Cooper, Hill & Philbin have always been our most selected props over the last 3 years. There has been an over reliance on them during that period, we tend to struggle in the pack if one or more of them is missing. Davies or Clarke covering as prop isn’t the answer, they don’t have the presence and go forward we need. It’s a position that needs looking at urgently, Hill isn’t getting any younger & last night was another example that if Cooper doesn’t play we get outmuscled.

Now that BBM has left we really will be lacking a bit of punch in the back row too, Clark & Hughes are very much the same in terms of being good defensively with a quick PTB - that’s about it. Currie, will always have good hands & skill to offer something different however because of injuries he just isn’t the same player he was.

Rob Butler will be handy picky up, when it hopefully gets announced. But we still need another prop, Sita & Latu from what I’ve seen are not the answer.

Quick ptb??? Really? When? Clark slows the game down for us more than the opposition tacklers do, why does he try to stay standing on the tackle when we have a referee in Liam Moore that flat refuses to call held? It's just plain dumb, the defensive line has been set for 10 seconds by the time he plays the ball. There were even some tackles last night where the whole defensive line could have set themselves, put on a smoking jacket, pulled a hamlet out of one of their socks and smoked the lot before the tackle was complete, and that's even if they had to share a lighter!

Don't understand currie being brought in to any of this he's been really good this season and during our winning run was fantastic. We played out best when price was forced in to king and currie in the second row, that was the lineup that linked our forwards and our backs instead of looking like we play as 2 separate units. The team was much better balanced.

Not just Moran, Stuart Middleton has been putting more into the club in recent years. Mike Lomax and Lance James probably put in too.

Every single match attending fan has seen opposition forwards galloping over our pack for the last couple of years and then when we have the ball barely making it over halfway and then the hit and hope Austin kick praying Toby King hasn't fallen asleep. Then what do we use with any spare cash we have is to bring in Latu and Kibula. I'm sure I saw these 2 on a missing persons poster in Golden Square! FFS surely heads have to roll for this ridiculous situation. We should change our chant to "It'll never be our year"! (PS For those who reply "What about the Challenge Cups" I'd say you can win that by playing 3/4 good games. The GF is the big one and everyone knows it....even Catalans won a CC and Salford nearly did!) C'mon Wire get some big nasty props in or you'll struggle to sell season tickets with what is being dished up!

Every season you tell us Wire will "win the lot"

Some good points in there. Additionally;

I don't think we are getting the best from Daryl Clark, simply because he gets sucked into too much of the hard defensive work with the opposition forwards - which our pack needs to be doing.

We have scored quite a few long distance tries this year. Forget the fact that they look really good when they come off, ask why it is happening. I think the simple reason is that we are not further up field because our pack struggles to get us there.

Whilst no younger props are being introduced to the squad (imported or from Academy), our two front line props will be 32/33 next year and Hill is certainly starting to fade.
We have been running down our resources and doing nothing to replace them ( perhaps with Doro there is some hope).

It's ironic that our near neighbour who has done pretty well with props has now managed to secure a very decent prospect for next year. They have plugged a gap very early whilst we seem to be oblivious to the fact that we have even got a problem.

The situation isn't unique to props. If a new coach does come in, he has the short term task of getting more out of the current squad and a longer term job of rebuilding the team via recruitment (which needs to improve dramatically) and integrating youngsters into the starting 17.

Hill, Cooper, Ratchford, Widdop, Austin, Patton, J Clark, Gelling, Akuola, Latu are, for one reason or another, going to need replacing in the next 3 years and that project needs to start NOW with the appointment of a proven coach and giving him control over player recruitment.

...and perhaps you se my frustration at a coach that stubbornly refuses to pick props.
We didn’t need much to get us over the line, playing Latu for 10-15mins might well have been enough with our early field dominance to crack open FC.

Let's be honest though ,concerning forwards, the only import we have than can play long minutes is Jason Clark. Sita , Latu & BMM are all lacking in that department & during his time here BMM hasn't really lived up to the hype. All in all ,signing such low minute players has left our home grown forwards doing increasingly more work. If you are signing overseas players you should at least expect them to share the workload & maybe even show our players how to do the job better. Perhaps one of our first jobs should be to sack the scouting staff.

We have scouting staff??? Goodness me, you live and learn.

D. Clarke hasn’t quite managed the lofty heights of last year, whether that’s to do shouldering more defensive work or being targeted by the opposition that’s a possibility. This season compared to last, he hasn’t been as influential whether that be due to Covid (not training for 4/5 months) or new baby related who knows but the same can be said about Philbin too, neither of them have really caught my eye compared to their 2019 form. When they both earned their GB spots...

One positive is that we definitely seem to have abit more strike and ability to score from long distance especially down that left side primarily down to King, but assisted by Currie/Mamo/Widdop. I suppose it will be interesting to see if we decide to keep King there or move Inglis to that side, because I’m fairly certain Inglis prefers the left centre position (If he comes of course). But I get your point we seem a lot more eager to try and go around a side rather than run over it...

Time and time again, when it comes to a slug fest down the middle, the going gets tough and we tend to struggle. The Cup semi-final against Salford was a good example of this, we couldn’t do the basics right made far to many costly errors and they out enthused us going forward. You could probably say the same about the Leeds game in Feb and few other examples this year and last that spring to mind.

Age is also a factor, Hill & Cooper realistically don’t have many playing years ahead of them. If there was any a time to blood in a new prop or give an academy lad a start it should be from next year. I’d like to see Hill on the bench with Doro/new signing given an opportunity but unfortunately we are likely to stick with the tried and tested thanks to Price.

St Helens and Wigan have both brought in two decent props A. Paasi & Brad Singleton - they seem to be a lot more efficient in that department, we are just as inconsistent off the field as we are as much on it.

Korbin Sims signs for HKR, surely we’ve missed a trick there..

[urlhttps://twitter.com/hullkrofficial/status/1329499432421793792?s=21[/url

I’d go after Thompson.

She was great in the Tall Guy.

There are loads of props signed by other superleague clubs for next year. Meanwhile our main 2 are another year closer to retirement and still awaiting some backup. We can't get through the season with 3 props the rest of what we have just isn't good enough. Hill, Cooper and Philbin bust a gut for the team but it's asking too much of them, we need 2 more and doro to bulk up as cover, although I'm far from convinced over doro.

Initial thought is yes.

I wonder if Ashton had plenty of positive things to say about Tony Smith?

I know we haven't been told officially who's staying and who's going with regards those who have contracts expiring at the end of this year, but if we believe the trade press in terms of who we are retaining, we have (I think) Patton and BMM leaving with Inglis and Butler coming in.

That would seem we are at least replacing the players that are leaving with incoming players in salary cap terms. So if we want to see more additions we will need to be able to move on other players before we sign more in my view. We have enough numbers in terms of props, just not the quality. If we could find a new home for Sita & Latu we would be able to bring in a replacement - until then, I don't think we'll see much more movement.

Luis Johnson made available to other clubs for 2021.

That's not surprising, as he's a second row and has been struggling to get a game.

Brilliant. We pay a fee for an exciting young talent, bring him across from Yorkshire,hardly play him and then tell him to leave. What decent young player in their right mind would sign with us?

Hopefully if three or four 'squad' players can be moved on (especially in areas where you are well stocked), you can get the additional props which to this observer are desperately needed.

Pretty sure we will have Widdop's marquee salary available to entice any props to us

And Kenan Brand being offered to clubs too. Another sad indicment of our woeful recruitment record the last few years.

Genuine question, why was signing Keanan Brand another sad indictment of our woeful recruitment record?

Maybe Johnson did not develop as the club expected him to? The club have shown in the past that if a player is good enough, they will play them, Currie, King, Philbin all got plenty of opportunities at a young age Johnson just never kicked on to suggest he was worth a place in the 17. A waste of £45k, but I'd rather the club was taking those chances than not. Maybe Robson staying meant there was no squad place for Johnson? I'd say Robsom looked the better of the two from the short gametime both have had. Not hat I expect either to be challenging for a spot in the 17 of a top squad.

Brand going out on loan would seem to make sense, he will have Inglis, King, Gelling and Mamo ahead of him. Doesn't mean his time at the club is over and to me doesn't mean it was a bad recruitment decision, this just gives him gametime in 2021 when reserves will not be an option. I wonder if he will find his way back to Widnes for a year?

Still looking to offload Latu according to League Express, I just don't see why anyone would take him, so unless we want to pay him off, or pay a share of his salary for 2021 to enable a move, I don't expect much movement.