I alluded to it in my post 'our threequarters'.... and this weeks stats support it.....Delaney IS our best prop.

You've only just got your wish for him to play in the second row!





Let me guess, play the kids in the 2nd row??

Very prescient

....JJB does act like a kid sometimes with [ihis[/i petulance

Stats-wise our best prop at the moment is Kyle Amor.

Maybe we should recall him and see how he goes for us.

[urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?season=2011&stat=tries&hs1=2011&hp1=10352&hs2=2011&hp2=2422[/url

[urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1=2011&hp1=10352&hs2=2011&hp2=1212&stat=tries&season=2011[/url

I don't care which one it is, Amor, Singleton, Ambler, but surely at least one of them should be in the squad immediately. The performances of our current 4 props leave an extremely lot to be desired, and what a ridiculous position we have been put in with the handling of the Burgess and Cross affair.

Wigan have announced the signing of Ben Cross, who is clearly good enough for Michael Maguire.

It's going to be very embarrassing for GH and BMD when Cross performs well at Wigan, which I think he will.

I'd have had him at Saints in a shot when he was rumoured to be out of Leeds, even before the Perry injury.

Yup. All it would take is for Cross to establish himself in the champions' team on a regular basis. I'm sure the Sky commentators won't shut up about it, just like they did when Warrington picked up Solomona from Bradford (even though it managed to escape Hemmings' intellect that the player was being used in a completely different role, but that's a different case).

How do Wigan manage to sign him though? Unless he's on peanuts I really can't see how they've kept their cap spend so low to fit both Hock and Cross in.

How do they fit another man (94 in total now I think) into the 5 man quota rules?

Hock and Cross combined will be on less than Gleeson I would have thought, given their respective circumstances.

With the run-in coming up for both cups that Wigan have aspirations on winning both. Cross will be useful in this period. Should get run-outs in at least the Wakie, Salford, Bulls and Crusaders fixtures. Busy season for Cross.

Hock will have been factored in from the start of the season so you can stop bringing his name up Saddo.

Genuine question - why did Leeds let him go?

When the announcement was made, I assumed GH had someone lined up and was using the cap space for someone.

Only the chuckle brothers and Darth know the real reasons.

Because all the other props have been in such good form this year...........That's what the boss said anyway.

Embarrasing innit ....

My tongue was in my cheek about Delaney being our best prop but on the evidence of our present first choice incumbents I'm not so sure.

The club is a laughing stock for re-signing Lleulai and especially Kirke.

In all seriousness all three of Ambler, Amor AND Singleton should be immediately promoted. Politics will of course ensure otherwise.

Cross to Wigan now confirmed. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321

Cross to Wigan now confirmed. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Cross to Wigan now confirmed. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321'" So Cross isn't good enough for the Rhinos, but the best coach in SL deems him worthy of a place in the league leaders side.

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Cross to Wigan now confirmed. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321'" So Cross isn't good enough for the Rhinos, but the best coach in SL deems him worthy of a place in the league leaders side.

Did Cross really do anything of note while on the pitch for us? Apart from giving away penalties when he had the ball I'm struggling to think?

In would be surprised if he doesn't "look" better in a better team with more confidence. Most players do.

Burgess is the mystery for me. Looked the future for us in the front row, props can take time to develop - he was hitting mid twenties and coming good. We would have had 5-6 high quality years out of him.

Will be very interesting to see how cross goes. Is it short term till end of the season. It will probably show the lack of talent in our coaching set up when he goes ok for wigan

He went OK for us. But OK wasn't what he was brought over for, he was supposed to step up and fill in for Peacock. He didn't.

At Wigan he can afford to be OK, because he has other props ready to share the load and with the hunger to succeed.

He should still have been given a run in our team due to the poor performances of the players who were judged to be in front of him. But whatever he does at Wigan in all honesty is no relevance to us or what could have been.

Let's be honest he was never going to fill for peacock, peacock on form and cross wasn't good enough to carry peacocks books. If that's why we bought him it doesn't show GH signing policy in a good light.

Did any of the other props do any better? I think not.

At least Cross had possibly the highest work rate for his limited time on the field with highest m/carry of all our props, highest marker tackles in total and per game, averaged 4.44 tackles per game more than Kylie and 3.34 tackles per game more than Kirke. He gave away 6 penalties in 10 games which is about par for our props.

Giving away a penalty when in possession is not good but no worse than conceding a penalty on the last tackle when defending.

IMO we never gave Cross a decent chance. He joined an injury hit team lacking it's top stars and down on confidence. He came with a reputation as a big tough no nonsense prop who takes the ball into contact strongly. Whenever he did take the ball on the charge he made good yards but invariably when he came on we were up against it and he had to make more tackles rather than more drives.

I am sure he will do a job for Wigan where he is rated by the champions coach in addition to the State of Origin, Aussie selectors and former Oz captain Buderus.

Both Cross and Burgess offered much more than Kirke and certainly as good or better than Kylie or Bailey. Sadly neither were given a fair crack and we are now left with one of the most ineffective set of props in the top 8

Cross will look good in Wigan's rotation. With us he never got a chance to work in a team on the front foot. No one at Leeds is making the hard yards to build the platform. JP is just returning and is getting on abit and ,as mentioned previously, Burgess was best Front Row prospect and has been allowed to go mid-season. Bailey, Leuluia, Kirke have all been pedestrian at best. Very little real impact coming from second row either.
Too much mediocrity?