Exactly mate! in the first half of last season it was Sutcliffe not Williams who was being tipped for the England squad, it shows how much these young players can improve when given time and responsibility, imo sutcliffe by the end of the year will be as good or better

It's a fair point.

Last year we got to a glimpse of his potential, he is come back of a long term serious injury. He is clearly playing a bit broken at the moment and had mags not got injured I would imagine he wouldn't have played today.

I am not convinced that he is the answer at stand off but people at the club in a far better position to judge than me think he is so he at least deserves a chance and patience to grow into the role not just a few games

Why dont you think he is a stand off? theres a few with that opinion on here but I don't understand it

What is it about sport that causes some fully grown adults brains to cease working? Whether it's violence or threatening behaviour or, in cases like this, coming out with utter, childish nonsense. I just don't understand it.

Please stop hammering the kids and Sooty in particular. Cast your mind back to last season when he as playing so well that Sinny was dropped. He is coming back after a long lay off and into a side already ravaged by injuries. I knew that this season would be tough; at the end of the day we lost three greats at the end of last season.

To my mind we have recruited well and the decision to promote Handley, Lilley and Golding was the right one. We went into the season knowing that JJB, Ward and Mullalley would be missing. We lost Fallon before a ball was kicked, we lost Danny in round 1, we lost THREE players before half time yesterday. As a resultt we had no interchange and lots of reshuffling.

Sure, we were poor but Widnes were very good.

I have followed this club through some very dark times (the 1980s anyone?) and can only ask that we fans stick with it. Too many of the current crop of fans have known little but glory. When we have players back, we will go fine and have a season of consolidation before we kick on again.

I am a Loiner Rhino for life. This includes good times and bad. Sadly, I expect another round of anti BM messages on this board suggesting we get rid of our mots successful coach ever.

The last thing a kid like Sooty needs right now is so called 'supporters' having a go.

Cannot be bothered. Life's too short



Anyone fancy a little wager on how many Sinfield threads we get this season? I'll go for 17.

(we have 3 so far)

last year Sinfield wasn't holding down a regular place and the team and Sutty were doing very well and this may have influenced Sinfields decision to finish.It would have been interesting if Sutty had remained fit if Sinfield would have regained his place

Suspect because primarily at this early stage he is more of a runner than a passer. I am not convinced he is best at SO but as others have said he needs time. Against backdrop of very bad injury, losing McGuire, losing Sinny , losing entire front row, new hooker injured and training being messed up for 2 months - he has been given a total hospital pass. I think we may need to play a much more controlled, error reduced, penalty free game for few months to try and grind a few wins out pre Easter then build again.

Bit harsh on Sutcliffe when the pack failed so spectacularly. We could have had Cooper Cronk yesterday but it wouldn't have made any difference! I know that blaming injuries is not the best excuse but we will be better when picking from strength. Most clubs were well into their pre-season whilst our boys were wallowing in 2015's success (SPOTY etc) and when they finally did get their heads into pre-season mode the training facilities became completely unusable. I felt at the time that the New Zealand game (as good as it was) was completely unnecessary and the boxing day game even less so. It was always gonna be a battle to start this season on fire, but let's stick with it, the squad is still one of the best in SL, regardless of current form.

Agree as burrow said we were terrible. A collective terrible.

WOW I thought there were more than that already
With all the whiners and trolls on here I will go for 97

17 won't be far away considering there will be at least one after every defeat this season.

I'm awaiting the inevitable annual 'We're signing Daryl Clark' thread.

....or Brierly



...or it's a nailed on, guaranteed certainty because somebody in the office I know, who talks to GH in passing says so.

Crikey

We already signed him I think, he's just got to see out his current taxi driving contract with Wire.

Another done deal. He's already signed and is on loan with Leigh for this season, they/we just forgot to announce it or something

Time for a Widdop thread surely?

90 of those will be from AP now he's found his dummy.

or Brierley even!

Why do some people have this obsession in bringing Sinfield back? Good player, great captain and brilliant leader. But he has retired from SL for good to take up a career in Union. The coaching team think Sutcliffe is the answer. I am still not convinced but feel we need to lower our expectations somewhat and hope he comes good. We are going to make do with a very inexperierenced half back combination for a number of weeks which is not ideal but happens. We might win something this year if we are lucky but we need to remember we are in transition even though the backs are the same and for me the forwards look better. My concern has always been in the halves and we need to put up and shut up as Sir Kev ain't coming back.

I disagree with that, In those game last year when he was keeping Sinfield out the team he looked to be picking the right passes and spotting opportunities to kick early to a winger, he does run a lot but if you look at other big stand offs like Fittler and Sutton, they did the same thing close to the line because they knew they had as good a chance as any to score
the reason he wont be spotting those opportunities now is fatigue more than anything, anyone who has played in a creative position knows that when you start blowing your quick decision making and creativity goes to pot
as for the minute, he needs to play a bit more central and allow Burrow and Lilly to run the game whilst he looks for weaknesses in the defence

Edit: having said that the way he set up Watkins try was the only bright spot on Sunday so he seems to be finding his feet even if the rest of the team aren't

Well said! This is sport, you win some and you lose some. Last year we won everything going. This year we won't (probably) it's all part of the game.

Not seen a great deal of Sutcliffe but on the basis of what I have seen, he's got some way to go yet before he fills even Graham Holroyd's boots.