Finding it very difficult to get up for this game against our dear neighbours I am afraid, especially with it being away from home again.
But I am sure the closer it gets to Sunday my appetite to see a game of Rugby will drag me there.
A few players missing so be a good chance to see a mixture of the new lads and young players blending with the existing squad. I Don't think its worth risking Quinlan after only a few training sessions so I would like to see us as strong as possible first half, then mix it up.

Heffernan
Oakes
Salter
Minns
Shaw
Abdull
Ellis
Scruton
Lunt
Clark
Blair
Donno
Addy

Clarkson,Milton,Lawler,Jubb,Mulhern,Harris,Moran,Cator

I would expect Quinlan to play as he has apparently been trading hard in Australia. Help him get to know his teammates in a competitive environment.

Good call Keith

Heffernen to centre instead of Salter for me then.

Mark, for me this is Salter`s make or break season for me. I have never been his biggest fan, but with him being local and reasonably young I have give the kid some leeway, apart from having a fairly solid defence game he is my definition of bang average, so a good run of games in the championship should show us if he has a long term future at the club.

The jury is still out for me, what you reckon?

Good defence but does not seem to have the eye for an opportunity in attack or I feel the speed to make a decisive break.

His try scoring rate is not good, probably the worst in recent history.

Don't forget your new winger.

Sorry Dave but he's not new. Thought you would have known that.

Disco Dave coming back is odd. Could this be like when Radford came out of retirement just for the derby?

He is a new player registered, anyway that's not the point, strange move, you will walk this league without him playing.

Are injuries that bad already?

As far as I can see we have 6 outside backs available & 2 of them haven't played for almost a year. Might be seeing a fair bit of Disco Dave early season.

Salter for me shouldn't be in match day 17.saying that this may be his level .he's solid enough without catching the eye.in a dominant team he may offer more so I agree with jury being out.would be happy to be proved wrong by the lad

If you want to be pedantic he is reregistered. I admit it was a surprise signing. I do believe we will do well but it is a tad optimistic to say we will walk it.

You will win the league by at least 8 points, very little competition, probably on par with Leigh from last year and minus a decent Bradford side. Middle 8's is a different story.

Disco Dave is good signing, will give the squad depth, can cover and help the young wingers we have coming through and with his experience keep things calm on the field if it starts to unravel.
Once we reach August, there will be no problem in deregistering / retiring to free up money to strengthen.

he would be ok if will sharp is still on the go opposing him. otherwise cant see the point unless they just give him a token fee if or when he plays

Unless the rule has changed, then as soon as he plays won't his full wage (including coaching wage) go on the salary cap, that's what happened to us with Andy Last and made us break the salary cap.

good point although cannot see him being on big wage , this just seems a typical rovers manouvre

There's a third of our cap left! I don't think signing hodgy is going to tip is over the edge.

Big year for Liam, had horrendous luck with shoulder injuries the past 12 months.
Previous to that a solid and brave defender who lacks a little creativity in attack and doesn't score enough tries.
I hope he has a good run at it this year because he seems to be appreciated by his peers.

Salter will never have a better opportunity to improve than under Tim Sheens. We just can't expect to much to soon. He's been out a long time and will be slow to get back to full game speed plus he will be thinking about that shoulder for the first couple of games.
I think if he keeps fit he will make the centre spot his own.

Maybe, but doubtful. Minns is a class above Salter as long as he stops getting concussed.

Salter never really set the world on fire even when fully fit. He didn't do much wrong, he was just average. Salter may improve this year, and if so that's good news as we have to get back to SL in this first year.

As for the derby, I can see Kelly having a point to prove with some flashy moves. Keeping him quiet would be quite an achievement.

It will be interesting to see how fit Kelly is. On radio Humberside, Radford said something about Kelly not setting any PB's in the gym or hitting his development targets as yet.
So wondering if he's been named just to boost ticket sales.

Never truly stated, but U wonder if Kellys lack interest in training was another reason why Rovers fell out with him. In 'Judas?' Cookie sounds like he had a similar issue just because he was naturally talented, until he eventually turned his life around.