Would have kicked that goal
Ritchie Myler fired off by Smith but partners Sandow who looks overweight & doesn't exactly have much of a passing game
Taxi for Smith / Agar ?

You can send O'Brien to us, always looked like there is a controlling half ready to be given the right role in a team.

He isn't.

O'Brien is Sheffield/Halifax level. He's generally poor. But he can kick goals.

Sandow is setrling in FFS, give him a chance!

I think Sandow showed some good signs for only his second game. We don't though have any dummy runners or backs with any threat so he's basically polishing a turd. He was unlucky by hitting the post with not the easiest kick and converted from the touch line. I'm really encouraged by him and thought he along with Penny, Westwood, Hill (for the time he played) Simms and possibly Ratchford we the only ones who made some effort. Credit also has to go to the Cas defence who closed space up well.

+1

Sandow always looks overweight he's part aboriginal so it's his genetics to be short and round, he is fit though but The whole team isn't playing well. I know smith signs the players he thinks will fit in well, but the quality players we've missed out on in the last 2-3 months, especially the forwards is really frustrating. At this rate teams are gonna keep progressing past us while we seem to be running around confused with no real ideas. Scary to think we seem to have gone backwards rather then forwards

Cas were simply better so hats off to them.

Harsh, man! Isn't Jonathon Thurston part aboriginal aswell?

Are my eyes deceiving me, or have I just read that correctly?

Nice bit of casual racism to start the day.....

Jonathan Thurston
Greg Inglis
Nathan Merritt
Mal Meninga
Amos Roberts

The list is endless, you sir are talking dangly things between a mans legs

You are not by any chance a member of the hitler youth movement are you?.

I think he was trying to make comparisons to Sam Thaiday's stature rather than mean anything malicious. Either way not the best thought out post!

I would play O'Brien instead of Myler now and give him a chance to form a partnership with Sandow

I wouldn't because he'll not get a game here next season. If play Ratchford with him, because it'll be him or Gidley playing along side Sandow.

Gidley will be at fullback or 6 and Ratch will be at centre which his best position by far.

where will that leave russell

Tattybye, O'Brien
Thanks for your efforts. You tried your best, but for a club that wants to be at CCFs, GFs, winning LLSs, your best wasn't good enough.

Russell, due to his absence, has proven to be an essential part of our team. He must play.

mark who would you play fb russell or gidders..for me it would be russell gidders with sandow.throw ratch at centre

I tend to agree. I think Smith will have Gidley at FB though as he likes a pivot in that position.

Our best form this year was with Russell at FB, his direct up the ruck style got our exit sets rolling and helped Clark create a dynamic platform.

Fit the tactics to the players we have rather than the players we had.

for me its

1 Russell
6 Gidley
7 Sandow

for Smith its probably

1 Ratchford
6 Gidley
7 Sandow

with russell on the wing

actually i have no idea what he will do.

I'd go Gidley at fullback, Ratchford stand off and Sandow halfback. Gidley's best positions are IMO fullback and hooker, Ratchford can attack pretty similar to how he does now and Gidley and Sandow can do the organising and the kicking. That would give you wingers of Lineham and Russell, which is a pretty strong set of backs if you can find some centres and Sandow wakes up on the right side of bed each morning.

I'd agree (agreeing with Saints fans is happening way too often for my liking) with this except that we would need to either need to bring in two quality centres, or we're going with at least one if not two out of Atkins, R Evans or Monaghan as first choice centres. I also find it hard to imagine that TS would leave one or both of Atkins and Monaghan out of the team.

Admittedly I've not seen that much of him, but perhaps one of Rhys Evans or Toby King would be okay at one centre, providing you signed another? In a strong backline there wouldn't be too much pressure on them at least. Atkins is dire, particularly as a centre, and Monaghan is too old. I think Ratchford is too talented to leave out of the spine of your team, you want your best players getting your hands on the ball as often as possible and if that weakens you in the centres it's a necessary trade off IMO. Particularly given Ratchford isn't a top class centre anyway.

Yes and an interesting point, for all the talk of how we didn't replace Briers there's been very little on how we did not replace Hodgson, and I think not having that sort of full-back has made a big difference. I'm certainly hoping for Gidley at full-back