Think hes pretty poor in all honesty, I was concerned last year when I watched him too.

Gale had an OK first half, in some ways, but if your halfbacks can't create enough scores to put Widnes to bed when you spend HALF AN HOUR camped in their half, then they its hard not conclude that they simply aren't up to the job.

You've changed your tune recently, you were quoting Mick Potter, Abraham Lincoln and Moses last time someone spoke ill of Gale.

For me, the kick to Ah Van summed up his season for me, we needed field position and needed to use our heads, just put a grubber through and try to force a drop out or keep them within their 10m line, the nothing kick was just deflating!

I think Gale could be okay, but he needs an experienced partner in the halfs that can boss him around a bit and call the important shots. Sammut is unable to do this as he doesn't know what he's about to do. Not many experienced halfs available without using a quota spot. A Gower type of player would be perfect for him, but this is not going to happen any time soon.

Would we have won the game off with Sammut playing???

To be honest, the kick wasn't all that bad, Purtell and Kear should have buried Ah Van, but yeah it probably should have been a grubber.

After watching him closely after his comeback (Purtell), I really don't think he is a . I'm okay with Kear as a winger but he needs that security inside him and Purtell seems uncomfortable playing there

I dont think Purts' heart is in it any more, no pun intended he just seems to be going through the motions and i can see his leaving at the end of season also.

I cant fault the lads effort, but he doesn't seem smart enough to play there. If anything hes better suited to wing and just running hard and tackling hard, but Kear has more skills and pace and agility, so Id prefer him there. I'd let Purtell go personally.

That is a great line. A real corker. However, on a more serious note, you know that things really are bad when there are more and more posts by FA that are bordering on the negative. He is, quite easily, the biggest optimist on this board and if He is beginning to get down in the dumps then I would say that there is something badly wrong.

Please also do not read this as an anti-FA post either. On the contrary it is more out of respect for FA that I have noticed this.

It is maybe worse than I first thought.

I have noticed the same, yesterday's result was a tough one to take.

No brains when in posession! not easily solved....

I started to get worried when he did not argue with me on another thread. I thought he maybe had a fever or something.

Still, I love FA I do. There is a place on the sofa in the NT for him anytime.

Make your mind up



I got slated for saying he is an overrated player and he's not good enough, I hoped he would improve but lets face it, he's a flop and just not good enough.

Absolutely and I made the same comment at the time. We'd just defended our line successfully and were no doubt blowing a little. We managed to get to the Widnes line and all that was needed was to stay down their and apply some pressure. We had I think a 12 point lead at that stage so why go for a risky kick to the corner? I'm sure Cummins must be pointing these things out to the player but the same daft mistakes keep occurring each week. I think we could desperately do with a leader who can manage situations like yesterday when we needed to close the game down.

My thoughts. Gale can show some nice touches, but then some equally poor ones, maybe getting too confident. First set of the second half he tried a fancy kick with the outside of the boot.

I think his game management is very poor, particularly when things are going against us. Your half back cant just do some nice stuff when we have momentum. Yesterday any half decent half back should have taken the game by the scruff of the neck can calmed things down. Slow everything down by simple kicks.

His defence is appalling too.

However there is a shortage of half backs out there. In our situation guess we have to make do. But i expect much improvement from him.

Watching Gale pass the ball is like watching it in slow motion.

Like diskin then

I love how diskin gets slated yet everyone agrees our best part of the game was the first half an hour. was it not about 28-30 minute mark heath came on? a player who is not noted for his calm and composed game, (i also think Heath had his best game for us for weeks by way) but diskin and gale were controlling game well in our stronger part.
Gale not noted as a strong defender - and being ridiculed for our right hand defence, even though it has been poor all year and he has not played in majority of games. I thought nearly every time Hock got the ball gale was up and on him maybe not putting a big shot on but effectively cutting his options and allowing team mates to get in with him. Not an amazing defender but not everything is down to him. I think the key is to get langley or donaldson as the back rower out there to make a difference.

Exactly my opinion. Those who are rubbishing Diskin and Gale were not watching the same game as me-- every Widnes try was on our right side and Gale was not the main culprit in defence. And the only player who seems capable of managing the game is Diskin -- Gale seems to take better options when he's playing with Diskin.
Of course both of them have faults but it's unfair to single them out as has happened so many times this season.

I thought Diskin had his best game for ages on Sunday, he made ground at the PTB and put himself about in defence.

Our go forward seemed to go backward when we brought Manoakafoa and Evans on for Sidlow and Scruton. That maybe was a factor.

Not slating Diskin by any means also think that game was his best all season, hes just abit slow when we needed some pace at the PTB, thats my only criticism from that game.

I dont think evans will be retained dont think he is big enough for a prop not yet anyway, Nas, Sidlow and Scruton attract 2-3 players, when evans runs in they may only need 1 to stop him, also wish sidlow would just run at the line hard and fast instead of turning losing momentum and trying to offload, guy is 6-4 and weighs 18 stone something like that, would take some stopping if he charged the line or ran at an angle.

Well, that's one I can't win, isn't it, if I never altered any stated opinion ever, I'd be damned for that, and if I did, I'd be equally damned as above



The truth is I give my opinion as it seems to me at any given time, and am perfectly amenable to both reason and experience. In the case of Gale, I was of course never arguing that he was all that, but simply ridiculing posts that were claiming he was, in typical forum hyperbole, utter rubbish and the worst scrum half prospect since Toulouse Lautrec.

I would still disagree with anyone who doesn't think Gale has potential to be a good player, even on Sunday he showed a lot of nice touches, and he is hardly an old man. But he (like some of the others) isn't now standing up to be counted when it matters, and the point about Widnes was that just when we needed him to steady the ship and come up with something sensible, he sunk the ship. Not, btw, single-handedly, but still it was poor and unnecessary.


I wouldn't agree it summed up Gale's season, but it certainly fairly summed up ours. The new club crest should be a smoking gun over a bleeding foot.


I agree Gale could be OK, and he has been OK. But whilst yes, a good PAIR of halfbacks is a bonus, Gale needs to be coming on, stamping his authority, calling the shots and standing or falling by his decision making and his leadership. I don't want our scrum half getting bossed about by anybody. The only thing I'd add is that he actually had a failry decent game overall on Sunday, but the major disappointment was his inability to turn our pressure into points in the first half, and then it is just that any good work was wiped out by what happened in the second half.

If I thought he was crap, then I wouldn't have been anywhere near as disappointed as I am.

I thought Sidlow's offloads were good at the weekend. If you attract players in and still get the ball away it creates space and takes it out of the opposition. I thought he looked good in fact I was thinking FC could've left him on a bit longer.

Diskin had a better game but I agree that he's not the quickest off the mark. If we could combine his experience and eye for a gap with O'Brien's pace we'd have a great hooker, methinks O'Brien is now worth a shot but I've a feeling they'll give Diskin another year.

FC seems keen on Evans but I'm not that convinced. He might be good in a few years but we need men who can do the job now like Carvell.

It's all about commitment though. The scoreline says one team in Origin 2 got flogged, but if the Bulls defended as a team with only half the commitment shown by them, I would spend 10 minutes applauding them off the field.

You can see when a team is busting a gut to defend their line.

so they can become a true partnership. It does depend on fitness obviously, which is pretty much in the lap of the gods and they haven't been too kind so far.

Interesting stat I was told last week is that gale and sammut have only been our starting halves 5 times in the two years they've been with us. They squeak into double figures of games played together once you include games where one has started on bench. Seem to think gale has missed bulk of both pre-seasons too. It was nearly Jeffries plus one of them last year and its been addy and one of them bulk of this year. Certainly no excuse for weakness in their individual play, but maybe explains why they don't seem to link up well.