Agree with that. My only reservation tomorrow is that it is likely that he will play on the right when we all know that he is more comfortable on the left. That said, if he performs well on his less favoured side then it will boost his confidence further. Playing on the same side of the park as Green and Newton should provide him with opportunities to show off his undoubted attacking prowess.

Indeed.
Also if and when Willie Mason gets here (You can ignore the odd one Mrs B you know) Craig Hall is just the kind of player you want on his shoulder.

if you could merge ben cockayne and clint newton's popularity with the hull fans, you'd get an appreciation of what most of us think of yeaman

hopefully people wont judge him after one game though MrsB, regardless of what the King of Hull says, we should be more realistic, shouldnt we?

I hope he rips it up for guys, always felt sorry for him at Hull been the scapegoat.

He has ridiculous potential.

I agree with RBA I'd play him in his strongest position on the left. if he has defensive frailties he would be better defending between colbon and galea where he would get a lot of help. I know welham has started like a house on fire and it might seem daft to move him but he started on the right when he first broke into the team and his defence in the first 2 games has been spot on, he'd do a decent job inside foxy.

I'm not suggesting he's judged after one game. What I'm saying is that, for a multitude of reasons, he had 70+ SL games at Hull FC and never made a spot in the backline his own. Some of these reasons, like FC's love affair with Yeaman and Agar playing him unsuccessfully at FB, were out of his control. Some, like wellying the ball 3 yards forward into the stands, weren't. The point here is that there is a commonly held belief that Morgan has the Midas touch with developing players. There is evidence that he does develop players beyond their ability when they arrived at KR (Welham, Murrell) and evidence that is less compelling (Cooke, Ratu, arguably Clinton as examples). Hall has the rare commodities of natural flair and elusiveness, but accompanied by being somewhat error-prone and making poor decisions at times. He was not Agar's sort of player at all. The challenge is whether Morgan can optimise Hall's maverick and exciting playing style whilst at the same time either sorting out his downsides or building a "cover" plan to ensure he's not exposed in his weaker areas. I personally think he has a good chance at Rovers, and wish him well.

Good post Mrs B but why wasn't he Agars type of player, what is Agars type or is it cos he has his favourites. A couple of yrs ago and a few of games last season welham really flunked in defence and it's like god hold your head in Ur hands time, I do really believe that you can turn a poor defender into a good one only time will tell, if he scores us trys then I will be very happy .

Agar likes solid defenders in every position and to play a forward led, attritional game. Perhaps this has been partly because our lack of halfbacks (through combination of poor recruitment and injury) for the last 4 seasons has meant this is his view of what's most effective. I don't think he ever really knew what to do with Hall and putting him at FB did for him as he just made too many errors.

Well you aint got many solid defenders at the minute luv your In minus mode at the minute and maybe if hall had been in a regular position then you would have seen a different Craig hall.

hehehe maybe you needed to see him play a little more

Makes no odds now he is a rovers player and for his own self confidence I hope he comes out guns blazing at the end of the day it could be you saying in 3 months time why the hell did we get rid, same as god why didn't we sign Dobbo

You asked me why he's not Agar's type of player. I said Agar prefers a defence-led game; he'd always pick Yeaman over Hall in a straight choice. It's a fine line between having the ability to win games with natural attacking ability and putting your team on the back foot with errors. Agar, and the majority of Hull fans, on balance saw more of the latter than the former. This doesn't mean that Morgan can't develop his defensive game and eradicate the errors though, and, as said, it's the ideal test of Morgan's ability to develop a player with undoubted flair and ability.

Fair point

I think Agar knew that Hall had ability and gave him plenty of chances. In the end Agar ran out of patience which is understandable.

In these days of salary cap restrictions coaches are forced into these type of decisions.

Obviously I hope Craig Hall does well at Rovers so good luck to him.

I don't really see Morgan's task as making Hall good at things he has not been good at in the past. Morgan didn't sign Hall in the belief he could turn him into a tackling machine. No he signed him because of what he CAN do not what he can't. Hall will be given a few do's and don'ts to comply with but mainly I think he'll be asked to express himself and show his ability.

Hall's pace and his ability to ghost through gaps definitely add value for Rovers. We'll have to see if this outweighs any negatives. Either way he is not a top earner and he is not crucial to Rovers hopes for 2011.

Morgan knows this so there's really nothing to lose.

Fair points. At FC however, particularly in 2008 and 2009, Hall, who was a good fringe player who ended up playing a lot of games due to injuries to Tony, Byrne, Raynor, etc, and in those cases you [udo[/u have something to lose. If Rovers, say, lost Briscoe for the season tomorrow, and Cockayne for 3 months the week after, Hall would be an automatic pick somewhere in the backs, possibly fullback, facing the bombs of Danny Brough and being Rovers last line of defence trying to hold up the likes of Crabtree over the line. As I said, it was that sort of situation that did for him. In your ideal scenario of having a full strength squad to pick from every week, you're right, there's nothing to lose, but that's not necessarily the actual situation you find yourself in every week.

Nice to see my ranting last year about Hall needing to play left centre where is is comfortable was listened to by someone. Wish Agar had. I still firmly believe Hall is one that we shouldn't have allowed to go. Still, everyone needs a scapegoat when the chips are down.

I was saying it long before you Dave

Actually ,I will admit I might be the only Hull fan who appreciates Newton`s ability.(as a player.)
Your right about Cockayne though as far as I am concerned.
I have nothing against Hall,but I wouldn`t want him over Yeaman myself.

Played well, best of a bad bunch

he was 1 of only a few to have a go thats for sure

I thought Hall had a good 1st game yesterday.

One thing I was encouraged with was that he had the courage to repeat a play (quick flick pass to Fox) which went into touch the first time yet it didn't deter him the second time and it came off perfectly (despite Fox not making the most of it).

I was also encouraged by the fact that when that 1st pass went into touch, the East Stand never made a big deal out of it and it's little details such as this that will give the lad encouragement that he knows the fans really want him to succeed; for three significant reasons:-

1) The nostalgia and link to his old man.

2) He was an ex-FC player so we want him to succeed to use it as amo against FC fans (specifically fans like me).

3) He has all the potential to be an international centre if developed correctly.

So far so good anyway.

they didn't make a big deal out of it because it was the correct pass, foxy had read the play wrong and come in when he should have stayed out, if he had done he would have had a walk in try. Hall had a very encouraging debut rock solid on defense and promising in attack he should get a run of games now for me.

Never really seen this lad play except for derbies and the odd sky game but obviously had Rose tints on and wasn't looking for him. After all the gossip about him being this and that I was a bit on the fence about him, having watched him play these last few week I have grown to like him, contrary to what we would be made believe, his defence seems more than apt and attacking he does look the business, I can see him causing all the selection heartaches he was billed to.