Ablett IMO is the first 2nd rower on the team sheet.

I seriously can't believe some of the stuff I've read on here so far. Every board has idiotic posters, but this Chief Scrote feller can't be serious? Fair enough, you don't have to think every Leeds player is a superstar, but to just make stuff up to try and prove your invalid argument, well, its just embarrassing.

I know

Which ever way you look at it it's another Leeds Saints game that ends with scouser's moaning like little girls.

On point 1, my memories of the 2005 final are not that great and I've never watched the game since. However, my recollection of the game was that we were simply out gunned up front and Pryce scored a crucial try of the back of that dominance. I certainly wouldn't describe his performance as "commanding" or as "taking the game by the scruff of the kneck". Still, we all have our opinion and providing it doesn't belong to the Scouse Dib Dobber, I'm prepared to respect anyone who expresses one intelligently.

On point 2, my eyesight isn't that great so I am happy to stand corrected. Either way, without the other assist we lose.

Not my opinion on Pryce in the 2005 Grand Final win V Leeds just a recollection that he was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy that day.

About Pryce, for mine he was the next Hanley. Had he had the same temperament and dedication he would be the best loose forward in the world right now. Instead we get a stand-off who looks fantastic in a winning team, and you barely see him in a losing team

He has all the qualities you would want, he just doesnt seem to have the ethic that to take it to the next level. He has the skills, he has the size and strength, but he epotmises whats wrong with british RL, world class until he is really tested

i think coming through a bradford may have been the worst thing for him. If he cam through at a lower side i think we would see a very different player

To be fair not many half backs look good in a losing team.

Wouldn't have been the first MOM to be granted to an undeserving show pony and certainly not the last. Having said that, I'm not going to argue too much about it, I went to the game and never really gave the 80 minutes much thought thereafter.

In any event, if one great game is the best a talented player can muster out a ten year carreer with two of, if not the two, strongest sides in the super league era, then I feel confident in my original assessment.

Again I find myself in the unpleasant position of defending Pryce but he's done much more than the one game. In fact, in the Tri Nation series (the "I prefer Blackpool Beach) he played very well at the op level.

I do think he's gone alarmingly downhill since about 2008 which may co-incide with the ageing and departure of the real half back along side him, Long. Nowadays, he rarely dominates a big game against big opposition. He may trample all over the likes of Salford and cas every now again the league, getting Saints fans all excited but when it really matters he usually found wanting. The International number 6 jersey used to be a battle between Pryce and McGuire. Now Pryce isn't even mentioned. It's all about Tomkins trying to take McGuire's jersey.

A lot of people think Pryce is an unreliable No6 and a bit of a flat track bully and I agree pretty much. It was this reason that Noble thought that recruiting Harris would provide a bit more stability and reliability at the Bulls!

I've always seen Pryce as a much better centre. Here's he's not needed to organise and gets a bit more space. Apparently though he always wanted to play stand off...

In the first season or two after leaving Bulls and joining a very dominant Saints team it certainly looked like Noble had Pryce all wrong and had made a boo boo. However, it now looks like Noble was right and having a game plan that allows Pryce to drift in and out of the game on the back of a dominant ruck is the best way to use him.

Not a steady foundation for a side to win SL titles though is it? Too many variables. You need a dominant ruck for a start and also to be playing outside a proper reliable, organising halfback too. Without either of those the gameplan comes apart.

Aye, which is why I now think Noble knew exactly how to use him best.

Well he's not daft.

Must be a nightmare trying to coach players like the Pryce brothers. They have all the skills and physical prowess but the tempraments are all over the place.

He certainly isn't. Looking at the timing of him jumping ship from Odsal.

How daft will he be to go back there now or is that the tonic which will see them reverse the years in decline since his departure?

If Noble goes back to Odsal to be head coach at the Bulls in 2011 I'll bare my ar5e on the centre spot at each home game.

Seems Potter is the favourite for the job at the moment.

TBH the decline in our fortunes isn't really down to Noble leaving but other factors connected with finance.

I've put two and two together from various rumours and assumed Noble will be Huddersfield bound.

Saints have never adequately replaced Tommy Martyn. Pryce is an athelete and his performance against Wigan showed he can come up with the big plays, but he has no where near the same craft nor vision.

I think Tomkins is the only good stand off in the country. The rest are either too inconsistent, crab across the line and/or can't tackle.

Fair enough, in life it seems to me it's rarely a good idea to go back.



That also fits with Barrie McDermott's cryptic clue from last week.

It's also rarely a good idea to add two and two together and come up with five (that's me not you on this occasion.)

That's a shame. I would have liked him to stay at Crusaders and build something there.

ive always thought he'd be best at centre, with the ability to chime in when he liked

Aye.

We were well beaten in every game other than one of the NZ fixtures and the Aus match. There were other players that stood out in both (Ellis and Peacock for a start). I maintain that he has little to show for his undisputed natural talent.

Whenever you see footage of the Crusaders training it appears to be Harris and Sharp taking the sessions rather than Noble. I wonder if Noble has given up the tracksuit these days and concentrates more on the managerial side of the role?

If Noble moves on, I'd expect Harris to take over and take them forward where his Welsh background and time served in the Union game ought to be an advantage in selling the club to players, sponsors and spectators alike.

I've been impressed with Harris the coach so far, a potential future Leeds coach even, although probably not given who is boss would probably be.

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I hope someone has the sense to bookmark this comment just in case.

And if Brian Noble doesn't replace Nathan Brown at Huddersfield in 2011 I think G1 should consider joining you.