When an 18 year old Karmichael Hunt came into the team at Brisbane, Wayne Bennett switched the Kangaroos fullback and captain Darren Lockyer to 6 to accommodate him. He never got his fullback spot back again.

And was the 6 who Lockyer replaced, a better stand off than Lockyer?

Ashton is poetically the most exciting young fullback in the game. Thought that Jack Walker, but injuries really restricted that. If okay him as first choice FB as Ratchford not getting any younger age Wire need to look forward or it will never be 'your year'!!

This however is the “best post of the year”.
I love the idea of a poetically exciting fullback. Maybe it was the strength of his Haiku that nailed down the fullback berth. Did Ratchford’s iambic pentameter let him down on the Captain’s run? I demand answers.

there once was a fullback from leeds...

He didn't happen to swallow a packet of seeds, did he?

He replaced Ben Ikin who had struggled with injuries. Ben was previously State Of Origin standard though.

Ben Ikin retired early in 2004.

“If only he had been called Dallas Meads”

Byron was actually one of Cumbria’s most promising young poets-cum-RL props until he failed a drug test. True story. He laments it in prose in one of his later works

Ashton had a bit of a Jarvis on Saturday but so did head high shot sarginson difference being sarginson had 12 players on the pitch that played the conditions a bit better than ours..I'd go as far as say were a tadge more determined than ours...now that we are in October(monsoon season)do we chuck Ashton in the stands put ratchford fb and move Austin from loose to partner widdop.

Ashton has shown enough in his short time with us to have given our head coach a real dilemma in selection for a big game in horrible conditions at the weekend. In hindsight he may have made a different decision, certainly on starting matty, but we don't live in hindsight and I for one was happy with the team selection at the start of the match so I'm not going to complain in hindsight. Ultimately we didn't know how Ashton would perform in those conditions and in the biggest match of his young career so far, he needs these experiences to learn and grow.

Luke gale said in his after match interview on Saturday that he played differently on this occasion after not being able to effectively play the Conditions in the grand final a few years back. I hope matty takes stock of that and grows from this experience like Luke Gale has. He has raw pace and raw talent and its important now to stick with him and allow him to develop and learn from experiences. I'd still think we should be looking to tie him down to a long term contract given what he has shown us so far.

I always thought Gerard Manley Hopkins had a big future as a full back, he did that swivel of the hips move that deceived many an on rushing tackler.

Don’t get me started on how deceptive Oscar Wilde could be.

saturdays game was crying out for forwards, ratch at 13 was weird, ratch's substitution was weird, not bring Jace on till late in the second half was weird.

Saturday was not a day to experiment, or try and be fancy, it wasn't a day for pace. We should have gone with what we know works, and commited to the grind.



As captain hook has said elsewhere though, there's a severe knee jerk occuring though, we've been very very good since the restart, and all its took is one defeat (i'm not counting midweek) for everyone to time jump back to september last year.

Ashton needs to learn his lesson, and austin needs a rollocking for those stupid miracle balls he's never thrown EVER before.

We move on, and see how we bounce back v the pies, whats the forecase like this week?

Yep! Big, bearded, bonking, butch Oscar. The terror of the ladies. 114 illegitimate children, world heavyweight boxing champion and author of the best-selling pamphlet "Why I Like To Do It With Girls." And Massingbird had him sent down for being a whoopsie

Weather forecast looking good for Friday NO RAIN! 9 degrees and relatively light wind. As we all know though Leeds can have 4 seasons in one day autumn, winter, mid winter and winter.

And they're all in 1956

I keep seeing this talk of knee jerk reactions after Saturday, yet I don't see it. If anything, most of the knee jerking has been going on in previous weeks, when some on here have been massively overhyping our performances since the restart - The most laughable being Duckie's assessment that the present squad is the greatest he has ever witnessed.

Most sensible people have simply held fire (and continue to) over this squad and Price's future until the season has ended - Saying that if we now don't win the SL title then Price should go isn't a knee jerk reaction. It's a perfectly sensible thing to do. Rewarding continuing failure isn't exactly a policy that has got us far before, has it?

Surely there is a balance to be considered when young academy players come into the first team ? They are not going to be better than the player they displace simply because they have not got the experience, and the game is played much faster to boot. If you wait for them to get better than the first choice before playing them, they will be picking up their pension, So they get game time from the bench in short snatches, and they get picked for easier games where we are still expected to win. At some point in the season injuries may allow them in, and there will be times where the two points no longer matter. So the coach balances out the cost of giving a youngster a run in the first team (and making mistakes), with the benefit of the experience they gain (and getting a new first team player).

Normally I don't think we would see a young player like Ashton get so much game time, but then again we wouldn't expect 4-5 tries in their first few matches either. Plus he is a crowd puller, people love to see him at pace running through the opposition defence. Price made a judgement call by playing him at FB and it didn't pay off. But as CW8 said, hindsight is a wonderful thing and if Ashton had raced through in the last few minutes to score and win the game, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Should you move one of the best FB's in SL just to accommodate an intern ? It does seem a bit of a slap in the face for Ratchford. But he is now 32 and has perhaps 2-3 years left at this level. But we will need a replacement at some point and that person needs to get experience under his belt. If you can still exploit Ratchford's talents, and if you can afford the mistakes the new guy will almost certainly make, then it's an option. Perhaps not for such a big game as the CC semi though.

Ignoring RD as far as possible, no one said after 1 victory that this was a GF winning team, in fact I don’t think anyone has said it. The knee jerk reaction, in my view, comes from those who kept quiet after the wins but leapt on Saturday as the end of days.

Ashton was terrific against a big physical Catalan side, which is how the dilemna came to be for semi final. Ashton is growing into the fullback role, and looks to have the attributes to be Ratchford's heir apparent. One thing that baffled me, was Stef's subbing, which made me wonder if he wasn't fit, or if he picked up a knock during the game? If anybody, it should have been Widdop to come off, as he didn't give Salford anything to worry about.

It can work both ways CH, as there were some claiming we looked unbeatable prior to last weeks two games. Thing that bothers me most, is our historical inability to be able to be at our peak in October in cooler and wetter conditions. We don't seem to be able to apply the appropriate game management when were leading in such conditions, and make the opposition chase the game.

Very likely a result of Tyrone Mccarthys cannonball tackle on ratchford knees. I can't believe he hasn't been banned for that and lineham is serving an 8 match ban for what I would say was an inconclusive squirrel grip. Unless there were other camera angles that showed something more conclusive that is. The rfl needs to get a grip, how can a potentially career ending challenge to somebody's knees be less of an offence than a ball grab? I get its not comfortable but it's not likely to threaten any careers is it.

Just play Ashton on the wing when Ratchford is available at fullback.

This is the most sensible solution at the minute. I can understand why price didn't though our back line has been in really good form recently. Mamo, charnley, Ashton, gelling and lineham too when he was available.

Anybody who has been questioning lineham must surely see the worth of having his carries out of defence and knack for sliding over the whitewash now.