And they all played together. Should have won the big 'un. Were so close.

Paul Wood in front of Hill and Cooper - seriously?

I can accept him in front of Carvell just on length of service but the vast, vast majority of his career he was our third or fourth choice prop.

Agree with that.

Morley
Hill
Cooper
Wood
Carvell

Morley and hill a way ahead, but Cooper catching up given his form since he returned.

I think there is an argument for Hill as No1 when you think of the season where he and Sims were our only 2 props of note and he on occasion he was playing 80 minutes. Paul Wood was a great servant to the club but nowhere near that level.

Very good point. I think it was 2015-2017 where we were a bit pants on depth of forwards. Hill was a machine and possibly does deserve to be on a par with Morley.

The worst thing we did (for his form) was give him the captaincy.

Cooper is a better prop IMO, those 5 listed are the best props we have had I'm my time watching wire. Carvell I think was a fantastic signing. Him and Morley with monoghan at 9, just magnificent.

Wood is probably bottom of that pile but he definitely deserves to be up there for longevity and effort for the wire cause. He was a very good player but the other 4 have been exceptional for wire IMO.

Either way we have, comfortably, the best front 3 in the competition currently.

Is Hills contract up at the end of this year?
If so, losing him for next year will be a big blow. He's had a new lease of life since concentrating on his game and not having the captaincy. Powell certainly has clear ideas about what he wants but this must have been a difficult decision.
Do you get rid before their form starts to wane or at the end of the season when it has started to wane?
I suppose it's a combination of contract length and value.
I suspect if we'd have offered him a 2 year deal on slightly less money than Hudds he could well have stayed.
Watson has a good record of eeking out performances and years from older players. I can see why Hill fits the bill.

So Coops has an even more important role - hopefully Bullock and co will learn a lot and come up to the mark.
I like Mulhern and Butler but they are not a Chris Hill - neither are Kibula or Doro (even accounting for their age and relative inexperience - Doro looks more likely to have a longer career at Wire at the moment).

There used to be a page on here with contract lengths and end dates. Wish we had that.

Surely it was being flattened by Brad Pitt in Snatch.

Good un

Gorgeous George. Pretty sure he didn’t have any lines in that movie though?

2019

No you didn't, I just thought it may have been announced from the way you wrote your post.

I think he may be Powell's type of player

If hill is going I hope bullock is not his replacement really underwhelming last few games on sky.

I know Powell gets the best out of average players and such but that's not what we've signed him to do. The logic is imagine what he can get out of much better players at his disposal !! Bullock would be ok replacing sita but not hill

He did, he shouted "get back down and f in stay down" to 'one punch Mickey' (Brad Pitt)

I'd be happy with Bullock in our prop rotation, but not happy if he was THE replacement for Hill. That's if hill leaves anyway he might re-sign with us.

If Hill is leaving, I am surprised Wigan haven't shown some interest. He's better than anything they have got. Personally, I'd give him a 2 year contract....just based on the fact he is in top form at the moment and there isn't anyone I can think off that can come in and replace him properly. As others have said, Bullock is not at the level to be considered a Hill replacement. Yes he will add to the squad, but he won't be the Alpha Male in the pack.

Wigan's recruitment seems incredibly odd at the moment. They're bidding for Williams but have some awful props. They've made a few signings for next season, but none of them are going to help their issues.

Singleton, Bullock, Partington and Havard made 175m last night at around 5m per carry. Alex Walmsley alone did 164m. I'd imagine it was a similar position the previous week against you, if not worse.

True, we've been pining for another top-quality prop for a while but our issues are insignificant compared to Wigan.

As Oxford Exile put above, packs need at least one 'alpha male' prop such as a Cooper or Walmsley. They have some promising young forwards but none close to fitting that bill.

There’s obviously a bit more to it at Wigan. They seem reluctant to spend any money at all. They have a wealthy new investor which is a great safety net but neither he nor Lenagan seem to want to put their hands in their pockets. Hill would be an ideal fit for them but he wouldn’t come that cheap if Huddersfield are competing with them.

They’re a bit short of experienced props, and next year who will be their half-backs with no Hastings or Leuluai? Harry Smith running things on his own is clearly not the solution, especially behind a beaten pack.

Im surprised Powell isnt keeping Hill. When you think of Castleford and them keeping Shillington year after year despite his age. Hill could be invaluable.

Also if you are Hill are you feeling a little undervalued. When he looks back and sees we kept giving Morley a contract but despite how good he was for us he was gone and a shadow of his former self for the last 12-18 months of his time here. Hill is still performing but it looks like we are letting him go.

Morley was kept on 12 months too long really - at least. Maybe they are looking to not make the same mistake again?

And we don't know what sort of salary Hill is asking for if it's a two-year deal. It's bit like Coote at Saints. The replacement they have lined up (Welsby) isn't at the level of Coote yet, but if they give in to Coote's demands and hand him a 3-year deal taking up a significant amount of cap space it's a bit of a risk.

Of course this doesn't change the fact that he won't be easy to replace, as he's a machine at the moment.

Sorry its Grant Millington not Shillington at Castleford....possibly so, the clubs learnt from its mistake however props do tend to last longer than other players as they dont have the pace to lose to start with and are spelled.

I mean you could have a youngster like one of the Wigan forwards where i read he made 6 carries for 14 metres! Yes hes not helped by the rest of the Wigan pack being young even still 14 metres is pretty poor.

On another note, remember we had Saddened on here moaning about Akuala's running technique leading with the shoulder. I didnt catch the much of the saints game last night however i saw Pasi's first drive of the second half. He had the exact same style lead with his shoulder, which could have been exactly the same as Akuala if he was taller, faster and ran with the same aggression....