phiggins

But Leigh ultimately offered him a 2 year deal

Think they’ll be aiming for a Hull Rhinpards team

Yep. Thought he had a good game defensively against Catalans, but those good games are getting rarer. May as well get an attacking threat down that side if he’s going to get outmuscled by Tex Hoy.

I agree that O'Brien should come back in when fit, and wouldn't feel strongly either way who plays full back or stand off when both him and Moylan are in the team. I just felt, and still do, that McNamara should stay in the team while O'Brien is out, rather than bringing McIntosh in to play full back.

You'd imagine that Hull have done their due diligence on the medical side. Asiata's injury problems go back to last season, where I'm pretty sure that he was nursed through games leading up to the cup final, and he missed games after the final with issues with both his calfs. Anyone that saw him warm up, or should I say not warm up last week will not be surprised to hear he picked up another injury. Hull must feel that it can be managed, much like Leigh did when eventually offering a two year deal. Beaumont's comments are slightly reassuring, but Lam's future really needs resolving one way or another. He himself must be getting bored of questions about it, and it becomes a distraction.

The soft underbelly of Leigh's defence was sadly back after a couple of more encouraging performances. Dwyer allowed a gap in the middle of the defensive line again, just like he did for Burgess at HKR, and somehow Hardaker allowed Hoy to run through him. Agree on Hardaker, unless his defence is up to it, then he's offering little, and you may as well replace get McIntosh into the backline in his place. On the plus side, I think Trout continues his improvement, and another game of nearly 40 tackles without any being missed for Halton. Maybe he is developing into the defensive back rower that Moylan will need on his side should he move back to stand off.

The lack of leadership is pretty irritating given how much experience is in the side, even without Asiata. Leutele forcing the play on golden point pretty much summed it up. Brain explosion from someone that should’ve been more composed. Need to learn to win without Asiata, who I suspect has played his last game for the club

Out injured for another 6 weeks apparently

It does. Earlier on in the thread I mentioned us playing widnes at home in 2017. The ability to come out on the right side of close games is massive. If we can’t close out a game at home to a team below us in the league, from the position we were in, then serious questions need to be asked

The first 25 mins was awful, then the game changed when Ipape came on. But we shouldn’t be giving them a sniff from 24/10

Can’t be reliant on Asiata for game management. Need likes of Lam, Moylan, mcnamara or Dwyer to step up and close these games out

I’m surprised KR weren’t more mindful of this. I’ve generally been very impressed with Hudgell, and even more so when I learned that he’d represented some of the postal workers that were screwed over in the Horizon scandal. Thought they’d have steered clear of this.

It’s not so much about the gamble the clubs take, it’s the players’ willingness or apprehension about signing a Super League contract for a club, based on how likely they are to be in Super League. See players like Blake Austin who ended up seeking employment at the end of last season.

In other words, the system is a success for the clubs that benefit?

Yep. For all the talk of off field growth, the on field recruitment is still a massive part of that, and it's been hampered by the uncertainty. Same applies to Cas, and I imagine Toulouse.