Bateman was a polar opposite to the modern RL centre. He was a stepper, a good pair of hands, and, for his weight, a tremendous defender.

I'm not sure what he could say to the modern centre, bar 'are you sure second row isnt your position?'.....

Jared waerea-hargreaves Would be a great addition to our Squad next year, i'd definately throw a contract at him. He's won a grand final 3 times and played for New Zealand etc so might be tempted by a new challenge?
Burrell i would like to see in the Front row, he's a big unit and i think the speed of league at centre is too much for him. I'm excited to see what he does next year after a full pre-season and like Lefty said i hope he does really well for us, i've got high hopes for him

Front row and Burrell are two distinct issues for me.

Is there really a place for Burrell next season bar back up wing? I don’t think so.

I think we got to much money tied up in our ageing front row without the value.
Time to offload one of the props while there is a fee possibility, and invest in a couple of hungry youngsters.
Hill has got a nice line in toilets in his showrooms tho.

he is probably more a modern day winger, than a prop.

He’ll be more of a modern day water carrier next year, just not seeing it. I’m sure he will play a fair few games as he suits our slow sloppy and boring style of play.

i think you have to give a former RU player a full 12 months before judging him.

It was the same back in the day... all those great RU converts were rubbish for ages.

its been so long since RL took some talent from RU, we dont know what the yardstick is anymore.

I certainly wont be writing this signing off before he has had 12-18 months here.... Any experience he has got from the game this season, is just a bonus really.

And that's the problem, time. I'm not wishing to prejudge or wish for failure in an 'I told you so' manner but he's 32 before we start next season and if the consensus is that he'll need most of it before we can judge him then that's not ideal.

I get the gamble with Burrell, his profile, background in RL and the need to increase the talent pool, but, the thing that I'm not convinced about is that we train this guy get him RL ready for the business end of next season (heading towards 33) and he's going to play where?

So far on here we've had winger, centre, second row, and prop when the club signed him you'd have thought they would have had a plan At this rate we've half a chance of knowing one way or the other Feb 21 what that was and whether it has paid off.

2018 and 2019 and likely for the foreseeable future(with the exception ofor Toronto)...is/were the easiest periods I've ever known for Wire to win a GF....probably why I've be most disappointed in these 2 years than ever.
We must make sure in 2020.
No excuses.

Depends on our recruitment our style of play.and we.ll be competing with saints Wigan Leeds for it...

There hasn't been enough recruitment to balance what has gone from Wigan. Leeds will be around Wigan and Cas zone.
Wire and saints will once again tailblaze.

What do you mean Wire will trailblaze, we finished 4th and you can hardly say we were finishing strong at the end of the season...

We tailblazed and without Currie and Brown and Patton threw in.
We suffered long suspensions from Cooper Lineham and Hill and lost Ratchford and Austin that screwed it all up...not to mention low minutes from BMM.
There's no excuses this season with fit players and a pre season not to 'tailblaze' at the minimum we did in the opening half of the season.

I think having a reserve team will soon help us find out if he will make it or not. You need to play in actual matches to learn the game.

tailblaze? Could someone explain what that means.

Very little chance that Burgess would have made it as a 6 - far too technical a position for someone who had no real idea what to do at the break down. Maybe he would have learned given enough time, but that would have needed years not months.

For all that Burgess is a great RL player, that didn't translate into being a great RU player and he never gave himself the time. The best parallel between Sam's style of league player turning to union was (and is) Sonny Bill Williams, but I'm not sure that Sam could ever have developed the pace that SBW had when he first went to union.

Sounds like a cullenism, does Paul Cullen drive a taxi these days?

As good as Sam is...SBW is another level again.

we used to have a thread on here, for the amazing things Cull used to say in interviews and on sky, it was called "Feet off our net"

until it vanished one day, i believe there was a private request from a mr C Pullen for it to be removed.

Post Title = Front Row
Answer = Not good enough (and that goes for the rest of the pack) as we couldn't win an argument from June to September with the exception of the CC Semi and Final. Burrell playing prop won't solve this problem, it will only add to it.

Apparently George Lawler is on his way out of Hull KR he'd be a nice addition at 13, real workhorse with some punch and would would be a better forward then Jason Clark.

I'd give matt Davis a go at 13 but with currie as first choice. BMM and Hughes in second row.

Where is Matt Davis?

Don’t think we’ll see Currie @ 13 in the modern game. I think BMM & Currie in the back row with Hughes at 13 is our best bet. Davis can play off the bench to spell Hughes and Clark.

Which basically means Jason Clark is a waste of a quota spot. Is he homesick yet?

s

I would go with as big a pack as we can to start the game. Hill Clark Cooper, Bmm currie philbin. Try to really gain some forward momentum from the pack. You could bring philbin off put Hughes on and then have philbin as interchange prop. Allowing Hughes n Mamo/burrell a bench spot.

We then have Davies j Clark to fit in or force their way in to the team. Maybe we could see matt Davies jn the reserves?