I agree with RBA I'd play him in his strongest position on the left. if he has defensive frailties he would be better defending between colbon and galea where he would get a lot of help. I know welham has started like a house on fire and it might seem daft to move him but he started on the right when he first broke into the team and his defence in the first 2 games has been spot on, he'd do a decent job inside foxy.

I'm not suggesting he's judged after one game. What I'm saying is that, for a multitude of reasons, he had 70+ SL games at Hull FC and never made a spot in the backline his own. Some of these reasons, like FC's love affair with Yeaman and Agar playing him unsuccessfully at FB, were out of his control. Some, like wellying the ball 3 yards forward into the stands, weren't. The point here is that there is a commonly held belief that Morgan has the Midas touch with developing players. There is evidence that he does develop players beyond their ability when they arrived at KR (Welham, Murrell) and evidence that is less compelling (Cooke, Ratu, arguably Clinton as examples). Hall has the rare commodities of natural flair and elusiveness, but accompanied by being somewhat error-prone and making poor decisions at times. He was not Agar's sort of player at all. The challenge is whether Morgan can optimise Hall's maverick and exciting playing style whilst at the same time either sorting out his downsides or building a "cover" plan to ensure he's not exposed in his weaker areas. I personally think he has a good chance at Rovers, and wish him well.

Good post Mrs B but why wasn't he Agars type of player, what is Agars type or is it cos he has his favourites. A couple of yrs ago and a few of games last season welham really flunked in defence and it's like god hold your head in Ur hands time, I do really believe that you can turn a poor defender into a good one only time will tell, if he scores us trys then I will be very happy .

Agar likes solid defenders in every position and to play a forward led, attritional game. Perhaps this has been partly because our lack of halfbacks (through combination of poor recruitment and injury) for the last 4 seasons has meant this is his view of what's most effective. I don't think he ever really knew what to do with Hall and putting him at FB did for him as he just made too many errors.

Well you aint got many solid defenders at the minute luv your In minus mode at the minute and maybe if hall had been in a regular position then you would have seen a different Craig hall.

hehehe maybe you needed to see him play a little more

You asked me why he's not Agar's type of player. I said Agar prefers a defence-led game; he'd always pick Yeaman over Hall in a straight choice. It's a fine line between having the ability to win games with natural attacking ability and putting your team on the back foot with errors. Agar, and the majority of Hull fans, on balance saw more of the latter than the former. This doesn't mean that Morgan can't develop his defensive game and eradicate the errors though, and, as said, it's the ideal test of Morgan's ability to develop a player with undoubted flair and ability.

Fair point

I think Agar knew that Hall had ability and gave him plenty of chances. In the end Agar ran out of patience which is understandable.

In these days of salary cap restrictions coaches are forced into these type of decisions.

Obviously I hope Craig Hall does well at Rovers so good luck to him.

I don't really see Morgan's task as making Hall good at things he has not been good at in the past. Morgan didn't sign Hall in the belief he could turn him into a tackling machine. No he signed him because of what he CAN do not what he can't. Hall will be given a few do's and don'ts to comply with but mainly I think he'll be asked to express himself and show his ability.

Hall's pace and his ability to ghost through gaps definitely add value for Rovers. We'll have to see if this outweighs any negatives. Either way he is not a top earner and he is not crucial to Rovers hopes for 2011.

Morgan knows this so there's really nothing to lose.

Fair points. At FC however, particularly in 2008 and 2009, Hall, who was a good fringe player who ended up playing a lot of games due to injuries to Tony, Byrne, Raynor, etc, and in those cases you do have something to lose. If Rovers, say, lost Briscoe for the season tomorrow, and Cockayne for 3 months the week after, Hall would be an automatic pick somewhere in the backs, possibly fullback, facing the bombs of Danny Brough and being Rovers last line of defence trying to hold up the likes of Crabtree over the line. As I said, it was that sort of situation that did for him. In your ideal scenario of having a full strength squad to pick from every week, you're right, there's nothing to lose, but that's not necessarily the actual situation you find yourself in every week.

Nice to see my ranting last year about Hall needing to play left centre where is is comfortable was listened to by someone. Wish Agar had. I still firmly believe Hall is one that we shouldn't have allowed to go. Still, everyone needs a scapegoat when the chips are down.

I was saying it long before you Dave

Played well, best of a bad bunch