Hastings would have been my first choice, though he does seem very principled and after Salford kept him going and gave him a playing start, he's paying back the loyalty.

Drinkwater wouldve been my second choice, kept a below average Catalan team ticking over and was a major steadying influence on the team.

Im not, nor have I ever been a fan of Myler, whenever we went up against Warrington you always knew our halfs were head shoulders, knees and toes better than anything he could muster, even on a good day. He's very much a luxury player a man who will score you a hatrick in a 56-4 mullering but will fade into the background when your behind the 8 ball and need him to come up with something. That being said, surely we should have realized this and tried to get him a steady hand to help out not another clone of himself.

I see bookies are giving london 16 points start,, think it could be worth a flutter on Leeds

I said at start of the season we needed a Blake Green type half back and you told me I was under estimating Lolohea.

He has never been a stand off and never will be a stand off but could be Brent Webb like at full back with his cut out passes and vision.

He will be targeted every week by opposition who will get plenty of joy every week. He's the worst defender I have ever seen and he's defending too far in field. If he's going to play 6 he needs to defend as a centre and have Watkins, when back, inside him.

Problem is Myler wasn’t crash hot in D last week and Hurrell, while devastating 1:1, easily gets pulled out of position- and then Handley. Truth is our LHS isn’t much better than our right.

I need to see more of Lolohea. He played well against Saints I thought, and OK against Trinity.

I imagine Furner is less impressed with what he’s seen in defence than even we are.

Quote ="The Biffs Back"Everyone knows what changes need to be made at the club in order for us to be successful again and I fully agree with both Sir Kev and Dave Furner with regards to this moving forward long term https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... -1-9577196 But can anyone tell me how Salford went to Catalan and won 46-0 with this squad? 1 Niall Evalds 2 Derrel Olpherts 3 Kris Welham 4 Jake Bibby 5 Ken Sio 6 Robert Lui 7 Jackson Hastings 8 Daniel Murray 9 Joey Lussick 10 Gil Dudson 11 Josh Jones 12 Jansin Turgut 13 Mark Flanagan Subs 14 George Griffin 15 Greg Burke 16 Ben Nakubuwai 17 Adam Lawton I'm sure that Ian Watson would also love to improve his squad by shopping at the top table but they seem to be be able to win games with players that wouldn't necessarily get into most other SL sides,So we can't hide behind this excuse anymore How many of that side would we want? Their spine of Evalds,Lui,Hastings and Lussick work very well together and Ian Watson is also a very under rated coach (despite being a moaning f#cker) IMO it's time for our established current first team players to stand up and be counted and to improve our performances and more importantly our results,and if they can't deliver then IMO lets get committed players in from our academy system that will improve our ineptness and weak areas'" Well said. You have to question the attitude of some players. Furner has to get them ticking. I do wonder how much damage has been done with regards to a lot players being made available in off season

Quote ="The Biffs Back"Everyone knows what changes need to be made at the club in order for us to be successful again and I fully agree with both Sir Kev and Dave Furner with regards to this moving forward long term https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... -1-9577196 But can anyone tell me how Salford went to Catalan and won 46-0 with this squad? 1 Niall Evalds 2 Derrel Olpherts 3 Kris Welham 4 Jake Bibby 5 Ken Sio 6 Robert Lui 7 Jackson Hastings 8 Daniel Murray 9 Joey Lussick 10 Gil Dudson 11 Josh Jones 12 Jansin Turgut 13 Mark Flanagan Subs 14 George Griffin 15 Greg Burke 16 Ben Nakubuwai 17 Adam Lawton I'm sure that Ian Watson would also love to improve his squad by shopping at the top table but they seem to be be able to win games with players that wouldn't necessarily get into most other SL sides,So we can't hide behind this excuse anymore How many of that side would we want? Their spine of Evalds,Lui,Hastings and Lussick work very well together and Ian Watson is also a very under rated coach (despite being a moaning f#cker) IMO it's time for our established current first team players to stand up and be counted and to improve our performances and more importantly our results,and if they can't deliver then IMO lets get committed players in from our academy system that will improve our ineptness and weak areas'" Well said. You have to question the attitude of some players. Furner has to get them ticking. I do wonder how much damage has been done with regards to a lot players being made available in off season

Nail on head.

I think Cuthbo's effort has probably upped since being "made available" if anything. Whilst he might not be the most effective I certainly think it's given him a kick up the back side.

Of the others that were made available, 4 have gone (Walters, Mullally, Garbutt and Ormondroyd) which leaves Parcell, Golding and Cuthbertson. Parcell has very much continued his "meh" form which you can understand given his style of play and the beatings our pack is receiving almost weekly. That said, Dwyer had made a decent go of things when on the field playing a similar style.

Golding is a bit of an unknown given he's so far down the pecking order. Was mentioned somewhere else on here but if we get another injury in the backs or if Watkins is out for a couple more weeks, I'd be tempted to throw him in on the wing and move Handley to centre. He'll certainly bring a passion and desire that isn't abundantly clear with some of our other players.

You are Mick Gledhill and i claim my five pounds.

With respect having a half defending outside the centre used to be a problem that we had with Rob Burrow with many on here suggesting that it just meant that the centres were worn out with tackling and less effective on attack.
I agree completely that Lolohea is unproven as a stand-off and this was a worry for me pre-season (but I just hoped that he would prove us all wrong).

I remember your posts in question marty and it wasn't me, it was someone else.

They are professionals who should be taking the opportunity to put themselves in the shop window. If that is the problem it underlines why we need to get rid of these players in the first place.

It will be interesting to see if Furner drops anyone for this game. Judging by his press conference, he was most annoyed with discipline in the second quarter of the game.

Incidentally, the Leeds players with the worst discipline were:

Merrin - pens 2
Parcell - pens 2
Lolohea - errors 3
Donaldson - pens 1, errors 1
Sutcliffe - pens 1, errors 1
Peteru - pens 1
Oledski - pens 1
Myler - pens 1
Singleton - pens 1

Mick we don't want to get back three decades - no wonder you want to palm Kear off - you have been watching Bradford for the last 18 months.

Do we agree this is a must win game

We should have a poll. For every game.

"Is this a must win game?"

I don't know. If we win, it doesn't guarantee we are out of the relegation dogfight this year, and if we lose it doesn't mean we couldn't still finish mid-table.

For me it's more about confidence and morale - for supporters and the club staff. I would be surprised if London don't bring their "A" game for this fixture, we need to make that irrelevant by playing really well.

If you use "must-win" in terms of keeping the fans on side with the team and coach, there might be something in that! We lose this I can imagine some booing.

Don't know about must win, not really into that nonsense. But it is definitely an unaccapetable to lose game, no question.

Garry Schoefield is going for London by 7

Walker
Briscoe
Hurrell
Handley
Lolohea
Myler
Cuthbertson
Parcell
Merrin
Ablett
Dwyer
Sutcliffe
Ferres
Peteru
Oledzki
Jones-Buchanan
Donaldson
Newman
Holroyd

From the 19 we should go for

Walker
Briscoe
Newman
Hurrell
Handley
Lolohea
Myler
Peteru
Parcell
Oldezki
Ferres
Ablett
Merrin

Subs

Cuthbertson
Dwyer
Donaldson
Holdroyd

But we all know that Sutcliffe will start in second row and JJB will probably get a bench spot.

Assuming he isn't injured, this is pretty telling for Singleton if he's been dropped for the second time this year.

You mean Mr “I will say anything controversial to get attention” what a surprise

Yes - I'm not convinced that Furner is impressed so far, but long season and all that...

Delighted to see Holroyd being considered now, maybe not the right game to play him (just in terms of the pressure) but absolutely right to get him into the first team environment and start to build for a few appearances.

Early decision on Newman to centre and whoever is going to defend inside him would be wise, hopefully they made that call and trained that way all week.

I don't see JJB and Ablett both playing, so the question is who else sits this one out. Including Holroyd (but not Merrin) we only have 4 props in the squad. I'd hope we play Merrin in the back row and Holroyd features. We need to switch some players out to send a message that what they've been producing isn't acceptable.

Singleton's stats were dreadful against Hull for an experienced front-rower and I haven't seen anything from him (from the TV games) that warrants his selection tbh.