Agree with this. I think the years are catching up with him and his body is telling him it's nearly time to pack up. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was his last year. A legend indeed but all good things come to an end eventually. It time for the younger props to step up.

Crabtree is still our best prop, gets through a mountain of tackles and attracts 3 or 4 defenders, top metre maker too.

shame the offloading part of his game seemed to have got coached out of him

think his contract is up this year, still worth another 2 in my book, doesnt miss many games through injury either, solid

The thing is, he really hasn't been the threat he was back in 2009/2010. He was immense around that time.

I put that down to the workload. If you look at the Tackles Made and Carries stats, he 2009 (when he matched the Aussie props in the Tests easily) he did 385 tackles and 244 carries.

Last season, he did 655 tackles and 374 carries - and he's been doing that since Nathan Brown decided to run with a very light pack a few years back.

He does too much work, way too much. If the club is to get best use out of him in the remaining couple of years they need to ease off him and get quality out of him, not quantity.

As for metres, well there's metres and metres. Superleague is not short of props who'll take the ball up every set, win 6 or 7 metres each time and then go to ground for a slow play the ball. Crabtree at his best would make his 7 metres but dominate the tackle leaving wreckage in his wake, and get a fast PTB or an offload into a recovering defensive line.

I thought he went through the motions on Sunday. Yes, the stats show he got the metres, but he has the ability to make not just a lot of metres, but high quality metres. And what we really needed on Sunday was higher quality metres from the props.

Maybe he's just on the wane. Happens to us all.

I would have thought the idea of bringing in a prop like Huby who can do big minutes is it will allow Crabtree to lessen his work load and this certainly appeared to be the case on sunday.

yep spot on, huby can do big minutes as can crabtree, he can help eorl out this season instead of eorl taking on the workload for the rest

As it stands Crabtree is our best prop by far.

Others around him need to put their hand up and help him out.

Folk blaming his media work! What's Kopczacks excuse?

Kopczak and Huby did most time. Mullally and Crabtree along with the rest of the Team what's their excuse???.
All the so called supporters should get behind the Team or do they get a buss out of moaning.

I don't get a buzz out of moaning. I give credit where it's due. As it happens we've just lost 19-0 at home to a team tipped to finish in the bottom 4. So sorry if I'm not shouting from the roof tops.

kopczak put the best hit in on sunday at least, his face doesnt seem to fit with alot of supporters though, mullallys seems to be he can do no wrong in some eyes

this forum goes into melt down after a defeat, suppose its the nature of a forum, shame its not the same when we win

Cant argue with that, fc and saints have both got rid because he wasnt good enough

Kopczacks face doesn't fit with me as I believe he didn't make any effort last season. He appeared to just be going through the motions. He didn't seem interested or cared that much.

When he changes my mind about this and warns some credit, I'll give it.

in andersons column he has said that the first try was a forward pass and the 3rd was from an obstruction which the ref admitted it was too after the game, but he said its still no excuse.

Looking at the preview for tonights TV game and seeing Salford and their "physical approach". They will crap all over us when we play, much like they did at our place last season. When teams come to get nasty we get splattered!

Looking at the shocking defensive line- I don't think they will

i've seen us when we've been really pants Dan, we are not that bad yet

Aye, it seems I put the mockers on them! Their second half capitulation was an eye opener. Hock; the man gets worse as he gets older. Ridiculous.

We have been many levels of pants down the years haven't we. From my early memories in the 80's when I was so young I didn't realise we had a league table, to when I did realise and we were bottom (bar Runcorn). Then being good-ish in the lower tier. Then good. Then crap in the top tier. You know the rest!

In a way I preferred the ignorance of youth! The league table didn't matter cos I didn't know there was one! It was all about that 80mins. Nothing else. We lost more than we won and maybe it was me being green as grass but we seemed to try harder then. Maybe I'm getting more cynical. Maybe I should take maybe out of my previous sentence! Haha!

Hock is a thug- pure and simple- he doesn't give a stuff if he seriously hurts someone or finishes a career. Nasty nasty piece of work.

and he proved at times what a good player he is before deciding to stop playing...what a waste could have become a really really top player rather than a crazed pyscho

i remember how excited i was when briefly in 1989 we were 2nd or 3rd in the league i think after 3 games..then we played trafford borough and it was downhill from there

That`s because we used to go and watch a game for enjoyment and entertainment, whereas these days it is win at all costs. That is the B.all and end.all of present day sport :- where you are in the league and how many trophy`s the team can win.

19-0 flattered Hull and we bombed enough chances to win the game - put it down to lack of game time

I can remember a couple of times Jerry got the ball way too early and the cover could get over, hopefully that's sorted for tonight

It's a game of millimetres and we weren't on target - how many times did we spill the ball at the defensive line in their 20? Kicks way off target etc

Poor pre-season is to blame and that needs looking at.

Ask me in 3 games time if we're in trouble

In a way it's more fun in the middle and lower reaches of the table. Because down there, there's less pressure on every game as you only need to win about a third of the time to finish 8-10th. There's lots of games against the top sides where the result really doesn't matter that much. If you win, it's brilliant, but if you lose...well, you expected to lose anyway so no big deal.

If you want to finish top, or thereabouts, you need to be looking at winning almost every week. That's a very different situation. You have to thump the lesser sides, and thump them hard, but then win the mini-league table containing the top 4 or 5 sides.

That's why losing to Hull is bloody annoying. They finished second from bottom last year, when you exclude Bradford and London who were nowhere. Games against teams like that need to be put in the bank. As a comparison, losing to Salford last July against a hyped up but poor side cost us a second successive LLS.