119 replies to this topic

[The Voodooguru]

Phil Joseph is a handy fella as you have him in every forward position!
Is he not a hooker turned into a loose forward??

[Supporter]

Phil Joseph is a handy fella as you have him in every forward position!
Is he not a hooker turned into a loose forward??

You are right, Widnes are simply describing him this season as a utility forward.

[DavidM]

It's certainly exciting possibilities . Joe Mellor was a boom young Wigan half who'll be behind Brown and Hanbury , I remember Chris Dean playing centre a few times for Saints , and Paddy Flynn is a try scoring and kicking machine.Lloyd White is an excitement machine returning from a long lay off . Just a few there ,it's a strong squad throughout and this move gives huge choice n room for manoeuvre for us as and when needed. We can see it as supplementing a strong squad , keeping our guys on their toes , and improving our standards by being around these guys .

Edited by DavidM, 25 January 2013 - 06:44 PM.

[off the wall]

sorry lads but what is happening to our poor old game. super league are throwing there 30 pieces of silver around and i defo dont like the look of it . i think my team barrow are gonna struggle this season and dare i say it if we go down at least i will say we wernt good enough and have to build a more competative team to stay up. give it 3 years and this game of ours is going to be knackered.no team building from the championship down. do you think half the players that play for you this season will be with the same superleague club in the next season. credit to fev and fax and us at barrow and if we go down the same road as fev we might just be ok. fingers crossed.

[Keith T]

sorry lads but what is happening to our poor old game. super league are throwing there 30 pieces of silver around and i defo dont like the look of it . i think my team barrow are gonna struggle this season and dare i say it if we go down at least i will say we wernt good enough and have to build a more competative team to stay up. give it 3 years and this game of ours is going to be knackered.no team building from the championship down. do you think half the players that play for you this season will be with the same superleague club in the next season. credit to fev and fax and us at barrow and if we go down the same road as fev we might just be ok. fingers crossed.

I don't understand why Barrow have not linked with anyone, especially this year when they need to raise £100k to get the floodlights sorted in order to still be eligible to play in the Championship. A few SL players in amongst your squad would surely bring in good crowds for you and extra money for the lights.

However, what do you suppose Holty will do during the season if you run in to a number of injuries as we did last season? I think he would be asking SL clubs for loanees or dual registered players. Would you be telling him he shouldn't? You had several last season, in fact one of the best, Ryan Shaw.

[off the wall]

ask featherstone the same question mate, theyve won the championship for the last 3 years. imo they are doing it right. even with all the local teams around them and cas just down the road they have developed a very good team which will be the one to beat again this year.

[DavidM]

Yep . I'll take the 30 pieces of silver to help avoid a trip back down to the graveyard league ( maybe even literally for the club ... ) Use it to help cement your place and then you can build and consolidate and strengthen your club and its development . No room for moral sentiment this year I'm afraid . Fev and the like had to consolidate to get where they are today , we have to take any advantage to start that process ourselves . In 2 or 3 years we can be strong enough to ignore this system , but we have to take this step to start the process . We can't build long term if we go down . I'm not saying our squad would , but every bit of strengthening helps .

Edited by DavidM, 25 January 2013 - 07:46 PM.

[Keith T]

ask featherstone the same question mate, theyve won the championship for the last 3 years. imo they are doing it right. even with all the local teams around them and cas just down the road they have developed a very good team which will be the one to beat again this year.

No, I was asking you what do you think Holty will do if he gets a run of injuries like we did last season? Fev can attract players that we can't because of the travelling distance.

People are under the impression that Town will be playing 5 Widnes players every match and the 5 will be different players. What do you suppose our own players would say about that, if that was the case? A touch of reality is required by some people before making posts.

If as happened last season players can be registered as dual players throughout the season, I can see most clubs that have linked signing on more than 5 or 6 players. Someone on (I think) the Rochdale forum last week was saying that it had been said that Rochdale would have the pick of Saints Under 20's and Haven would have the pick of the Saints first team squad who weren't in the 20 man squad for that particular week. That seems to me to be just what has happened at Town and Widnes.

[haven4ever]

Some how Keith don't think haven will be taking the full saints squad on DR.Doing that only benefits Widnes it's clear how they see it working by using town to be able to give any player coming back from injury or ban a bit of game time .The talk down here is haven will take one or two on season long loans with another one or two on DR to be used as required,can't see robey etc being on DR.like yourself not a fan of this system but at the mo it seems to be necessary evil imposed by the RFL,but I don't think even they imagined it would mean a full SL squad being on DR
Thus seems to suggest we will give our own players first shot

http://www.newsandst...ath=sport/haven

Edited by haven4ever, 25 January 2013 - 09:10 PM.

[Keith T]

H4ever, have you stopped to work it out. SL squads are 30 strong, 20 of which will be required for each SL match as they have to name a 20 man squad. That leaves 10 others which will throughout the season include players that are injured or suspended, etc, so how many players are we realistically talking about. If Saints have a run of injuries how long before your two are recalled leaving you with no cover. I think you will find that you will have several registered but maybe try to use the same two.

I don't like the system and at present there are more questions than answers but the cards were dealt as soon as Leeds and Hunslet unilaterally announced their link up. It was obvious that others would have to follow or fall behind.

[haven4ever]

Agree with what you say Keith but a massive difference between what say Swinton have done register 5 DR players from wire and what town have done registering a full squad .Why register a player like Kevin brown who if fit will play every week,only reason is if he is out for a while so he can get a 20/30 min run out before getting back in first team ,Widnes will expect this otherwise why even register him on DR,and while the thought of him having a cameo for town might seem appealing to fans ,the disruption to squad ,tactics and other playersetc all for 20/30 mins to blow out the cobwebs to me seems ill thought out

[GeordieTownie]

It's obviously got a few others worried or they wouldn't be talking about disagreeing with it so much. It was a different story when town didn't have a link up and other teams fans thought we were missing a trick. Or are they worried that super league standard players will boost our gate giving us more revenue?
If we have an injured half back and get the option of playing an SL half back would any club jn their right mind turn it down?
And if anyone believes Haven won't use their link up then they must be mad. It's just a statement to try and show he has faith in his own squad but should haven have a poor start I guarantee it won't be long until he goes back to saints with his tail between his legs

[shaun mc]

I can see the advantage of getting over our lack of players for the first few weeks of the season and I can see the advantage of us staying up this year.
However, the whole thing just reeks of a lack of planning and integrity, which ever way you look at it.
If we get the use of some good players and actually end up above say Halifax and in the play-offs, are we better than them - no way. It will feel a bit false.
The report on the radio tonight talked about Town having a weekly choice of players - to me that means no stability, pi$$ing players like Callum Phillips off who never know whether they are in or out and letting Widnes use us to get their players fit.
I really don't want to see cameo appearances by the likes of Brown and Hanbury for a 30 min session to get a bit of game time no matter how good they are.

[Keith T]

Agree with what you say Keith but a massive difference between what say Swinton have done register 5 DR players from wire and what town have done registering a full squad .Why register a player like Kevin brown who if fit will play every week,only reason is if he is out for a while so he can get a 20/30 min run out before getting back in first team ,Widnes will expect this otherwise why even register him on DR,and while the thought of him having a cameo for town might seem appealing to fans ,the disruption to squad ,tactics and other playersetc all for 20/30 mins to blow out the cobwebs to me seems ill thought out

Maybe Town and Widnes have been too honest is announcing this as I have just read another post on another forum saying that Swinton team tonight included 9 Warrington players. There are no rules about how many players are registered that is the point. The only rule is that you can only use 5 at any one time.

[Keith T]

I can see the advantage of getting over our lack of players for the first few weeks of the season and I can see the advantage of us staying up this year.
However, the whole thing just reeks of a lack of planning and integrity, which ever way you look at it.
If we get the use of some good players and actually end up above say Halifax and in the play-offs, are we better than them - no way. It will feel a bit false.
The report on the radio tonight talked about Town having a weekly choice of players - to me that means no stability, pi$$ing players like Callum Phillips off who never know whether they are in or out and letting Widnes use us to get their players fit.
I really don't want to see cameo appearances by the likes of Brown and Hanbury for a 30 min session to get a bit of game time no matter how good they are.

As far as the playing squad is concerned it is no different to last season when we had up to 4 dual registered or loaned players. They didn't all play before our own players and i don't believe for one minute that it will happen this year. Which coach worth his salt is going to upset his own players as you suggest by leaving them out and at Town I'm sure the fans would not stand for it either.

We had players knackered by the end of last season and look how many had to have operations in November/December from playing whilst carrying injuries. This system will alleviate that by giving those players a rest to get over the knocks before they become more serious. Let's all give a chance and see how it goes.

[Keith T]

Haven4ever, does this not sound very much the same as what Town will be doing - http://www.newsandst...ath=sport/haven

Haven will choose from first team players not included in Saints first team squad. Sounds very similar to me.

[widnesrlfc]

It's certainly exciting possibilities . Joe Mellor was a boom young Wigan half who'll be behind Brown and Hanbury , I remember Chris Dean playing centre a few times for Saints , and Paddy Flynn is a try scoring and kicking machine.Lloyd White is an excitement machine returning from a long lay off . Just a few there ,it's a strong squad throughout and this move gives huge choice n room for manoeuvre for us as and when needed. We can see it as supplementing a strong squad , keeping our guys on their toes , and improving our standards by being around these guys .

Mate I think Craven is a better player than Mellor.Paddy Flynn does not kick goals and I guess you mean Ah Van.Gilmore is also a good halfback.Hope the link up goes well mate.

[DavidM]

So do we all ... It's just suck it and see for all clubs at the moment. Interesting to see how it all pans out and what the level of distortion is to the championship and its clubs. Lets just hope the positives outweigh the negatives for us .I still think as of now this is a heartening development given the tremendous strength of this league . Good luck to both great clubs for a relatively successful campaign and up the town !

Edited by DavidM, 25 January 2013 - 11:30 PM.

[abu]

The one thing that i am worried adout is we have signed some very good local lads and i think there is still some more out there that could make the grade but with this dual reg will we be interested in signing them or will they be interested in coming to town makes me think ??.

[HOLYMOLY]

You are becoming a feeder club,why cant you see this?