It struck me that against Saints we looked very dangerous when bombs were utilised on the opposition 20. Got me thinking about our 5th tackle options in general and that with Deacon out they seemed to have been improving.

Ive not been Ben Jefferies number one fan but if he is allowed to take charge more I feel the team are less predictable and more dangerous.

Well that's a critism I've levelled at Deacon many times. His problem is he does virtually the same kick 99.9999999% of the time. With some of his kick off's you can pretty much predict exactly where it'll come down because it's the same place his last 20 kicks came down. Now, 10/10 for accuracy for him but -1,000,000 for adventurous play

Deacon's kick offs are more accurate than the US Army's bombs on Iraq...Sign him up for radar, hits the target everytime...problem is that after the first 3 kick offs Al Quaida would move yet Deacs wouldnt change...

Well Sykes is taking the kick-offs so you must be happy

. Deacs and Jeffries seem to be sharing the in-game kicking, which is good as it makes it less predictable.

Indeed, unfortunately for too long the "plan" seems to have been to always look for Deacon on the last tackle.

Hopefully the team won't suddenly revert to type now, though when games are tougher, or things aren't going that well, it will always be a temptation for players to go back to the long standing plan.

Jeffries has to keep this level of performance up though, given his improvement on last years efforts you'd have thought he was playing for a contract or something.

Agreed. We have three players to look to now as Jeffries and Sykes have proved they can handle it.

I also think the "always look for Deacon" tactics of the last couple of years have also made him look worse than he is*, and has led to a lot of the criticism he has been receiving.

* [size=34yes Tigertot, I know he doesn't need too much help looking bad[/size

If the ball was bombed on the 4th tackle into the in goal area and caught by a defender would it still be considered "defused"

Yes it doesn't matter on which tackle it is.