off and sprinted 20 metres straight....straight mind you no deviating, no slowing straight at Mal Meninga and skittled him to the amusement and bemusement of the Aussie commentator.
Marsh needs to show some leadership at half. So far not a glimpse of it.

I'm sick of the constant xenophobia. The over seas players don't try etc whilst appalling performances by local players go by without comment.

The thing with Albert is that if his form doesn't improve, he won't get his gig in the NRL so he needs to show the form he did last year to make himself a viable prospect. Marsh is improving as a player but at this time would appear to lack the leadership skill needed in the halves

I agree with most of that about Marsh, he definitely needs to grow some if he's going to make it. You could see his confidence drain when he missed the kick into touch. He needs to understand sh*t happens and forget it. Just look at Danny Brough, he'll kick the odd howler but it never stops him kicking the next one.
My view of Marsh is that his tactical kicking can be the best we have at the club, as I've said Kelly's kicking game is patchy at best. I really think Marsh's game will suit Websters coaching of a team that will be underdogs on Friday, I just hope he can instill the confidence needed.
I don't think Kelly isn't trying, he doesn't look fit at all which is the biggest worry, is that him being rushed back or just not looking after himself I don;t know. On the pitch though he puts a stint in but all HB's need a team around them to make the stuff they do come off, otherwise it just looks headless.

Let's be fair - Kelly was only rushed back for Wembley. He's pretty much had the same full pre season other players have had. Up to his injury this season he had the 2 friendly games and 3 competitive games under his belt. Somewhere between Dec and Feb Rovers/Kelly should have had enough time to address/or act on any potential fitness concerns. As fans we clearly only see a small fraction of all things players/coach relationships etc, but the difference we saw with Kelly pre Chester going and the snippet afterwards was tangible. It may not be a stretch to imagine things haven't been great behind the scenes.

Marsh being a young’un will always likely receive plenty of slack from fans at times. I think the best thing that happened to him on a few occasions on Sunday, was at times he was isolated/hit and forced to think on his feet. Too many times, I think his first and second thought process is to simply pass the ball/responsibility on, as others have also alluded to. Sink or swim philosophy needed.

As for Kelly playing or not playing on Friday …
If what we’ve been told is true, he hasn’t trained since the build up to Hudds away. You have to imagine he won’t be great, with just a day or two this week. I doubt he has much fitness in the bank to really fall back on, so in a way he’ll be in a worse fitness state than pre St Helens game (in theory). To get the best out of Kelly, he needs to put himself about/run around- be Albert Kelly trying everything and anything. Physically is he (will he be) in a position to do that? I’m not even sure James Webster knows. The tone in which Webbo spoke about the issue on RH, sounded very disheartened by it all tbh. There wasn’t much definitive about the situation/injury. “Kelly made the call Hudds game / he may have a reoccurrence / see how he is next week/not sure”

Kelly won’t be risked … or nailed on Kelly man of the match then …?

As I've just posted on the dedicated Albert Kelly topic on here. There are pictures of him on the club website with the other lads on the pitch at today's training session. He looks happy and much trimmer than 4 games ago against Saints.

If anybody watched the latest SLS on BBC this week, our pack had big wraps in quotes by studio guests, Mark Flanagan of Salford and Kevin Brown of Widnes.

The nub was that Salford were bullied by our BIG and aggressive pack this week according to Flanagan, whilst Brown concurred that our pack was BIG and aggressive and
made easy metres and caused Widnes a lot of problems the other week.

Insider information working in our favour. Being able to field 6 props, 2 of whom in Allgood and Greenwood are mobile when assigned to the back row is a massive boost at the moment.

Sorry, guys and gals for a lot of my posts in quick succession.

Kelly is named in the 19 man derby squad. Greenwood and Horne too. Still no Lunt.