No problem at all. I watched a fair few academy games last season and he always played prop so I think he’s an out and out prop. The fact he’s not really been exposed to first team much at all is probably why he’s been protected. I like his style but I think he needs another big off season to fill out a little bit. Don’t think he’s yore ready.

He ideally would benefit from exposure to the championship like Eseh has next season and get 15+ games under his belt. This would help his game no end imo. A team like Keighly who are coming up would be an ideal place for him to go on a season long loan next year. Would help offset a new deal and help him develop. That’s what I hope the club do.

I see that we are behind the sticks tonight rather than in that pokey corner. They must be expecting a decent following.

I'm looking forward to this.
I do think we can get the win but Hull's pack is massive and if we let them get a roll on we'll struggle.
We have to get our wings in the game.

We had some success v Wigan by getting the ball wider from the ruck and it should be effective again.
However, we dealt with Saints pack and Catalan pack pretty well and Hull aren't of quite the same quality.

Same defensive intensity and we should hopefully pick up another W.

Come on Trin !

I’m nervous. Funny, one win and it all comes back to that feeling in the gut.
Been a crap season but would be great to come home with a wet sail.
Up the Trin

Well we did last season which would be good but it cannot be allowed to cover up the many on field problems we have with the squad.

Safe journey over lads

Like injuries

I don’t think it’s been a crap season… there are many games this season I’ve enjoyed… a couple of forgettable games… but we’ve overcome a massive injury toll … blooded several talented young players… watched some players disappoint and some emerge…

We will lose a few at the end of the season and a few will come in… in my near fifty years as a fan I think this rates as an average season… (83/84/85/94/95/01/05 immediately spring to mind as worse) but with some very bright lights (Murphy Hall Aydin, Whitbread… and even though he’s on his way out I think batch has been a stand out character and should have been captain of the team)

I’ll be awake early in the morning to watch the game with the same enthusiasm I had back in 75 for my first season

Like a squad not good enough to cover said injuries despite being lucky with Hall and Murphy. We have still only won 7 games and are once again fighting for our survival. I am sure you will be able to explain why this as been the same for the last three seasons.
We are not alone to have injured players but we have been the second worst team to cover the losses. This suggests we’ve had more than any other team which we haven’t or the squad strength is not good enough.

10 games this year have ended within a single score difference. We won 3 and lost 7. Despite all the injuries, we could have been safely mid-table had some of them gone the other way.
There were obvious poor performances, (Cas, Leeds, Salford) which put a downward slant on the season, but all teams have bad weeks.
Plan A (give it to Johnstone and Fifita) fell apart quite rapidly with the disruption of long-term, season-ending injuries and it took a while to settle on a winning combination.
It seemed to me that something was wrong in the camp around mid-season, which was remedied by shipping out certain players and strengthening where possible. We ended up with a pretty big squad after starting with smaller higher quality.
Hopefully, tonight will see an end to relegation fears and we can start to build for next season. It appears that the squad will look significantly different to this year's.

Lack of money to buy quality players.
Financially surviving the pandemic where fulfilling the sky contract was more important than results.
Distraction of the stadium development.
Keeping hold of a coach who had run out of ideas to turn things around.

Lack of money to buy quality players. - we had a good squad but allowed it to be diluted and brought in cheaper older or project players.

Financially surviving the pandemic where fulfilling the sky contract was more important than results. - same for every team, we were not an exception and with our wage bill being the smallest we should have faired better than other teams but definitely not worse.

Distraction of the stadium development. - should not impact the on field performances or recruitment

Keeping hold of a coach who had run out of ideas to turn things around.'"

Cheers Ronald McDonald

Your lack of understanding of why things happen always astounds me.

The point about the close games makes the point perfectly. If just 3 of those near misses and fallen our way we'd be equal 8th looking to beat Hull to go into playoff places. Tom could easily have been that difference alone let alone all the others.
Leeds, Hull and Cas have all struggled when injuries hit and gone from contender to easy beats in one game. That's just how it is.
We are in a good position that we are losing some big earners who weren't actually playing this year and can replace with fresh talent.
We'll see what Willie can do with that soon enough.

Don't agree with that tbh. After 3 seasons where we have had a huge injury list I think we have just been average this season.

Yes we have a slimmer squad than some but enough to cover this season. True, some key players have been missing but IMHO not enough to call us injury hit, not this time.

FWIW I'd say that I'm disappointed that some of those who stepped up just didn't have it in them. Minns and to a lesser degree Croft didn't fill the gap left by Lyne. Lineham simply didn't offer an alternative for either Tom or Kershaw. All the same I honestly don't recall us putting out a team that on paper at least wasn't capable of competing and none that should have had 70 shipped past them.

We are still without those key players now but in the last four weeks we have seen a completely different team despite largely being the same players. That I think is whats made it a crap season to many, it's obviously always been there, so where did it disappear to for so long?

1 - Atkins, Brough, Minns, Butler,Woods, Lineham and the chap from the armed forces etc.

2 - They have had ten seasons to bring in investment but have singularly failed to do so. In a recent interview our CEO indicated little would change until the revamped stadium comes online.

3 - The skeleton staff after 10 seasons is just further proof of a poorly run club which I presume is the reason for the reduction in the numbers allowed in the North Stand.

With regards PT’s post yes we will have a much reduced salary outlay and by definition a loss of our better players but history suggests our signing criteria is more cost than improvement but I am willing to be proved wrong next season but I don’t have your unwavering beliefs.
I don’t know what length of contracts Hall and Murphy are on but signing both these to long terms deals would be a small step forward.

Jeez, I thought I was boring.

To be fair we have had injurys but so has every other team to be fair and added to that some of our players whonhave been injured isnt surprising we started with both kershaw and billy long term,tommy well when did he last play more than he didnt,

Personnally looking forward to see season ending hoping we are still sl then see who willie brings in most of his signings have been decent

Its not that it's a surprise. It's that a few of our starters were out long term. So we were already starting with backup.
So when they get injured, the guy we think should be able to handle it is already 4th choice.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have done better, but next season is the more acid test for Poaching.
He has some cap space and an off season. Let's see what he can do with more of his own choices.

Attracting quality players is always much easier when when your up amongst the front runners and not wallowing in the basement like we have for a while now .But we can certainly showcase up and coming talent who may think of us as a stepping stone rather than a long term commitment, but I’m fine with that as long as they give their all and enhance our performances . The overseas ones are different as there are a plethora of quality players ready and willing to up sticks and try their luck , but as we’ve found out it can be a lottery and I’m positive Willie will have his contacts already sounding out good players to step into the breach of vacant positions/players such as millers or the likes . I’m hoping fifita along with his brother turn out for us next season and Arona goes one last time . But first we have Hull to overcome

1.Signings are always a gamble when you're shopping at Aldi. Which 'good' players did these replace?
2. Who in their right mind would "invest" in a club with no assets in perennial threat of relegation and extinction? What is the net worth of the club now to 10 years ago? Building a club from zero takes time, we have grown significantly in that time. Eventually (soon?), we may be in a position to attract an "investor"
3. A skeleton staff is a symptom of an an organisation cutting its cloth. The number of staff on the books at Bradford was shocking, and a key factor in their demise.

Tom and Bill are not loss of better players. They have not played. We are filling a space that was just costing us a lot of money.

We will have quite a few places to fill both in the first team and backup with sufficient ability. I guess we won’t have long to wait to see our level of ambition for next season if we survive.