The Blues Ox

This along with a very average junior set up and the fact that agents will push the prices up of their players knowing Hull will have to pay over the odds for quality and it all adds to the time any rebuild will take. Like I said above other teams mentioned all had things to work with, either a couple of strong current players or terrific junior set up, where as Hull really have nothing at this point. Who would be the player/players that Hull could try and build a team round? Because they are such a mess having to overpay to get a marquee signing or two ends up hampering them even further especially when a lot of the teams around them have exemptions allowing them to over spend the cap.

I'd have the captains challenge in the game but to try and cut down on any shenanigans you could take away a substitution if it is wrong. With the number of substitutions allowed coming down I think that just about gives the captains a bit of a dillema because it could effect them tactically later in the game.

Which big clubs have had to do a rebuild on this sort of scale? They literally have nothing to build around. They remind me so much of the Fax relegation team, most of the talent has gone now, they are left with players who used to be good but have not got long enough left in the tank to be part of the rebuild, and academy players that realistically are nowhere near good enough to be playing at this level. It isn't just a case of here is a load of money go and splash it about, how often has that worked in the past without the rest of the infrastructure? Edit: Just saw the Wigan reference and I guess that could be used as an example as that took maybe 4/5 years but the difference were that they had some serious qaulity of talent coming through their junior ranks and they made up a decent chunk of that squad. For Hull they are not close to that and again that is not simply an overnight fix and does involve a little bit of luck as well.

Good on Rowley. It made no sense what so ever to take the Hull job. Its not a case of adding one or two players to get competitive, its a full rebuild they type of thing that could take close to a decade and whoever is the next coach will only make a start on the job. If Rowley were to leave Salford then it will be to a team that maybe only needs those one or two players to push on.

Yes of course there is a lot more to that video than just one aspect but it was that part that was relevant to the discussion. Also I wouldn't say its a gripe, more a genuine concern about if we should be encouraging that sort of tackle technique due to the potential for injury. Edit: Probably worth adding as well that yes a ref should be calling held with the defender on one leg but any coach worth his salt will be encouraging players to try and time taking the attacker to ground on or very close to the refs held call.

At a guess here but the RFL put out a new Tackle Safe video a few weeks back which encourages players to lift a leg of their opponents from juniors upwards which could clearly lead to pressure been placed on the mid-lower part of the standing leg of the attacker, they simply can't start banning people for a tackle that they are actively encouraging. Im undecided if it is a tackling technique that we should be pushing especially at junior level and I feel it has a lot of potential to go wrong especially in less experienced junior players. I were part of a session recently where we were going through some of these techniques with players and had one where two players made contact and both then decided to grab a different leg. Obviously we were able to quickly call a halt at that point but if that happens in a game we could be increasing the risk of spine and nexk injuries in my opinion.

Rowley would be mad to take on Hull, they are a total mess on the field and its going to take at least 3 or 4 years to just get them settled nevermind anywhere near decent. No coach is going to be given that time and considering the logistics of him going there I just can't see it happening. He can probably hold on and get a much bigger gig than Hull over the next few months or year or so.

Please refrain from predicting us to win in future weeks. Didn't go so can't comment too much. Can't say Im too shocked at Sheffield winning but that is a good hiding. Finn can't really make any big changes either when we only have 18 players to pick from each week. Going to be a long season for us this one and we may end up in the relegation mix.

You know it really would not surprise me. When our fans are on a downer we do seem to have a habit of pulling out a win from nowhere, similar when things seem to be going well we have a habit of self destructing. Going on form though I just can't see it, I put Sheffield up there with Bradford in the race for second and they will take some beating.

Going to have to stop players backing in to tackles to stop tackles like the crusher happening.

Ive seen a lot of amateur games this season and can confirm a lot of the same above. Really not much change but 2 things stand out. Collar grabs are given as penalties everytime which we obviously have not had before and quite often I have seen ref's signal that a tackle was shoulder height which makes no sense as those should now be pinged. I think things will be watched with a lot more scrutiny in the pro game though especially with every game on TV. I still expect the first few weeks to be a mess.

Think that try should have been checked, looks to lose control and only retain possesion because of the KR players leg.

Leeds v Huddersfield Leeds by 74 Wigan v Barrow Wigan by 36 Warrington v Fev Warrington by 6 York v Saints York by 8 Like Richard mentions with the Sky cameras been at Leeds its a shame that the game couldn't be televised somewhere but with the likely big score you can see why. Got the feeling Leeds will want to put on a show with it been a double header. Warrington game should be interesting, the Fev squad has a few new faces in that I'm familiar with and i'm looking forward to see how those players go about stepping up to this level this season.

Most of the stuff I see is just click bait trash, even Matt Shaw who has been decent in the past has started going down the click bait route recently. The people who will come out of it with credit will be the people willing to put in the work now for when the algos change in the next year or so and will narrow down the click bait from the articles that people actually read and will no doubt punish the sites in the rankings and in their pockets running cash for clicks schemes.

SATURDAY 20th APRIL Toulouse Olympique v Whitehaven Toulouse by 22 SUNDAY 21st APRIL Barrow Raiders v Doncaster Barrow by 4 Batley Bulldogs v Wakefield Trinity Wakefield by 32 Featherstone Rovers v Widnes Vikings Fev by 4 Halifax Panthers v Sheffield Eagles Sheffield by 16 Swinton Lions v Dewsbury Rams Swinton by 8 York Knights v Bradford Bulls Bradford by 18 Just 2 this week that look like they could be difficult to predict in the Barrow and Fev games.