You can't buy long term success in RL. The 2 most successful sides in the early SL years were bradford and saints, both of whom completely flouted the salary cap and spent what they wanted. One nearly went bust and is now playing 2nd tier rugby and the other was only saved by virtue of having enough value in their old ground to move and clear their debts.

leeds are the most successful side in SL history and by far the most since the salary cap was being policed more effectively (although not completely as we all know) and their model has been to use home grown players (and they were extremely fortunate to have 3 or 4 top class ones who hung around for a decade or more) plus adding in good quality UK and overseas players. They haven't been big spenders at all.

The other recent successful side has been wigan, who are a model for basing yous team on home grown talent.

wire spent big, had 3 or 4 decent seasons (although never won SL) and then it all fell apart. Only by spending big again do they look to have a competitive team again.

You're right about the value in polynesian players though

It is but who do you think has done best out of it?

The outcome of the decision will not be seen for at least 3 years.
FC had the better academy. Probably why the FC fans were more outraged.

How do people think Cox went, not necessarily how good he was today but attitudinal?

He seems like a good lad to have in camp, the players, coaches, backroom staff seem to really love the guy, plus the 3 games I've seen him play Leigh/Leeds/KR he's got on with his job and been a good steady eddy.

Always looked like a pudding who was more interested in assing about than playing rugby when he was at rovers. Like a slightly poorer man's mcarthey-scarsbrook

Highlights [url=http://www.rugby-league.com/superleague/match_report/12208HERE[/url if you can bear to watch

Well he's knuckled down at Wire for some reason. Still a character like

he might have grown up he cert needed to

Saw the teammates questions video featuring your guys last week. Cox still as thick as pigshi*t and the butt of everybody's jokes. He's a gobby get and an easy target, but he is a big unit with tons of potential. Hope he kicks on.

He will do, for a bit.

He thinks he's some sort of comedian, used to knock about with Burns when he was at Rovers, both a pair of illiterate thicko's.

That said, he does have RL talent, he made some powerful runs today and was clearly and correctly looking to make a point.

He also today played low minutes which has been an issue since amateur days, according to a Hull fan, Dave K, I think who is a reliable witness.

Overall, I thought our effort was good.

We got hammered in the first thirty in the penalty count but we also made a heinous amount of errors, you cannot put so much ball down and expect to win. If Wire had been vaguely at the races we could have shipped sixty today.

The forwards are trying hard, don't believe the Tilse hater's, it's as much that apart from Blair, the backs are just not executing.

Regardless of anything else that happens this season, I never want to see us throw a forward pass out of dummy half in our own 20 ever again, the most unforgiveable of pathetic errors. Also getting back into the game and then panning kick offs is probably not the wisest strategy but it was a difficult kick to field.
We just aren't dominating tackles well enough at the minute. With the exception of Tilse and Walker, none of our forwards were winning the wrestle when we were in defence yesterday, think some more time needs to be spent in that nice purpose-built room we've got.
We look absolutely toothless going forward. I appreciate that we are hamstrung somewhat by not having a 9 or our main organiser at half back but our movement to the edges is so slow it's unreal. Yesterday when Gidley was off the field there was a single occasion where we stretched wire out despite the man over. I think if we are all honest we can see that there is something not right with Kelly, whether that's in his head or around his waist I'm not sure but it needs sorting before Sunday.
On a positive note, we've got a little diamond in Lawler. Grafted his balls off yesterday, I know that he lacks the quality at hooker but when Lunt and Boudebza are back he's more than earned his place in the 17 back in his natural position.
Sio also continues to look sublime out on that wing for us, possibly the best winger in SL, in my opinion. I also think that in the two games so far, Minns and Thornley have shown up well, so it's not all doom and gloom!

Yeah but if ask Hull2524 everybody is leaving so it is all doom and gloom

Correct, but if I listened to him I'd also probably believe he wasn't a self abuser.

I don't think there is any need for doom and gloom on your part.

You got a deserved point against Cas because you kept battling till the last second as you always do (and I wish Hull did). Frankly I expected you to be beaten more heavily yesterday with the number of players you have missing but you stayed in touch with Wire until the final part of the game. You will easily beat Wakey so by next Sunday you will be 3 points from your first 3 games. Wouldn't you have taken that at the start of the season given your present injury crisis?

Even as things stand you are above Leeds, Huddersfield and Catalans.

In a few weeks you will have players back and other teams could well have a lot of injuries.

Agree, couldn't have put it better myself! We've been here before and still rallied and got to Wembley beating top sides on the way so stay patient and RRTR! Wonder what the Rhino's dressing room was like after their paggering yesterday? What goes around comes around!

Just seen some stats from yesterday. 55 missed tackles! And we still made 68 more tackles than Wire.
Wire made 1388 mtrs to our 754. How pi$$ poor is that.

Pretty amazing the score was so low in light of that. Either you defended well or wire were wasteful.

We had 6 or 7 held up over the line calls too, realistically we should have done a number on KR.

Have to agree with this. Have just watched the entire game on our Hull KR TV channel.

We were poor and inept, except for the odd bit of tenacity and defensive effort, but it was a one sided game in Wire's favour for 77 minutes. 50-10 would have been more realistic.

Wire were very wasteful with a lot of the possession we gifted you through our innumerable schoolboy mistakes and penalties. We also lost the collision and the ruck again.

Most worryingly our offence looked pedestrian and clueless, we were crap on execution and we panicked with our final ball. Thaler and the sideline muppets made some debatable calls throughout, that didn't help either side, but especially us.

The Horne / Kelly defensive axis was picked apart for a pastime, especially by Ben Westwood and without an urgent fix and focus will leak massive points all season long.

Positives for Hull KR were Minns, who looks a decent centre, Tilse who looked fairly solid with a couple of good offloads and Bobby Blair despite his knock on from the kick off. Rest were pants. Things do not bode well and the coach knows it.

55 missed tackles is absolutely pathetic, we will always struggle until this is addressed.

From Rugby AM team of the week

"2. Tom Lineham – Warrington Wolves
Now this how to make your home debut as powerhouse winger Tom Lineham went over for a hat-trick in the convincing win over Hull KR. The former Hull FC man was outstanding as he made 10 tackle busts, 168 metres and finished his chances superbly against the helpless Rovers."

10 tackle busts off one player says more about the defence than TL

All us fans know our defensive problems Wire Yed. But it seems a conundrum that is as harder to solve than dark matter in the universe. Us fans know this needs addressing, but we don't have any faith in Chester or Poaching. The only people that do it seems is, Hudgell and Rob Crossland.

Strange though because Poaching was well liked with us, and then we got Agar.....
Until the last 2 games everything bad was Agars' fault during his time with us

It's called doing a Hull FC since the derby the other week

Forgive me Fez but you didn't have any half backs last year. Sandow was below par while he acclimatised and Clark was outperformed by Higham and Dwyer. Imo, Ratchford was wasted at FB.

It looks like the team has grown in confidence knowing that you have 2 Aussie pivots who can guide you around the park with ease. Ratchford still to come back as well and your new Aussie prop. Ben Harrison surplus to requirements. Reasons to be cheerful, eh? Until the dreaded injury curse strikes again.

Good luck.