Maloney isnt ready IMO. If King drops out who comes in? Houghton to the bench with Washy starting and Radders proping?

If Maloney is ready (fitness wise) I'd give him a go. If not, I'd agree with what you've said although I'd like to see Hall on the bench instead of Houghton.

I didnt mean ready fitness wise, i dont think he is ready size/ability wise having seen him pre-season. The other young kid at Dewsbury looked the better player. (cant remember his name)

Have to agree with the comments about King, he was the one low light from yesterday's game a poor knock and stupid penalty combined with umpteen missed tackles caused by his obsession with jumping out of the defensive line trying to put in a shoulder charge (which he pulls off about 1 in 10). He needs to step up his game considerably if he's to keep his place.

Its inevitable that the Yak and Skinny will have a good season and come good just before they leave !!!!

Cusack's been good at worst in every game since his arrival.

Im not saying he has been bad but some times IMO I do wish he would run his weight more. The bloke is huge and like Dowes he sometimes looks like he is going to ground before he has even been touched !

Shoot !

He doesn't, but once contact has been made and it's obvious he's not going to make a clean break or get an offload away, he gets to the ground as quickly as possible. That's just basic good play. When he does have a chance to make a break he'll go for it as much as anyone (see his try last night for as good an example of this as you're going to get).

That's a much, much more effective way of playing than going down the Radford route of backing into the tackler and attempting to squeeze out a couple of extra feet at the expense of 4/5 seconds, in which time the defence can set and the tacklers can work themselves into a good position to get in place at marker.

Thing whats missed by some on here is clean breaks and punching holes isnt what all props area about. Cusack and Dowes for example are the grafters to lay the platform, and in every set of 6 if they make 10 yards each and Radford does too we will be in a position each set to put a good kick in. 90% of RL nowadays seems to focus in the field position aspect.

Thought people were over reacting about yaks try but just seen it on SL Show and it was pretty sweet!

Dowes was doing passes like that last season

Cusack was excellent for us last season but some fans refused to acknowledge it for some reason, great try from him.

As for Kingy, why drop him after one game, thats ridiculous

think hes been out for that long mate he got a bit excited with some of his tackles.

He was poor. If we have other options he shouldnt be in the team. We dont so he gets a 2nd chance v Celtic for me.

G Horne wasnt poor but the knifes are still out for him to be dropped!

So one below par performance and he deserves to be dropped? I can't understand that at all. He has not played for quite some time and was possibly told by Agar to go and make a big impact when he came on, maybe he got over excited or maybe things did not quite come off for him but its hardly worthy of being dropped.

We do have an alternative, Maloney.

The knives are always out for Horne, its down to people just not liking him imo. Personally I believe he is worthy of his place right now.

The strongest squads can drop players after one poor performance to encourage them to do better next time. FWIW King has been poor for several seasons now and needs to do more for me.

Maloney isnt a real alternative, he is nowhere near ready, the sooner Sam Moa gets here the better.

I can't agree, he has not been poor for us other than some off fiedl problems.

Eh? So Maloney is nowhere near ready but Sam Moa is?

How can you say that when Sam Moa has very little experience whereas Maloney has (albeit in the lower leagues). Also Sam Moa has not even trained with the players and Maloney was given big raps by Agar in preseason.

Im being optimistic about Sam Moa after having played in the world cup and the NRL. Maloney has looked off the pace and couldnt outplay the other young prop on the Dewsbury friendly.

King plays with aggression and heart but thats about all for the last couple of years. Cant believe Cusack and Dowes (and Radford) have taken the stick they have but King has escaped it mostly.

The only reason Kingy never got any stick last season was he was playing very well until his injury and then never played again. The season before he got plenty of stick for some under par performances from what I remember.

I am not saying Kingy is undroppable but why have to understand he will need 2/3 games to get his form back.

He is likely to get those games too due to our lack of backup currently. If he has a poor game v Celtic though following his poor display on Friday more questions need to be asked.

That would be more understandable tbh

Kingy needs to get some form back and the only way to do that is to play. If he is as poor against Celtic as he was against Wigan then perhaps he should be dropped but for now I'm happy to give him chance to get back to the form of last season before the injury.

Strange statement, when on the Craig Hall thread you said 'dont change a winning team', but on here you want to drop King

Guess i should have said dont change a winning team unless someone in that winning team played rubbish. G Horne played well. King was rubbish.