I think our biggest problem is Gentle's belief in a lighter, more mobile pack. I believe our backs are actually good enough (would prefer a better winger to Crooks, but not top priority) but we are rarely playing off a good go forward and giving Holdsworth and Miller the time and space in which to play. Last night it was more obvious than ever when Saints have players like Walmsley and Soliola whereas we have Johnson and Pitts. Walmsley also dispels the nonsense about there not being the players available as Saints found him, I had never heard of him this time last year and he has been great every game I have seen Saints play.

Our forward power is non-existent and Watts (our only prop I would keep) should be being played from the bench to bring on when the game is more open since his biggest quality is his off-load, instead he has to start since even he is more powerful than the rest of our props. Whilst when on top of our game we can still win with a smaller team the simple fact is that when you are not playing well size and power can compensate and get you easy yards. It's like a tennis player having a big serve, it is not essential but if you have one then you can win a number of easy points in a game rather than requiring long rallies all the time.

It's not as if our pack is even that mobile as LMS, Farrell and JJB all seem to have have more pace and mobility than any of ours, or is that they run straight rather than going back on the inside all the time makes it appear so. All teams have some light forwards and Watts, Houghton and Whiting should be ours with the rest having some size and power. I don't see Walker and Thompson solving this problem and we should be looking for players like Sam Moa (what about Kaufusi if London go bust).

Watts has been "slimmed" down too much for me.

Bit of Viagra in the drinks bottles,

Wont do us any harm.

Agree with Baldy on Watts, doesnt look half the player who used to terrorise us and offload game is dissaperaing rapidly

Not another Charnley thread

I reckon Gentle realises now this is not the way to go, wouldn't say Mickey Paea is a lightweight mobile forward. Just need a few more like him.

It's obvious to even the part time supporter we lack a bit of size. As a head coach I'm certain at the beginning of the season Gentle knew we would struggle in games where O'meley, Lynch and Watts weren't all playing, as proved even against some of the bottom half of the table teams. The measure of Gentles coaching ability is what he can come up with to fix the problem. On the topic of problem fixing I'd love us to sign a quality attacking centre, put a bid in for Dean Collis at Wakey Mr Pearson!

Size does matter and I think and hope the small mobile pack experiment will now be officially dropped. Our three big forwards were missing on Friday and it was a disaster.

I'm not sure it was ever anything other than an attempt to put a positive spin on a necessity TBH.

Possibly so. Needs confining to history in any event.

Absolutely. Modern forwards are perfectly capable of being big [iand[/i mobile. See NRL for details.

Exactly Kosh.

Was lightweight ever mentioned? The idea was mobile.

Been saying this nearly all season, and specifically about Watts, too. I agree that it's one of our bigger (pardon the pun) problems.

Don't think Watts performances are to do with his size more his mental application, he is repeating his pattern he had with us, start off like a potential superstar then seem to fall into mediocre and almost not putting in any effort. He struggled to get into our side in his latter months to the point where we just let him go even with a seeming lack of forwards.

Thats the thing though he has lost a lot of size, could have something to do with the long layoff at the end of last season. But IMO he hasn't been performing badly & don't think he lacks the effort.

Not mediocre at all...been 1 of our better forwards this season but just think he has been bulked down too much and thats affected his game and looks as though he has had his off load "coached" out of him.

He is a good player no doubt BUT at Cas he was seen as a great prospect until he started to think he was better than he was and started taking liberties and stopped putting the effort in.

Justin Morgan saw something in him and brought him to Hull KR and he was top notch for the first 1 1/2 season until again his attitude started to emerge when he started to become a liability on and off the pitch (Willie mason once called him a 'Galah' which coming from Mason makes you wonder, He left the scene of an accident etc).

He transfers to Hull FC and is again top notch but he has dropped off those levels again.

I hope he ends up finding his form again because he is great to watch when he plays well not matter who he is playing for but history points to what his reaction is once he has his feet under the table and it isn't that.

Surely it takes more out of the defence having to stop big heavy 19st blokes. You only got to look at Bradford when they was a force. They had Vagana, Meyers, Radford, Peacock, Fielden, Morley, Lynch all in the same squad. Those blokes are have got to have an advantage over a light mobile set of forwards?

That's one of the most mobile packs ive seen! Were did Gentle say he wanted a lighter pack?

Oil barges could turn quicker than those lot.

They all just had brute force with the sheer weight of them.

Maybe people are looking at it more by who he has signed rather than what he has said ?

For example the signings of Pitts @98Kg (who Gentle did say he thought was a front rower) and Johnson @99Kg perhaps led people to believe that he was happy to play lighter forwards than previously. These two in particular are a fair bit lighter than the 104/105Kg+ of Lynch/OMeley etc. Bowden would appear to be our heaviest forward @108Kg but hasn't had a lot of game time.

A lack of size is a problem, I can't disagree with that but our forwards have been competitive in most games.
The lack of creative, skilfull half backs is THE problem.

We have several problems and size is definitely one of them. Look at Hudds they have size right across the park. You can't always have it in the backs I accept that but our forwards should be monsters. We must improve the size of our pack.

I also think we have too many similar players in the back row, we need some strike off the bench.

Galah. I like that word.

Birds, an idea for the upcoming hunks thread.

I'm already thinking superheroes. Whiting is Superman. Biggs is Thor. Ellis The Crimson Chin. Got legs, this one.

Ooh, yes. Lineham the Silver Surfer, O'Meley is Thing. Young Shaul is Peter Parker swinging up the pitch. Cockayne is Dick the new Robin.