Paul Sykes, Jamie Langley, Rikki Sheriffe, Sam Burgess, Glenn Morrison, Nick Scruton, Steve Menzies, Terry Newton, Elliott Whitehead, Julien Rinaldi, Dave Halley, Chris Nero, Andy Lynch, Craig Kopczak, Ben Jeffries, Semi Tadulala, Michael Worrincy, Michael Platt, Paul Deacon.

Platt and Whitehead to miss out?

What has Cook done to warrant being completely dropped from the 19 though?

maybe refused to sign a new contract?

Could be right. Can't see why though. He's been having a good run in the first team this season. Can't see Matt James re-signing though.

as an outsider looking in suspect cook might feel he's been overshadowed a bit by worrincy plus with donaldson and whitehead coming through club might not be prepared to pay him as much as he wants. Wouldnt be surprised to see him leave to somewhere like hull/hull kr. Be a shame as he's had his best season for us this year and has looked a lot more confident.

If he was dropped for contract reasons that would be unbelievably unprofessional of the coaching staff.
I'd be disappointed to see him go as he's shown good signs of improvement over the last year or so.

seems strange that first week he missed we had reports of a hamstring problem/ he'd been dropped depending on paper you read, then last week it was dropped in every report plus he played for reserves. Would have thought we'd have brought him back for saints game unless we're very confident in whitehead.

out of those If all fit I'd go with

halley
semi
nero
menzies
sheriffe
sykes
jeffries
lynch
rinaldi
scruton
morrison
langley
burgess

newton
kopczak
whitehead
worrincy

swap deacon for sykes if sykes isnt fully fit. prefer menzies at to strengthen weak defense on that side and give burgess free reign at loose, where I feel he creates more than langley. likewise give rinaldi a bit more game time in starting hooking role.

Could have initially been fitness and the reserves run out was to test him out, could be McNamara's resting him as a chance to test out whitehead/olbison, could be we're blindly guessing.

I'd be extremely happy so see that team, but we all know Deacon will play! I also think we'll see Platt sit though on the bench again

One of three things I suspect.

1. Injury.
2. Being pretty average and looking more and more like he will never fulfill his potential.
3. McNamara has dropped him to spite me cos I put him in my Fantasy League side.

I reckon 3 TBH.

He may not have done anything to be dropped but I think the others selected add more to the team than Cookie. He works hard but so do the other backrowers available.

That's the one IMO.

I think in Whieheads brief spell he looked to have a lot more potential and talent than Cook.

according to team news txt from bulls, sykes is expected to return and menzies to revert to 2nd row. Big mistake imo as saints will exploit weak defense down sykes/sheriffes side of field, leaving aside question we'd be better playing sykes in halves.

we've looked much stronger defensively when menzies has been in that spot and with morrison and burgess back we're strong enough in 2nd row to warrant leaving steve out wide.