When we signed Long last season like most people on this thread i thought "Great" but who are we going to sign as his understudy.
As our dismal season continued last year and no name came forth i began to worry. Surely we would sign someone - anyone to provide cover for those inevitable times that we would be without Long due to injury. Sadly it was not to be and now we are at that point of the season when our half back is AWOL due to injuries. So the rest of the season continues pretty much as last season with the only exception being that Agar has a two year extension - go figure.

Reminds me a bit of '08 when we had Dykes.

Yes you are right.

Cant think of many teams in Super League who can afford to have an "understudy" as such. Most teams just shuffle the players around to cover.
Who will play for Sts when Eastmond is out, who would play for Bradford if Orford is out. Warrington and Hudds seem to be the only teams with ample cover in the halfs, but then they are still players who are in the first team most weeks having to shift position to cover others.
The salary cap seriously hampers your attempts to cover every specialist position, unless your Wire

[/u

Never did them any good today

I haven't looked at their full squad list, but Wigan seem to be fairly well covered, too.

Like I said earlier, they are covered but only by moving players already in the starting 17 around.

Who are our u21 halves and how are they progressing?

the u20's half back is Lee Williams and stand off is Danny Nicklas.

They look pretty handy on the hullfc tv highlights.

Our fifth different half back pairing of the season in 11 games.

Horne-Long
Washbrook-Horne
Turner-Horne
Turner-Long
Turner-Washbrook

Bit of a worrying trend, I thought that would be one aspect that may improve this season.

what i dont understand is why we dont try our halfbacks out the academy??? salford did it hence myler, wigan did it hence tomkins, st helens do it hence eastmond. we could have the next big thing in league but i dont think they get a good enough chance if they play scrum half, at current we have 3 players pushing to make it in the first team, dennis tuffour, reece lyne and jack briscoe, these all play wing or fullback which in my opinion is a easier position to replace a player. so why are we pushing wingers through the academy instead of halfbacks where we have been short for cover for years???????

we have to go all out for a new no7 for next year IMO. Even if it takes up considerable salary cap.

we have to assume Long will only play 50% of the games next year (and anything above that is a bonus) Saints knew what they were doing when they offered him a 1 year deal.

it'd be a massive risk to rely on him and not sign a replacement.

Almost by definition, a quality 7 won't want to be an understudy. Rovers would be screwed if Dobson was out, as would most clubs missing their SH. A hooker/scrum-half like Fien, Wigan's Leuleuai or Obst would be a real asset to any squad. Robinson at Hudds might be another now Brough has gone there.

robinson played hooker the other night didn't he?can't see brown letting him go,knowing he can cover both scrum half and hooker as good as he can.

don't think he's the answer anyway, goes missing in the big games.

sadly I feel we'd have to look to Australia for a halfback, there simply won't be anyone in SL available.

better wait for 2012 then.cusack will retire at the end of the season,but then the overseas quota reduces by 1 doesn't it?o'meley,moa,lauaki and berro plus 1 more,but that may be fitz???

Thought for what it's worth, Washy had a decent game today and I aint no fan of him, but credit where its due, he played well and tried hard to work the ball wide. when it came off, we scored.
I think we would be hard pushed to expect somebody with any credibility to come here and play 'understudy'. Why would they? They might as well play first grade for someone else on a regular basis. Like has been said, we need to shuffle around like other teams do and in the the end we may produce our own in time.

We are in desperate need of cover at 7. Could of done with someone like Gale at Quins, a solid field kicker, and can shift the ball fast through hands, nothing special but would of been a better option than Washbrook.

depends who is available, if it meant getting a top class 7 in then i'd ditch Fitzgibbon despite his great start to the season. Our next no7 is vital to the clubs success and its a signing we have to get right IMO

if '''superfitz''' keeps playing the way he has,AND can keep relatively injury free,i can see him having one last year.

at 7

What he said.

Good scrum halves are thin enough on the ground as it is. Why would one want to play second fiddle?

A team will always struggle without their first choice halves, we need them back fit asap.

Someone told me yesterday that long's injury is a bad one and he could be out for 2 month. Anyone else heard anything?