It's normal to say that Cas away is one of our toughest fixtures anyway, but this week it will be extra tough. We'll be missing a few players missing, plus the cup hangover to deal with.

Wouldn't be surprised to see us missing Cust, Thornley and possibly Bateman. Powell is back however and we'll need him imo.

I assume Tommy will play 6, but Field could be an option too. Can Tommy do 80 mins?

The fixtures haven't been kind to us here with two tough away games prior to the final and the same after. It likely will take us until after the international weekend to really get going again. If we can pick up one win from the next two weeks I'd be OK with that.

Can't see Tommy backing up so maybe go for French - Field - Smith with Miski on the wing? Halsall, Partington and Shorrocks may all play you would think.

For the last 3.5 games we've played well below our best, I can see this being a trouncing.

Past winning finalists tend to lose their match after winning the cup heard they partying all night thats why they were late coming back.

Some really interesting selection decisions for this week. Miski to come into the fold? Perhaps Halsall in at centre too? Will Powell start, simply because of his work rate?

Personally and this isn't a knock on the lad, I'd start Mago as we need to get more from the guy. The rest of our props did big mins and we'll need a big body to front up the game, if not it could be over with before 20mins.

I assume Cust won't be fit (if it is a dislocated elbow, then it'll be a 2-3 weeks minimum).

Powell will obviously play, but I'd be tempted to play him in the halves as a stop gap. Not ideal, but I don't like the idea of flogging Leuluai in a game like this when he obviously wouldn't have even been considered by now had it not been a final. We've got the trophy in the bag now, so let him get back to fitness properly now and not risk him breaking down by bringing him back too soon.

That and O'Neill isn't letting anybody down at the moment, so keep him in there.

Had the same thoughts regards Powell. It’s the least disruptive option, although the high risk, high reward option would be to put French at fullback and Field at stand off. If they think Tommy can do the 80 mins then great but I can’t see it.

I’d like to see Shorrocks, Isa, Partington, Miski, Halsall and Nickleson all get a game.

Guessing Smithies will get banned, Thornley and Cust probably injured and maybe put Tommy back in the ice bath for the next month!

Field
French
Halsall
Bibby
Miski (Marshy will probably still be nursing a hangover)
Powell
Smith
Ellis
O’Neill
Byrne
Isa
Bateman
Partington

Shorrocks
Nickelson
Havard
Mago

I always bang on about this but I really think rotating and using the squad is very important for squad morale and improving the overall depth of the squad.

Nsemba/Silva will get a game before the end of the season I’d imagine too.

I dont think it will be a very pretty game to watch but I would hope we could grind out a win with some of the youngsters looking to stake a claim for more 1st team games

One of those games where the performance won't concern me one jot. Two points will be a success, no matter how they come.

Smithies was given 2 games for each tackle - I'm assuming that means he gets banned for 4 games in total.

Yup, chance for Shorrocks or Partington to step up, I’d rather see Shorrocks, if the rumours are true about Partington to wire, then I don’t see the point in playing a player who’s leaving.

Not got any issue with the bans really. They’re not quite as bad as Bentleys couple but they both should be avoided. I don’t think it’s a bad rest for the lad tbh and as pointed out, it’s a good opportunity for Shorrocks or Partington. I’d also throw Matty Nicholson’s name in there. Smithies himself was in the team early and like Smithies, the kid is an absolute natural.

And Yates gets 2 games for a high shot.

Twitter is ablaze with jealous fans crying Smithies wasn’t sent off.

But if that Yates ban is for the high shot on Farrell towards the end of the game that it’s and even bigger error from child, Smithies 2 high shots were at least penalised however Yates wasn’t.

We were 2 points down at the time so Smith couldn’t have a penalty goal to send us to golden point.

But no no this will never get mentioned by them.

Bitter yorkshire folk

Glad we didn't get the penalty

As he was down I was sat thinking ‘ffs it’s another Grand Final 2020 here’. If they give the pen, we go for goal and it would’ve been a tough shot and likely missed and the games up.

Good old Child and the video ref bottling it.

Mean arguably Lateli should have seen 10 for holding down at the play the ball few seconds before time. Bachelor has been pinged twice for this.

A win would be fantastic but not the end of the world if we dont. We need to start winning the week after like.

I would go
French
Miski
Halsall
Bibby
Marshall (if they can sober him up!)
Field
Smith
Byrne
Powell
Singo
Batty
Faz
Ellis
Bench Partington/Isa Havard Mago Shorrocks /O'Neil
Winable game if we can turn the last two weeks form around.
I'm happy to go with Partington but I'm not sure I can cope with him and Willie on together does my head in.

The players are still on the lash I believe and who can blame them. We might just have to write this one off and try and start a fresh the flowing week at Salford. You never know though, we might ride a crest of a wave.

Cas home games have been strange affairs recently. A home game against Saints u14’s and a game against a side still giving off fumes from a 3 day bender.

No problem with that, just like the 2 games before the cup final this week game will soon be forgotten.

I liked Peets comments about the celebrations “I want the players to enjoy doing this. Enjoy working hard and winning things”

They can stay out til Friday IMO.

It’s these days that will leave them wanting to do it again and again, so I fully agree.

It would certainly be an interesting coach journey over to Cas on Saturday morning if they manage to go through till Friday mind

In reality I guess they’ll call it quits after tonight and I would think it’ll be a relief to many of them. It’s like a stag do, it’s all fun and games for a few days but after that you just want to be sat on the couch, with a brew and the remote and to be left alone to work through the hangover.

Have they stopped supping yet?

Think it’s finally stopped today haha!

Read a tweet last night Mago and French were still out with their medals on about 60 hours after they received them!

Squad will be intersting for Saturday