Chris Dean could make a pretty handy 2nd rower.

you are actually quite funny sometimes....

ps i am not suprised you didnt fit in in australia!

I agree with a fair bit you've said here Spook however i do like Morton and think with a good half back to sort our play and the ball actually getting to him and not having to go scooting from dummy half just so he gets some of the ball he could be very good, just cause hes small dosent mean much Foster at saints isnt exactly big and he seems to do ok.

As for Amor he was good but has had better games! probably knackered as hes been the main prop along with Johnson since the start of the season, Still think its far too early for Gledhill though and as a fair few on here have said maybe hes better at second row. Also thought Hickey was alot better than we have seen but still needs to loose alot of weight and get alot fitter

Yes Hickey has been a great disappointment, but the point is he has performed well at the highest level in Australia.
A level , which the amateurs he is being compared to, can only dream of.
If the new coaching staff are able to get him to that level again it will be like having another new signing next season.

I fitted in during my time in Oz just fine. This is probably why I'm not hoodwinked by all things Australian like you appear to be when since you got there, Oz this Oz that



Seriously, that was Hickeys 8th first team game, I know you haven't seen much but do you honestly think the way he played was acceptable for our star overseas signing? Most on here seem to think it was his best and it was which should show how dire he has been. He should be ripping the place up by now. Instead it was clear to me that most of his fellow players were deliberately not passing him the ball - always a bad sign.

You then compounded this by seeming to put him above two players in Higgins and Amor. Both these players came for next to nothing from the Reserves and NL1 and have offered way more than Hickey over a full season. I'd take another two of these over Hickey even if I were to accept your rather dubious claim that Hickey looks the smarter player.

Rinaldi was great when we needed him, you won't of seen those games (not your fault) but basically we owe IMHO at least 3 games to him. He's knackered now and needs a break.

Tongia I liked, but it was a mixed debut and had he been British would have been blasted by NGB4C and his cohorts.

You're wrong about Morton as well. He's very quick and he's not to small - just like many young British players he simply can't read the game properly. I agree, he won't make it and it's time to move on but the reason differs. Greg Johnson is the same, it's like they have never been coached though they must have been.

I feel you need to drop all the NRL is superdooper stuff - yes it's great your there and we all agree the RL you watch week by week is better. However SL is not the crap you now seem to think it is (your distain and feeling of superiority is a little obvious). Players still need to be at the top of there games to make it, even your god like Aussies. Hickey was and is way off that and will remain so for some time IMO and that's not good enough is it. I don't care how good he was, why should we pay to see him rehabilitated over the next year just for someone else to benefit.

Don't take what I say as a critcism, I can understand you getting a bit giddy about all things Australian. I admire your bravery in moving there but there's no need to justify every Australian, some are just not good enough for SL and Hickey is one.

Thanks

What? He lives in Australia? Well I never noticed that!

Hard to spot

That's a big surprise to me too - he doesn't mention it very often.

is he with us next year

Yes

no i will still be in australia... which is where i am...


oh... you mean hickey!

I knew you would get there in the end Vasty



In relation to Hickey, highly unlikely that any other club will take him, so with him having another year deal it may appear you are stuck with him.

In my opinion though his future success lay in his own hands. If he has any backbone and commitment to getting his career back on track he will remain in Wakefield for the full off season and get himself in a basic condition to attempt a full pre season at a professional club.

When the rest of the players get a break, without question he should look to be getting aerobically fit and dropping the weight, something that is very difficult to do in season at any rate due to the demands of other training. He needs to turn up for the official preseason training a good 2 stone down on where he is and then rebuild his strength and power from this point as these will certainly been negatively effected with any kind of crash weight loss required.

IF he wants to be I think he can be an asset to the club moving forward, but he needs to make it happen. Nobody can do the hard often lonely dull work of losing the weight and increasing aerobic capacity for him.

That's my view - there's no denying that he arrived in dreadful shape but equally, there's also no denying that he's played the game at the top level and had a pretty fearsome reputation when he did. Given that, there's absolutely no reason that he can't rebuild his fitness and become one of SL's most effective forwards.

It does come down to desire and motivation though - if he doesn't summon up enough of either in the off-season, I'd like to see the club act decisively to terminate his contract.

He needs a "Rocky Montage" of an off-season.

He CAN do it, IMO it comes down to if WANTS to do it. We'll see.

I don't however participate in the view that he's a liability to the club. In my view we have a win-win situation.
If he does get back to his past levels of fitness and form we have one hell of a forward, if he doesn't well he won't get in the team with the standard of players/staff we are signing. He was also signed at a time when we didn't have 2 quids to rub together.

The future of Mr Hickey is in his own hands.

The fact that he let himself get in that shape knowing he had a contract says a lot about his attitude, I think he is a liability to himself.
As I posted earlier the ball is most definitely in his court, and if he does not achieve what is expected, as Bren posted, I would hope the club take the required action.

Indeed - I expect to see him beating up a side of beef, dragging a log round Pugney's and running up the Cathedral steps in the snow, with adoring children trailing behind him.

If he doesnt sort himself out, he wont be playing much as there is no way we can carry 2 x 20/30mins players in the 17 next year in him and Lauititi.
1 is a luxury, 2 is just daft.

if he doesn't shape up, you may well still see him on the cathedral steps....

you forgot chasing chickens and not the KFC variety.

I omitted the chicken bit, since I knew some lag would make the fast food link!

Hickey has said on his twitter in response to someone asking him if he was going back to Oz at xmas that he wasn't as having a big "off season" over here.

Sounds promising lets hope he puts the graft in and we see the real Hickey next season

Smart decision.
Good on ya jarrad!

I know he didn't arrive in best of shape BUT if this is the case the he's showing the correct charachter and well done. He's had alot of flak and some of it personal and in bad taste which I have not got involved in.

Commendable that he has seen that he was out of fitness and is working on it.

He looks like he has lost quite a few pounds now, not saying he's slim or anything but he looks like he is putting the effort in. Jonh I think said it's harder to lose weight in a season, I'm no fitness expert so if what Jonh has said is right then maybe he's not doing too bad. Think that's what Jon said but I have had a few since reading it. Can anyone tell me why it is harder?

I would imagine it would have something to do with high energy foods for matches and recovery also. Off season training can be moderated without the body getting bashed up every week.

At a guess.