To be honest Keith I've hardly seen Vea play before, but because we signed him from Saints, was expecting more. Yes, it's 'early doors' but he's hardly Fuifui Moimoi (impact wise)

All will be well.
Let's just hope for warmer weather - took yonks to thaw out last night

The run of fixtures are perfect for us. We could play to the very last round to get up to speed and we will still not be going to Castleford and taking the points this year. It is time to lower the expectation levels a notch. There are still plenty of fixtures where we are extremely capable and perhaps fancied of picking up points and they come further in the campaign. By then we will have learned and be more hardened to this level.

Castleford were superb in flashes and not many will come away with a victory in their own back yard including our Trinity supporting friend.

I would be inclined however to mix it up a little. Brown needs to move to full back, and I want to see Hampshire's elusiveness in the halves as Riddy is clearley not fit. Hopkins in for Vea and yes time to put Acton on the bench, who I do believe is playing for Sheffield tommorrow.

It is okay putting in defensive players and tackling your hearts out but to win Rugby League matches you have to also hit the line and score tries.

Over all Friday night was not the end of the world. MOM for Leigh ? Josh Drinkwater. He was pivotal in what we did well. A good scrum half and not out of place at this level.

We are not SL top 8, but if we remain relatively injury free we will not be going down either and that would be job done this year.

Love it Derek.

Keith ,I agree with most of your post , but for the Danny Tickle part,I think Danny still has a lot to offer, he puts in plenty of tackles and always supports the ball player,deffo in my 17 .Charlie knows.

Fui wouldn't last 5 mins at SL these days

Tickle the unsung hero in the M8's and plenty to offer this season also.

The forwards are not our worry IMO, reckon they will hold there own, Tonga to centre, Brown to FB, defence is massive at this level - can't get away with the mistakes of last night

I tend to agree, Fui would most likely struggle in SL this year.
However, we could well miss the lack of a big impact front rower coming from the bench, which I what Fui offered in abundance. Castlefords interchanges were awesome Friday night. Which leads me to ask, what would our best option for a "high impact" interchange bench? For me:
Hood
Hock
Acton
Maria

I agree with ever bit of this post ..
For me vea is a crap Fui (saints fans we're glad to se the back of him)
Drinkwater was the mom for us followed by green who made some good yards.
All in all it's one game I think all us fans like DB should have one goal this year and that's to be in super league in 2018 hopefully with out needing the million pound game.

Just watching again , counted at least 4 flat/forward passes from Cas in the 1 st 10 minutes , this is what appeared to give Cas better go forward than us , something we need to copy

Matty Dawson should have made a better attempt at scoring on our 1 st attack

Ref missed Chase dropping onto Drinkwaters head causing the knock on , should have been a penalty

On 10 minutes the kick by Hampshire was excellent , but too much enthusiasm by Higson in the chase left a gap for them to escape a drop out

Missing touch , criminal

On 14 minutes Drinkwaters put a good kick but again poor pressure allowed them to escape

19 minutes Cas s 1 st offload = try

24 minutes Cas s 2 nd offload = try

27 minutes we batter at their line after our kick off but poor final play pass wide rather than a grubbed into the corner

Lots of pushes on defenders as they chase their kicks

Lots of work on tommorrows video to look at

Was waiting for someone to mention the Matty Dawson incident. He seemed to just freeze. It definitely looked a scoreable chance on TV.

Quite right chris,he made no attempt to go for it.

I think Darryl had done his homework and exposed some bad defensive habits from the players that stepped up. Whilst it was entertaining last year to see Higson big hitting the centres Cas simply made him look a mug when he pushed in too quick, players like gale will just fire it out to the winger or kick into the gap left behind.
They also targeted ridys left shoulder
I think we've got to give brown a shot at FB it was his preferred position in the NRL, be good to get Micky back, and I would definitely bring Hopkins in.
On another note I'd give Tonga 4 weeks and if he can't play he's got to go.
In the positives I thought Green, Hock and Crooks went well, and with a bit more go forward Drinkwater would've been hard to handle.
Nowhere near the end of the world, we need to start working on what's between the players ears now, in this league effort will only take you so far, being smarter will win us games.

Tonga is fully fit. A bit harsh saying get rid if the coach doesn't pick him!

For reasons beyond Bongser's control, he only got to see the last twenty minutes or so of the match. Whilst the game was by that point well beyond Leythe, he saw mainly positives in those minutes (and all of Leigh's points). Rest of game to be seen later in the week.

Must ask one question: how long did Gaz Hock spend on the pitch? He obviously started and finished it and Bongser thought, towards the hooter, how fit and fresh he looked compared to some previous outings against higher SL teams. If he did an hour or more then that is a real plus point judging by some of the praise posted above regarding his general performance. Charlie will know

Is Ridyard that fat bloke with the number six shirt on?

Are you that thin bloke(avatar) with a ring piece over your head?

It wasn't our defence that lost us the game , it was our attack , we failed to exploit our better field position in the 1 st 18 minutes , we should have been a couple of tries up before Cas scored , and as a result of that the fatigue difference wouldn't have been as apparent

Poor kicking and poor pressure

No, but is your head coach a 'hideous blob with massive headphones on his big fat head' ?

Why pick on a bloke who wasn't even playing? Mitch Brown should have his bottom smacked for coming out of the defence line, he did it pre-season and was told about it ! I'm getting tired of defending Tonga on here, it is frustrating he's had injuries however, when he's played he's shown his pedigree! He was concussed against Dewsbury in the process of making a low tackle, that's no reason to get shut of him! Perhaps we should consider getting shut of McNally, after all he didn't play a single league game last season and only appeared in the 8s! now, he's injured again

James Clare, he too might become 'injury prone' lets shed him too!!


I'm talking c..p of course, perhaps you might consider your views too?

Brown is not a SL centre for me, he will get exploited by teams more so as the season progresses.

Willie Tonga is a centre of proven calibre who oozes class. The problem he has presented to the coaching team is that the number of Leigh games where he has declared himself 100% fit can be counted on one hand, twice.

Maybe it is in his head?

Harold,I agree with that,and think he just might feature on Friday.I also think we should be looking at Curtis Naughton to make an appearance too. Atalea Vea has just not impressed at all and there are 4 players i could choose from before him.

Harold, for me Brown would be full back,I would put Hampshire at 6 , though maybe not this week

,bring Higham,Hopkins and maybe Maria or Acton in,I think Fridays game is Definatly winnable ,it will be extremely hard but it is there for the taking.Charlie knows.

Yea, but what would Harpo say?

I expected Cas to put 30 or 40 points past Leigh. They will be in the top 4 challenging for honours this season. Leigh have signed 11 new players so it is going to take several games before Jukes knows his best team and then it has to gel as a team.

Hock had an excellent game and Green looks a very good prospect. Stewart, Drinkwater and Higson had solid games but Hampshire doesn't look like a full back to me. Maybe give Mitch Brown a run out there see how he goes.

Was pleased to see Leigh rally in the 2nd half - only 18 - 16 - which shows that fitness isn't going to be a problem. All in all we are in for an exciting season although I expect Leigh to be in the Middle 8s.

We can only expect this season to be one of consolidation and growth. Doubt we will give our place in SL away to any challenging promotion hopefuls. Well done Leigh.