Wire squad: Matty Ashton, Joe Bullock, Daryl Clark, Ben Currie, Josh Drinkwater, Matt Dufty, Lucas Green, James Harrison, Leon Hayes, Sam Kasiano, Peter Mata'utia, Josh McGuire, Greg Minikin, Matty Nicholson, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Matty Russell, Josh Thewlis, Paul Vaughan, Danny Walker, George Williams

Dufty
Thewlis
Minikin
Ratchford
Ashton
Williams
Hayes
Harrison
Walker
Vaughan
Currie
Nicholson
McGuire

Clark
Bullock
Kasiano
Philbin

Still think Drinkwater will play but it’s time to give Hayes a run for me.

No excuses with that squad. Time to string a full 80 minutes together.

I'd be surprised if Mata'utia was dropped, although I know where you're coming from. The interesting thing will be what he does with Dufty / Thewlis / Russell. Whether Powell used the Wakey game as a shot across his bow's so to speak and to give Thewlis some gametime, or whether he feels Dufty's form deserves to be dropped - neither Thewlis or Russell for me deserves to be dropped, so will be interesting but will probably see one of Thewlis or Russell on the bench.

Reason I dropped him was in my opinion he was a disgrace from my pov last Friday. And if Powell is dropping people (Dufty) based on performance then he as to drop Mata’utia, well I would but I’m not the coach

Yeah, I think dropping Dufty was meant as a kick up the backside for him, rather than something that's going to be longer-term. I'd expect Dufty to return at full-back this week. Tough call on Thewlis or Russell for the wing spot, though.

Yeh tough decision to make but just a thought if Powell is going to drop players based on performance how about Russell at centre Thewlis on the wing. I really believe Mata’utia needs to be dropped.

Powell has made a bit of a rod for his own back with thewlis, obviously if dufty comes available, you have to sign him(maybe) but thewlis was told he was going to be first choice winger with ashton this year, with a view to getting reps and game time, then we sign russell and there's been this, on again off again issue of if russell was preffered. he's in danger of being forced out through no fault of his own.

Could Drinkwater be dropped? He has been off the boil for a few weeks now and his kicking game has not been very good.

Thewlis got MoM last week didn’t he? I like Russell, but we shouldn’t be relying on his scoots from dummy half for yardage - we have a full pack available. Thewlis starts for me.

It’s why I included Hayes in my selection, now Powell as given us something to talk about after dropping Dufty we can pick our hopeful teams based on what we have seen. For what it’s worth I don’t think Drinkwater as fired at all yet.

Earlier in the season he was doing OK - we seemed well organised and kicked OK but recently this is not the case.

Also I am still waiting for SOO, Australian international and Word Cup winner Josh McGuire to turn up ...

Aye another one but kept my council on him for time being.

Thaler is the ref, good job it’s not a TV game

The big problem is the standard that our reserves are playing at. It is such a huge jump to Super League v HKR, so to put Hayes in would be such a gamble. I cannot see it happening.

I watched the game v. Wakefield on Wire TV (& think Wakey have at last got themselves a decent pack). I thought McGuire had a decent game & was pretty creative in attack ... he's got good hands.
I will watch the game Wak v Hull with interest to see how their pack goes on.

What are people genuinely expecting from McGuire?

From what I had seen of him in the NRL, he's a very meat & 2 veg type of player - does the basics well, not shy of hard work, but not exactly some barnstorming runner, who's going to have the crowd off its feet regularly.

I think a few people have fallen into the trap (once more) of believing Aussie automatically = eye-catching, elite player, on another level to everyone else.

I honestly think what we are seeing from McGuire so far won't be that different from what we will get from here on in - He will be solid & unspectacular.

Fair comment, he was hyped up more than Vaughan was and guess it’s that what was expected given how Vaughan as started off for us.

Peter Matautia took a big knock early in the second half against Wakey. He was hobbling quite a bit after and I was surprised that Dufty came on to replace Thewlis. I thought PM might have been replaced because he wasn't very mobile.

I think Thewlis stays at Fullback.

I can't see Drinkwater getting dropped to be honest, he's far more experienced. And Hull KR will be a tough test so i can't see it.
I would like Hayes to get a game at some point though.

Maybe. I was expecting more than 4 tackle busts, 3 offloads, 13 carries per game and an average gain of 5.33m though in 4 games. That's Jason Clarke territory. He is doing a lot of tackling though at 37 per game.

McGuire will be fine. He's only played in the games that we've been poor as a whole team. He was brought in to make the team more resilient, and I've got no doubts he'll do that. He's also got a decent pair of hands and he's a workhorse. The only concern is that he's a grubby player, but that's usually the case with tough, uncompromising players. It's what we were missing last year. Having said that, I do feel he's holding back a little after his faux pas pre-season.

Anyone who's seen the NRL knows that Vaughan and McGuire are chalk and cheese, so we shouldn't expect the same sort of running impact.

have we been poor SINCE he came into the team? one to ponder...

I'd put it more down to losing Mikaele than McGuire coming in. As someone stated McGuire is just going to be a slightly better Jason Clark and him coming into the side did not offset the loss of Mikaele. Bullock and Philbin coming back should see us start to improve (they were both decent last week). Been really impressed with Bullock for a while.