Lets play fantasy Broncos, and work on the basis that all players are off contract at the end of 2013 season.

Which players have shown the required desire, ability, toughness to warrant retention.

I offer only Dixon (obviously), Bailey, Lee, Colborn, Cook ....... squad players Lovell, Channing, Krasniqi

Any more ????

I agree with dixon, cook and bailey. Bailey has been one of our most consistent players, a solid defender and clever in attack. Possibly Bryant aswell.. he is a hard runner. Tommy lee has played well. He has the pace from dummy half and quicker ball in comparison to randall.

Dixon, cook, bailey, gower, Lee, bryant, Dorn

I'm not really into 'fantasy' Rugby League - my squad has 8 academy players, 3 overseas players (with room for 2 more) and the rest are club trained/exempt.

I would keep about three quarters of the players

I think the squad has too many forwards and too few backs, so I would be looking to alter the balance a bit.

Keep
Craig Gower - a great player who is fundamental to our performances
Chris Bailey - a forward who is exceptional in defense and has quality attack/ball handling skills
Antonio Kaufusi - the big man is great, but tires quickly, how can we address this and keep him on the field?
Liam Colbon - playing reasonably well and worth keeping if he can remain relatively injury free
Matt Cook - one of our best players able to play a wide range of positions
Chris Melling - can play in any position and has a lot of heart
Tommy Lee - very good, hard working and talented hooker
Alex Hurst - a fair player who will become a good player if her can keep the error count down
Luke Dorn - on his day a brilliant player, would clearly benefit from being in a better team
Mark Bryant - hard working and quality performer
Shane Grady - decent player who makes a lot of effort, needs to keep working hard to secure a regular place
Kieran Dixon - a top class attacking winger, needs to work on his defence, but our best outside back
Dan Sarginson - needs to work harder on his physique and tackling but potentially a great talent
Tony Clubb - should be the captain after Gower retires, he is a tremendous character and top player
Erjon Dollapi - looks like he has a bit of character, no reason he won't make it
Mike McMeeken - decent player, has size and strength, needs a bit more development
Will Lovell - very good player, our best young forward
Michael Channing - has a lot of heart and vastly improved since last season
James Woodburn-Hall - looked a promising scrum half in his single appearance to date

Worth keeping if on top form:
Scott Wheeldon - probably needs regular games, has struggled coming in and out of the side
Michael Witt - playing well at moment, I don't realistically see us finding better than him for the club

Release:
David Howell - hardly ever available and in poor form, replace with a new Centre
Chad Randall - hard working and could go into second row, but offers too little at Hooker
Michael Robertson - a solid player but lacks speed and misses a lot of games
Shane Rodney - plays well, but would sacrifice a purely defensive second rower for a creative type or huge Prop
Jamie O'Callaghan - not Super League standard and has had far too many opportunities already
Olsi Krasniqi - hard working but not big enough to make an impact yet comes on an impact player

I normally agree with your thoughts but I struggle with some of your keeps .... there should be a taxi waiting for Dorn and Bryant. I worry that Lovell, McMeeken and even Sarginson are going to be the next the JO'C (defensively inept).

I oversighted Clubb.

Unfortunately I dont believe we can run a competitive side on individuals with potential, as we get the result we saw in Saturdays second half.

We're in a really difficult position. We're reliant on bringing kids through and aussies because by and large we can't attract decent English players from other clubs (bar a couple of notable exceptions).

The only problem is that one assumes the calibre of Aussies we'll be able to recruit will diminish with the NRL salary cap increasing.

I'd get rid of a host of the current squad but I don't think that will address all our ills.

Oh and anyone suggesting we should keep Kaufusi is quite mad

Attacking, creative back rower.

Anyone ever considered Feleti Mateo and his british passport?

Pie in the sky stuff obviously.


Oh and talking of which I saw Lee Hopkins the other week. He's involved with Penrith's juniors, but don't know in what capacity

If PTB still posted on these boards - yes he would have, almost constantly

Hello all,

I would say as a general rule that you should give a youngster about two years of pre-seasons, conditioning and training before you can have a definitive view on him and really between 45 and 75 games.

The likes of Lovell, McMeeken and Hurst have not even had one full season of games, so I could listen to anyone who is a doubter that they will make it, but they have not really had enough chance to be certain if you retained or released them.

Whilst the likes of Jamie O'Callaghan who has been in the squad since 2008 and Olsi Krasniqi who has been in the squad since 2010 have had 4+ seasons and I think unless something radical changes then it is fair to make a call on them I feel.

As for the Props, I can understand why there is a bit of disappointment in Kaufusi but he has been in the seventeen week after week for the likes of Melbourne, Newcastle and North Queensland and I think he is a great player but his conditioning needs more work.

Mark Bryant is a pretty good player available most weeks.

Luke Dorn has 104 tries in 149 games for London and scores around 2 tries every 3 games so his contribution cannot be questioned unless you feel his powers are on the wane, given that he is approaching 31.

I categorise players as either game changers/match winners, inconsistent players who are good in a good team but play like the rest in a worser team and the non-established players.

For me the problem for London is that the last three games we have been lazy at marking allowing any Hooker/acting half back worth his salt the chance to run through or play in a runner.

When it comes to addressing this we have a huge number of very similar forwards who it is hard to separate on ability and attitude, which makes it difficult to pick the right ones and to be sure you have picked the right ones.

But in the backs there must be no more than about 10 players competing for 7 places and of them about half are first and second year youngsters. The time might be right to rest, rotate or drop a player but we have to pick everyone fit, or pretty much that.

I maybe wrong as to my opinion of course, but it is great to talk with you all. I'd love to also know why we have a two try half time lead each home game but end up with little or nothing.

Cheers
Rammo

Maybe they should be kept on the basis of ball retention. We wouldn't be keeping many!

Sorry but I'd release him. Whilst he can certainly do it, when we really need a prop to stick his hand up at the crucial moment Antonio often seems to be in back play fiddling with his shoe laces, standing in a position he is unlikely to receive the ball or just standing too far back from play to get involved.

There was a good example on Saturday. After about 15 minutes, in other words when he knew he would be going off shortly, we had a set of 6 starting from a decent position. Antonio didn't make any effort to get involved in the set, hanging back in locations where he was very unlikely to see the ball and making no effort to get into a position where he would have been actively in play. Given he was about to go off he should have been busting a gut to get one last run under his belt in a position where he could have done real damage. He was promptly withdrawn before we got the ball back. In his second spell he made three runs, two of which resulted in good offloads, but to my eyes he just isn't doing that often enough and it doesn't make up for his ability to go missing in crucial sets.

A shame as we all know what he can do. I just wonder if he is carrying an injury of some sort that is hindering him?

I think it is laziness.

I was disappointed we didn't see him come back on when Clubb got injured, you'd of thought with Clubb out we need someone like Kaufusi to come on and steady the forwards, but he was no where to be seen.

Hello all,

I can understand the criticism of Antonio Kaufusi, but I think it is worth remembering that only him and Cookie fronted up against the three big packs from Catalans, Warrington and Bradford in what must have been around a ten day period. I don't think any of the other forwards did this.

He is not necessarily regarded as a 'long minutes player' but with the injuries to Clubby and the fact that there was a debutant Prop in another of the fixtures and an inexperienced side this kept him on the field for relatively long minutes in the past few games.

I have been frustrated with him not receiving the ball as often as I'd like, we have lots of other guys who can do a dummy run or make a few metres but I'd like the ball in his hands time and time again.

Cheers
Rammo

I'd like to see him 'crash' at the line. he would surely score more tries and wear the line defence out.

dont matter how good your forwards are, if you dont support the forwards for offloads your never going to get anywhere. quite often forwards looking around to do offload, not a soul anywhere to be seen. Not talking reckless offloading, but considered and measured and part of the game plan. All the good teams do it, perhaps thats the problem

So there's not enough push? We're too one out?

Messages for that would go out during the game.... constantly. Very annoying for a coach, if they don't do it.

Roosty keep the cheesy terms coming.
We are anything but a one out team everything (after the statutory scoot) goes through Gower who is first reciever. If anything we dont go one out enough and set a platform, hence the criticism of Kaufusi

Do you think the bloke that runs out with the yellow top on carrying an empty water bottle is just running on and of the pitch as part of a fitness programme?

7 year olds get told what to do for Christ sake.

tell goonerrl we ain't a one out team then. It was he that said about no support.

I totally agree with you. I know that, you know that. Some on here don't.

Apologies for cheesey terms, just basic RL parlance as you well know with your footy knowledge.

I'm not a yellow (or blue as it is here) but do run orange and often have to go out and remind players what 7 year olds get told as you put it.

I can see the point goonerrl is making. The stats show we were bottom of the offload table last year and are near bottom this year.

This is not a matter of lacking a push when a half break is made, this is about middle unit forwards keeping the ball alive and keeping the oppo defence honest and alert. Like WQ says, a lot goes through Gower but the early hit ups hardly ever offer an offload unless Bryant is on the field. The oppo defence can set itself comfortable in the knowledge that the ball won't get squeezed out and they won't need to make an extra tackle in the set.

An offload is only an offload when it actually makes it into someone's hand. Most of our attempts end up on the floor, or knocked on.

So Bryant is one of the only forwards that can cause confusion in the oppos defence? No wonder Tony Rea wouldn't be happy.

I don't dispute what WQ says as he's footy savvy. It's jsut when you get differing views or opinions can make it confusing for us expats

You don't need to take my word for it. Someone helpfully adds all the offloads up and posts them on the Super League site under a section called 'Stats'.

Keep the academy players - they're the ones who will end up being the heart and soul of the club
Keep the guys who can score tries
Keep Gower

scrap the rest and save money - if we're going to get slaughtered, let's rebuild.

Invest money in coaching and keeping players past - Purdham and Wells - who are a part of the club.

ooo ark at sarky.



WQ said something a bit different to goonerl. That's all that's happened.

Not at all. Their comments didn't rub against each other - they were both right.