Fair enough, but for me Charnley has stagnated and lost some pace. He may be a better all round player right now but in terms of a strike player Ashton is better.

Admittedly, Charnley is not being used well but Ashton and Thewlis are both young and represent the future - we have to throw them in.

Name me a team from the present squad that does. The current one didn't and it will probably be weaker in 2021.

But they wouldn't be used well either under the current regime. There will always be injuries so both will get their chances. I think Ashton just starts at fullback, he needs a big off season on defence and high kicks but he will be fine. Like you say he is so dangerous he has to be in and around the team.

Probably about the same. Capable of beating anyone and losing as well. Mind you most sides are like that.

That’s just my opinion btw. Not heard anything, just a hunch.

Defo got the makings of Chissy Mk 2 in all the right places

1 thwellis/ashton
2 charnley
3 gelling
4 king
5 lineham
6 inglis
7 austin
8 hill
9 clark
10 cooper
11 currie
12 hughes
13 ratchford

Philbin
Butler
Davies
J clark

We need to get ashton thwellis dean robson a d doro sometime too I'm sure there will be games they can be used to rotate and rest players as well as covering injuries but we still have to field our best team too to make sure that the young lads are playing in the best team to help them develop

Inglis could play at fullback centre and in the halfs quite competently if widdop is going back to australia it would be worth a shout a shout putting him at 6 it would cause the least disruption to the rest of the team and ha e ashton and thwellis battle it out for at full back position.

Butler is a prop at least so should ease the work load of hill cooper n Philbin we could do with one more who could be starting. We could when needed start with a prop at 13 for some games too. It all depends on what cap space will be available too if we see anybody else come in but I doubt we will see a high profile signing unless we see a few more aka sita n latu go

I think it absolutely is to do with the wing he is on. Widdop, Currie & King will offer more opportunities than Austin, Gelling & Hughes. I don't buy that Charnley has lost speed, we just don't get to see it enough as he isn't given the opportunity.

I don't mind King in the backrow, I think he is good there and allows Hughes to move to 13 where I think he is strongest. It probably, based on the current squad, gets our best 17 out on the field. But it smacks of poor squad management when you have to stick one of SL's best centres in to the backrow because we are short of genuine backrowers and have two props sat in the stands you have no intention of using. In an ideal world, King would stay in the centre, as that currently is where he is best.

I live in hope we can add a quality back rower to the squad. Josh Jones would be good, but my guess is he will follow Watson to Huddersfield.

OT, whilst thinking about next years line up.... I would seriously consider bringing Thewlis in at FB and pushing Ratch to 6. I thought we looked a lot more balanced with Widdop out of the side this year. Ashton to wing at the expense on Charnley or Lineham, not too sure who i think should move aside. But we need Ashtons pace.

Whats the crack with Gellings' court case, has it been settled? or delayed? So will he even be here next season? On form, ud have to give King the other centre birth with Inglis taking the other?

If Inglis can work with Ashton it could make a great combination, I would think any line breaks would result in try's. Clearly Ashton won't be as effective as either Charnley or Lineham at clearing the defensive lines, maybe that can be otherwise covered.

I was amazed that Ashton & Thewlis were asked to cart the ball up to clear the lines as if they were the same size as Lineham.
That does not have to happen. Silly.

King is just a really good player, second row or centre he will play really well. I can see why he would prefer to play centre for England purposes but for wire IMO the team would play better if he played 2nd row. I think he would be one of the best 2nd rows in superleague as well and the versatility he has would see him make the England squad. We do have plenty of 2nd row options really, just most are unfancied like Robson or young. I really like the look of longstaff as well. Dean, thewlis and longstaff should be a lot closer to the match day squad this season and will hopefully be trusted to cover injuries.

The lack of a reserve team is another barrier to promoting /keeping young, developing players.

Not to mention the lack of any rugby other than superleague being played. Hopefully the leagues below will be getting going next season. I think with club 12 not having as much cap to spend they could well be in the market for a few season long loans of younger players, I certainly hope so anyway.

[urlhttps://twitter.com/rugbyleagueitk/status/1332090077858697220?s=21[/url

Called it regarding Gelling, Catalans interested apparently.

I'm not sure Gelling has ever really settled, even prior to his off-field problems. He's been good at times and a liability at others and on balance I wouldn't be devastated if he left ........ provided we replace him, and not by resigning Gary Wheeler or some antipodean with both eyes on his pension.

I don't think we will replace him if he goes. We are pretty stocked in the centres. Inglis would take Gelling's place. Then we have King, Mamo, Brand, Currie, Hughes & Ratchford can play there.

To be fair I think that describes Gelling throughout his career!

We will need adequate cover for Inglis as he will probably miss games due to injury throughout the year. It’s whether we think a combination of Mamo, Brand & Roebuck are good enough cover?

Next year budgets will be tight so releasing Gelling probably makes sense. But another reason is that there will be no reserve games and no dual reg.next year, so over-age players like Roebuck will have nowhere to go (unless they get a season long loan). With Riley Dean, Eribe Doro and Nathan Roebuck's contracts finishing Nov '21 Price will need to see them playing at SL or Championship standard to make an assessment, preferably before end of April when the players can approach other SL sides. So I think our youngsters will be first pick when an injury occurs with the first team squad. There seems little point in Roebuck waiting behind King, Inglis, Gelling as he will probably never get a game. TBH the club really needs to make a call between Brand and Roebuck as well and release the one that doesn't get the nod. Perhaps send Brand back to Widnes on a season long loan ?

must admit, from the little that i've seen of both of them, roebuck showed more in that salford game, and i think that if we were to release gelling, there's nothing he couldn't replace directly. Gelling hasn't pulled up any trees this year and if anything i've been very disapointed with parts of his game.

if we can replace an expensive big lad with a cheaper big lad, and put some development on it, its win win.

Overall I've not been disappointed by Gelling and wouldn't be if he stayed on.

However, if he's going I agree with you and Charlie that there is merit beyond creating cap space with having a development pathway for the young lads a bit of a chance a bit of hope and from what we saw, all be it fleetingly, a bit of mettle. Added to that it's a position that we are well covered with good options and if it releases some funds for a freshen up or reinforcements elsewhere then happy days

I suspect most people will think the same as well. He is big and strong and takes a lot of marking, but he has always made daft errors. A straight swap of Gelling with Roebuck will certainly leave you short changed for some time to come - even assuming he kicks on, but I suppose the club has to make a decision and if Gelling is sitting on the sidelines waiting for King or Inglis to get injured it's probably an expensive option.

Yep - as others have said you get good and bad with Gelling, but I think the 'good' outweighs the bad.
Ignoring Inglis and King who will be 1st choice centres imo, none of the other players mentioned poses the same problems that Gelling does in attack (not considering Ratch here because we are likely to need him in other positions, although I am sure he'd do a great job), having said that we don't get to see Charnley at his best with Gelling even though (I think) they played together at Wigan.

Then there's the court case...... not sure about tbe timescale for all that, or whether anything is likely to happen.

Gelling won't want to be 3rd choice centre so I can see why he'd want to leave and it's logical that other clubs would be interested in a player of his quality.

With the cap involved, a lack of reserves and our youth coming through etc etc it makes sense in the bigger picture, BUT next year is SP's last year under contract, so are his thoughts going to be looking to develop the youth or will he 'play safe' and not risk them for fear of not getting another contract......... mmm.....

This. Gelling was mostly good, it often took him a while to settle in to a game but then he would be one of our better players once he had settled. Youngsters need game time and mamo can cover as well as charnley.