Did he score at the Kc?
I seem to remember most of their team did.


(Apologies to the rest of you. It's nice to play round at Jake's house for a change).

Your statement is not true. Please if you are to have a dig get your facts right.

Do all you Dobbins work nights or are you all so excited to be top of THE CHAMPIONSHIP you can't sleep.

I think this is the difficulty for Radford. Ellis likely retiring, Thompson OOC, presumably Hadley back in, the likes of Fash coming through, depends where he sees Abdull in that mix and whether we might want to spend differently in the back row. And is he a SL 6? He might stay at Rovers post promotion but they have a good record of bringing overseas halves in so he could fall down the pecking order there.

Dunno, I had my head in my hands for most of the match

Replacing Ellis has nothing to do with the position he plays, you have decent back ups in those positions and no doubt could get someone in who could play as well as Ellis does on a week to week basis, its the other stuff he brings you need to replace, the leadership, organisation (brains) and confidence he brings to the team when he's on the pitch and unless there's a player of a generation coming through (not seen one) then you'll have to spend big to get a replacement and even then its a gamble.

It's one factor of many for Radford to consider in balancing the back row part of the squad though. Ellis is irreplaceable for all the reasons you cite beyond having the 13 jersey. Radford will be thinking about other options available and may well bring in a different type of back rower, a line breaker possibly. Abdull won't get ahead of Sneyd and Kelly quite yet but would he be in our first choice 17? If not, maybe you keep him on a loan basis again, he's our player until end 2019 IIRC.

Keeping Abdull on loan would only happen if we fail to gain promotion, if we go up I think we'll look to have more permanency in the halves, can't see us keeping Ellis long term as I just don't think he's good enough but Abdull would go well alongside a good HB. All that would then depend upon Abdull and FC as to the options.

We need to learn how to play without Ellis as the leadership quality he brings is near impossible to replace, look at Leeds when Sinfield and Peacock retired.

We just have to improve our mental approach, Cas don't have an Ellis style leader and seem to do Ok, it's about playing to the teams strengths.

Difficult to compare Sheens and Radford as coaches in current circumstances, the two teams playing in different divisions. One area that does stand out in Sheen's favour is the development of Abdul. He is no longer the podgy apparently unfit player he was when at FC. Sheens immediately identified his ability and the extra weight was holding his development back. He is now much more effective than he would have been if he had remained at FC. I wonder why Radford did not tackle this issue. Having said that most people seemed to see the problem it just took a more understanding coach to do something about it.

Hull identified the problem a couple of years ago, but you can only do so much, the player also needs to put the effort in, Radford can't stop Abdul going to KFC or his Mum feeding him junk food every night. Not playing him last season and sending him on loan to the lower leagues seems to have seems to have given Abdul a wake up call, I'm sure Sheens will help him development but let's not pretend that Sheens is perfect and has every single player he has had has developed and improved.

Radford does a very good job developing players and he seems to be handling Kelly very well and has improved a lot of our youngsters and established players. You can critise Radford for a few things, but is pretty good at player development if they have the right attitude.

It it now up to Abdul if he wants to play for a top 8 SL side or a championship/bottom 4 SL side next year.

Ok that probably has something to do with it as well.

Don't be fooled by Kelly however. You may be right but he has tended to suffer from second season syndrome at his previous clubs not just us. Excellent, head down first season. Get an extension to his contract. Let himself down big time second time around. He has achieved the first two with you. Time will tell.

As you say time will tell and you I don't think any Hull fan would be surprised if Kelly did let himself down, just enjoying him while we have him, if all of our players played with the same desire we would be top of the league.

Check out Nostradamus over here.

We've been told this time and time again by Rovers fans ever since he signed for us. It's boring. Is there a "Kelly second season syndrome" sticky thread on your secret forum where Rovers fans can copy & paste a formulaic sentence to respond to Hull fans with?

Dave K can post a reasoned reply. Kelly has repeated his behaviour at more than one club. As I said time will tell. I hope he continues with his good form for his sake if not for yours.

I'm happy for Dave.

If "time will tell", then why are you making predictions about what will happen? "Yeh, let's wait and see, time will tell. But he will go bad, second year syndrome, he does this every time, you'll see. But yeh, time will tell". Who you trying to kid Keith, you like all other Rovers fans are frothing at the mouth over the prospect of coming on here in the future and saying "I told you so".

As I said, you're not telling us anything new are you? We've been told this by Rovers fans since he signed, pretty much word for word. It's boring.

Right now we're enjoying watching him, he's scoring loads of tries and adding a lot to the team. We all appreciate your concern though.

Its all about which side of the argument you stand, Radford lets him out on loan as either a last chance saloon or a development chance and he's responded or was he at a loss and Sheen's transformed him. Probably somewhere in the middle.

Sheens certainly seemed to put an arm round him at the beginning of the season and involved him heavily in press calls, forums etc. Abdull for whatever reason has seemingly knuckled down and sorted his body mass issues out and he looks interested and fit. He's probably had some growing up to do as well as anything else

Abdull will go back to Hull at the end of the season, a much improved player than when he arrived. Jamie Ellis may become freely available if Hudds get relegated but not sure I'd want him to stay. Allegedly Brough might be coming to us before the end of the season, but I'm not sure that's such a great move either. Next season if we're in SL, I expect we'll have two new halfbacks.

As for Gareth Ellis, he reminds me of Mick Vella for us. A bit crocked, great player, fantastic leader. When he was on the team sheet, regardless of the minutes he played, we were a better side.

Broadly/likely true, but with a couple of caveats IMO:

1. I really can't see much chance of him being at Rovers if we don't get promotion.

2. Would he [iplay[/i at Hull? If Kelly and Sneyd stay fit and in form, he [imight[/i fit in the back row rotation I suppose. Tbf, we'd look to strengthen if we did get up but he'd still probably be closer to first choice at Craven Park.

You do go on don't you.

Debatable. Would be surprised if Abdull were first pick in the halves for Rovers - you have a strong history of bringing in halves like Green, Dobson, Kelly, Campese and Hudgell will want to make a statement straightaway. I'd expect overseas HB options are already being progressed as I would be surprised if Sheens sees him as a starting HB for a team looking to ensure top 8 in SL next season. On the basis 2 halves come in, would he be closer to first team action with Rovers or Hull? Might come down to which pack he'd rather play in/behind.

I would have him as my 13 all day long in SL, very strong, quick for his size, good ball handling, he's got it all to play 13. Big future if he continues to develop as he currently is, I hope we snatch him away from you but we'll see.

Good to hear how well he's doing. That said there'll be huge overemphasis on his importance declared by whichever side he turns out for next year simply because he's played for both teams and is a decent prospect. Would probably do his career a favour to sign for Wakefield instead.

I really rate him and would be very disappointed if he is playing for anyone but hull fc next season

Think it will be huge mistake by the club if we lose Abdul and one that we could come to regret.