I know everyone is worshipping his right boot which is justified no doubt, but just watched the KR game through again and just watching his movement and his options and I know he stifles our attack at the best of time always standing us up and hitting front men and wasting over laps. But it is literally every time he gets the ball, he is predictable and seems scared to throw a decent pass wide or deep. In the first half we had a man overlap with a good shape (this is early in first half when we were getting dominated) He decided to show and go and just get sat on basically.
Luke Gale on his return will not only improve our possession kicking but will massively increase what looks to be a good and blossoming attacking unit! Anyone know which games he is roughly going to be in contention for?

Dan Addy has to take some huge praise for the creativity he brought and the extra dimension he gave us. Does anyone else think the next two weeks with Langley possibly out be an audition for the 13 jersey and FINALLY move him up to the front row where many believe he belongs?

Who is this Jefferies? Is he any relation to the Jeffries, who wisely sticks to what he's good at?

I would agree to a point and have been screaming for the ball to move left quicker all season, either simply along the line or out the back to Kearney. However along with the scoot from dummy half the flat/crash in the middle third is clearly a Potter tactic and not just a BJ thing. This is probably because if your forwards aren't on top the wide ball is a high risk option as our handling has been dire on the flanks up until recently. Sammut isn't the world's best long passer either and is much more confident taking the line on. Hence I think you're right in what you're saying but don't think Jeffries is the problem.

Whilst I'm not a Langley knocker there can be no doubt Lulia and Crookes saw more ball when he went off than our backs saw all last year and that's not just because Addy came on. Langley dies with the ball 100% and even Hargreaves is a much more natural passer. Addy is a nice player with the ball who can pass either way but he misses Dobson for the Lovegrove try. I'd keep Addy at 13 and bring Kearney to 6 and put Sykes at fullback.

Firstly, cheers for a grown up response

Think though if the ball is there to be played and a over lap to be taken advantage of, 2 or three passes need to come, not putting all the blame on Jeffries for the Bulls attack because no doubt he was magic with his boot at Wakey. Just think sometimes he shortens us up too much, and yes I agree Potter does like these crash balls, but they are over played. You can tell by the back options reactions throwing their hands up in frustration sometimes. We do have some big lads out wide and Crookes has pace to burn but the ball just isn't coming. Sammut is known for trying things and give him a one on one out back with a few big backs on his shoulder and they will be trouble.

I'm not slating Langley either, I think he is a brilliant work horse and an absolute machine going forward and defending. But I still think that in modern day rugby league you need that extra dimension with ball in hand, and giving Lulia the ball with what he showed he can do on Saturday can only be positive. Think Langley should be our starting prop with Hargreaves, who has massively improved so far this year. Like a new player since he's lost a bit of the tub

I think we've been a dreadfully unconfident team. Herbert was slow motion and so we just got into the habit of not having the time to move it wide. Brian Noble said on the Super League Show that against HKR we looked like we knew we were going to win and he was right. As confidence flowed through the team so the ball flowed across the park (see how I did that?). With our left side a genuine threat the ball will come quicker and more often as we really believe we can hurt teams.

It's just wins we need now!!!!! COYB

I saw what you did there, very clever haha. Think Kearney said in the interview after the game that he knew they were always going to win, and it seemed very genuine. As a supporter I thought same. Home win to start a run of making Odsal the fortress it once was

Your original grown up post re Jefferies (sic):
[list
[*he stifles our attack at the best of time[/*:m
[*always standing us up[/*:m
[*=#8000FF(always) hitting front men [/*:m
[*=#8000FF(always) wasting over laps. [/*:m
[*literally every time he gets the ball, he is predictable[/*:m
[*seems scared to throw a decent pass wide or deep[/*:m[/list:u

It seems to me that the side is a work in progress and that Jeffries was, before Gale was injured, seen as cover. You can see why as Gale seems to be more confident dictating play and has better vision. However we are where we are.

I agree Jeffries does take the wrong option a few times. One huge missed chance last week was in the 1st half before we scored when he ignored a massive overlap on the left. As the game went on we seemed better at shifting the ball that direction, I just hope we continue to do that.

Recent seasons have seen us have little threat out wide, sometimes due to slow service from the halfbacks, sometimes down to an over conservative gameplan and sometimes down to a basic lack of decent backs. I actually think our left side is now looking a bit more like it and we can actually capitalise on the graft up front. It's going to take some time for halfbacks and forwards to get used to it I think.

Jeffries ain't Lockyer but we have seen a massive improvement in recent weeks and he has been central and key. He has done nothing to deserve a bagging, in fact entirely the contrary, and all the more so since as you point out he isn't even first choice. reading the OP you might as well pick a dead sheep.

Don't think I've bagged him anywhere have I? He certainly was central to our win at Wakey and has certainly had some of his better games vs Wire and HKR. That said there's no harm in discussing where he could improve.

As I said, with genuine options to pass to for the first time in years I'm hopeful he'll get even better.

The main thing is that we back up if somebody makes a break-we didn`t do that 1st half last week but when we got on a roll 2nd half it was good to watch, also we must have the biggest 3quater back line in SL now-lets keep shifting the ball to them!

You? er, no. I thought it was clear whom I was chiding.

If im being honest I would much sooner have Addy and Jeffries. Purely because Addy is less prone to throwing the game away like Sykes. Although I do like Sykes I prefer him at Centre or even Fullback. But he can cost games but on the other hand he could put in a quality performance which he has done before.

By the way Jeffries can kick, he just prefers not to kick.

I'd be fairly sure that selection this weekend will be influenced by who gets the goal kicking duties, and I'd assume that a few have been practising/auditioning for the role. If Jeffries or Addy have looked the part in practice then probably Potter will go with one of them, but if not I suspect Sykes will get the nod (as kicker) and then it's a matter of where he is fitted into the team to best effect/so as to cause minimum disruption.

I hope we can avoid messing around too much with positions, but we [ican't[/i go into a game without a half reasonable goalkicker.

Jeffries kicking to the right hand side is something I'm looking forward to if we've got Whitehead, Purtell and Pryce down that side.

Against Foster

Pyrce, Purtell and Whitehead will have their way with him all day



If Sykes is in the team for kicking he needs to got to FB. He cannot replace Lulia and Purtell in centres and he is certainly not good enough for Stand Off. Addy will then probably go to Loose depending on how fit Langley is although I would prefer Bateman to Loose for this game.

T & A has Sykes at SO and Addy at Loose; I'm assuming that's not just a guess...though I suppose Potter might be just trying to confuse Saints and he has something entirely different in mind...to be honest I give up.

I suspect Sykes will be named at Stand off but Kearney will be in the stand off position in attack but will be defending at full back, we did this against Castleford at odsal last year and Sykes did very little in attack but had a very good game defensively. Having a ball playing loose forward in Addy may also take some of the pressure off of the halves to create.

Yeah that Jeffries is turd not worth paying in washers.

=#FFFFFFThis is a dig at the opening poster.