The general tone is cranky atm, understandably.
Perhaps I'm an eternal optimist or its just the relative youth of my 30s and I have this crankiness to look forward to.

I'm surprised we've not seen him this year. He looks physically capable of plaing SL. I guess centre has been a position we seem to have been okay at with Scott having such a good year. I assume we've got Wacokecoke next year too.

It looks like Newcastle will be relegated on Friday. I wonder if we bring Balmforth back for our last two games.

Cant say Balmforth is not physically ready to play 30 minutes off the bench.
Something not right here and i can only assume Smith doesnt rate him

I was more referring to the Reserve and Academy players howevee I agree about Balmforth in that I'd have expexted to see him at some point this season.
Could be any number of reasons though. Might be cap related, might be that the coaching staff think playing at Newcastle is better for his development than 20/30 mins off the bench or it might be that Smith doesn't think he is good enough yet.
They must think there is potential there though otherwise they wouldn't have kept him on another year.

I'm sure if the qualify for the Academy 18s and under they don't go on the cap, so I presume if Staveley and Blamforth play the go towards the cap. Staveley played in the cup which I don't think counts on the SL Cap, but would like to see Staveley or Jebson get a game on friday.

The Salary Cap only counts for the top 25 paid players at a club.

Not sure where Balmforth and Staveley fit with regards this.

If we are close to the cap with this squad someone wants sacking.

How does it work with the players we're released and not replaced with regards the cap?
Does whatever amount we've paid them off count?

Yes the payout counts.

The way round this, is to loan or free transfer out-of-favour players to other clubs (Championship Clubs too)

The players` wages then count on the other club`s Salary Cap.

Even with payouts (which at most would be Evans and Griffins salary) we still be a couple of hundred k off the cap.

I wonder if they have super league appearance bonuses in their contracts and we're not willing to pay them to keep costs down this season?

Don't think Horne/Cooke were too shabby during their time at Hull, admittedly Cooke went onto play loose forward, but he did feature a lot at Scrum half, too.

I don't think it's that coaches are scared, I think we just haven't produced quality players. MacNamara and Kebab have been okay. Hookem didnt make it.

You could say that youth coaching is the issue. Or our falling catchment of players. But if the quality isnt there then there's not much you can do at first team level.

I've watched a few games this year and think Harman, Medforth and Charles look decent. But they don't look SL quality right now in the way Balmforth did. Let's hope that changes.

And crowds have been surprisingly good, I expected a dropoff just due to the economic crisis never mind our indifferent form. Playing games on a weekend seems to have helped, particularly with getting a few more away fans in. The derby also got its best crowd in years so that was a few more quid in the till.

Theres always been a tendancy in youth rugby to focus on the kids who are physically bigger who stand out because they are taller/stronger than the rest. This also happens in Football too. The smaller skillful players get overlooked. The result is as a city we seem to produce hard working hookers and props.

The challenge for RL is young kids will want to play Football, its more pooular and more lucrative, even ending up in non league football likely brings in more money than SL squad player wages.

Staveley in the 17 tonight.

Litten, Swift, Scott, Tuimavave, McIntosh, Lovodua, Hoy, Fash, Houghton, Taylor; Lane, Savelio, Cator.

Interchange: Satae, Brown, Dwyer, Staveley

Sutcliffe can't be 100%, still cringe with Lovodua in the halves, could be a rough night. They've got everything to play for and we don't have anything apart from pride, hopefully we'll still turn in a good performance.

Can't make tonight but our pack again looks lightweight. Hopefully the lads can get a win.

What's that?

glad to see Staveley in the 17.

Don't think we've got much choice at 6, without checking a kid in.

Big test for Hoy too

Looks like 2 disjointed 17s. Wonder if Widdop will actually play full back? He's named at 1 and Eden at 6, you'd think they'd swap around.

I can see Widdop defending at full back and attacking at 6, if Sutcliffe had been fit I'd rather put either him or Carlos at 6 but like you say we're stuck, the only other option would be putting Houghton in the halves.

Can't see it making too much difference as we seem allergic to winning games in September.

I'm glad he's gone with Houghton at 9. Anything to avoid Dwyer out there for 80

Brilliant start....for cas

Good start....