rovers' 1st choice 17 is good enough to make the 8 but if they have a bad injury run they're fubar'd

so we seem to have randomly panic bought whereas you seem to be randomly TRYING and failing to panic buy any scrum half in the world . My opinion is that you will scrap for 9th or 10th and ellis wont play half your games

How is signing a player 3 months before the season starts "panic buying"?

I think you need holding back a year in troll school, you need to up your game.

I take it you do know nobody on here gives a flying about that don't you?

At least if we need to blame injuries, we've been well schooled in that, coming from the same city as you lot.

Panic Bought?... Random???....

Discuss oh sage!

The obvious comparisons you have deliberately neglected to use are a 25 year old, 6ft 5, 16st Paterson vs 34 year old, 5ft 10, 15st Galea. Whilst Galea will maybe be quicker over 10 yards and have a lower centre of gravity, Paterson will almost certainly be stronger in most muscle groups, be faster over 40 yards. As far as Paterson's injuries go, I'm not too concerned because his injuries have happened whilst he's only 223/24 so his recovery should be really good unlike if he was 34 like Galea.

When you look at our back three, Shannon McDonnell and Nick Johnson have gone with Caro and Brown coming in who are far bigger, stronger and faster.

Then we come to the off-halfs; you list Green's weight against Burns opting to deliberately neglect last season's injury problems like you have for Paterson and Tuimavava. Green lost a fair bit of pace after his injury last year and it remains to be seen what the type of terrible injury he sustained will take out of him long term because he certainly wasn't the same player when he came back - even after a few games.

Then there are the front-rowers. Your repeated instances of bringing up Clinton in an attempt to isolate my opinion on him are funny. As I've said on multiple occasions, Clinton is a top draw prop forward in my opinion (and Nick Fozzard's apparently with Paul J saying Clinton was one of the best front-rowers he's played against) but there have been some application issues but anyway, despite Tuimavava's injury concerns, CS wouldn't have signed him if he had the same type of application problems because he's worked with him before.

You've mentioned Watts and Wheeldon, but they left half-way through last season so I don't consider them relevant (but you obviously do to support you spurious argument). James Green was on loan virtually all of last season where as this season he'll be fighting for a place in the 17 - he happens to be a 21 year old, 6ft 7 monster.

Walker is actually a replacement for Taylor. Taylor is immensely strong for his size but Walker has the bigger frame.

My comment was a sweeping generalisation like you say. But on the whole I am right.

You need to delete your bookmarks and seek counselling.

Well, obviously you could choose these two for a "like for like" comparison if you see 2nd row/prop Paterson filling in at stand off as LF/SR/SO Galea did, that's your call. But if you're going to bang on about Galea's injuries as extensively as you have done over recent weeks and want to be measured, where are your references to Paterson's catalogue? Bit selective for them not to have been discussed at all during the months since his signing. To say "someone's recovery should be really good" is no evidence of anything really, is it? Just an generalisation based on age and hope.


On the fullback point, Craig Hall replaces McDonnell as it stands, so not "far bigger", in the way Webster is far bigger and stronger than Gleeson. I already referenced the wingers in my previous post.



Green's key "injury" problem was a one-off illness/incident. It doesn't really help your argument to use the adjective "terrible" and imply long term implications because no one knows. Later on you say you're not worried about Tuimavave's poor injury record because Sandercock knows him. A punt on my part, but I'll put the suggestion out there that Wigan have monitored his progress post blood clot before paying north of £100,000 for him.



You're right, we've done the mismatch between your Clinton expectations and his disappointing lack of delivery under both coaches (although Morgan got more out of him, it's fair to say) before. For absence of previous mention of injury issues on Tuimavave, simply refer to Paterson above.




In terms of young props, obviously it helps your far bigger argument to big up (if you'll pardon the pun) Walker and discount Watts and Wheeldon. But with only 1 SL game to his name, surely the latter names are more relevant? Big lads.



In this instance, what bookmarks? I'm replying to a post. You're a funny one. I'm puzzled to see you downgrading your expectations though. Before last season, I think, you were confident that with a few signings Rovers could challenge at the top and chase silverware because "that's what it's all about." Now you're saying as long as they give it a good go, that's what it's all about. What is it all about?

There's really no need to continually challenge my mental health just because no one else ever picks you up on anything, it lends no weight to your argument, just looks like silly name-calling by a little boy. So stop being mean and tune in to watch England later. Briscoe's in the squad, although unlikely to be picked in the back row. Shame, that.

Time will tell wether our cheapo new players do better than our more experienced expensive 10th placed players I guess,
E.T doesn't really have to do that much to be better than Clinton imo.
Paterson probably won't be as good for us as Galea was, but hopefully he will do well.
Caro and Brown are inexperienced at this level but hopefully give us more of an attacking threat out wide.
Walker for Taylor is a hard one, hell obviously need time but has some big shoes to fill.
Gleeson's not the best defensive wise imo, but knows where the try line is, hopefully hell Di better than sick note Webster who did try his best imo, but was never ever fully fit which is a real shame.
Burns for Green was probably good business too, if Darren Lockyer says hell be good then that'll do for me.
I'm hoping for big things from Con Mika next year, hopefully hell be fitter, a little wiser, he looks to have the makings of an Ali Lauatiti about him.

So all in all I'm pretty hopeful we can improve next season, we still need a couple more players to boost the squad though.

Excellent summary. You should post more.

Now you're a self-acknowledge hypocrite (ich auch), so it is clearly pointless me suggesting that you go and challenge tommyfromhull, for example, or any of the Trust in Adam cult, in a similar manner.

However, Zod could just end this by sayingnow[/i. That's the thing about potential, you have to wait a little while for it to be fulfilled, if it ever is. We'll need to be patient, but we're in a different (for the most part better) place as a club now and we're taking a different approach. That's not to say the old approach was wrong, though [iwith hindsight[/i we maybe went a year (and a Willie Mason) too far.
We could have a 'deteriorations in 2013' thread, but people don't really want that much balance. Bit of escapism, innit?

Galea hasn't played at 6 or 13 since 2008. And regarding me saying "someone's recovery should be really good" is based on personal experience of knowing how my body's recovery rate has slowed after fairly tough physical excercise over the years and even though at best a 35 year old can deliver the same physical performance as he was when he was 25, the recovery rates are worlds apart and that is fact whether it suits your arguement or not.


In terms of my sweeping generalisation, what good is it if Webster is far bigger and stronger if his pace has disappeared and his durability is shot?


It's a desperate market and shelling out 100k for a player who's not shown his old form since such a devastating set back reflects that. Rovers would never publicly disrespect Green, but I'm pretty sure Rovers were ecstatic at being offered 100k for Green when Hall could easily have slotted in if Burns hadn't have signed.


Tuimavava's injury record concerns me more than Paterson's because of his age but I'd suggest the salary Rovers have offered will reflect those concerns therefore negating the risk.


Because Watts and Wheeldon left after half a season and didn't contribute at the end, then I didn't take them into consideration.


It is all about Silverware at the end of the day, but last season hit home that as good a coach as Justin Morgan was, the route for continued success is a slow and painful one at the end of the day. Rovers team in 2009 were a top-four side, but that didn't last long because of our lack of youth set up and afterwards, our senior antopedians had reached their peak and were on the slide. Last season, across their squad, Saints had less individual class then both Catalans and Leeds yet they still finished above them in 3rd because they continue to bring through young players.


Right now as I look out the window, it is sunny. There's a probability that in a few days it will be cloudy. If you feel the need to highlight that it is sunny when that time comes, feel free to do so.

Can I bring an end to the Zod-Barista dog fight by saying I summarised this thread last week and sort of brought it to an end.

In other words, lock it!

I'm locking this.
For future reference when Zod and Mrs B pull this trick again I will delete the posts without warning as it's getting boring.
If you want to have a bitchfest at each other do it via PM