OMEGA

Corey Hall was a Wakefield Scholarship player who Wigan paid a fee for and took him to their Academy, Leeds then paid Wigan a fee after Corey asked for a release because of the travelling pressures.

To my recollection Myers never played for Wakefield. He was a very talented player and rightfully gained the nickname ‘stepper’ because of his ability to sidestep at pace. Tragically died at a relatively young age, 39 I think, after suffering a heart attack while driving. Seemed he had a congenital heart condition which had gone undetected throughout his Rugby League career

We’ve actually got some great backs and a little bit of depth in the three quarters for a change. Unfortunately it comes at a time when we’ve lost some quality from the pack in S Burgess, Graham, O’Loughlin & G Burgess. We could see the emergence of Harry Smith & Jake Trueman as real contenders for the Half Back positions giving us a bit more scope in selection. Australia will be favourites but NZ, England & Tonga will all be very strong. We could also see a shock result or two involving Fiji or PNG.

Kevin McCormack Ill say no more and see who remembers him

Further proof that you know nothing about Rugby League but do provide some comic relief during the long dark winter nights.

Thing is they’ve already got some quality which they’ve added to. Matty English, Leroy Cudjoe, Jermaine Mcgillvery, Jake Wardle, Aiden Sezer, Ukuka Tai and they’ve got some quality products bursting through like Sam Hewitt, Owen Trout, Jon Luke Kirby, Louis Senior, Olly Russell and more who all have SL games under their belt

With Sezer, Gaskell, Russell & Cogger competing for Half Back spots then O’Brien, Cogger & Roby at Hooker, Golding, Macintosh & Louis Senior at Fullback they’re well covered in the pivotal positions.

Some very astute business by Huddersfield during this off season. Ashworth, Yates, Jones, Leutele, Cogger, Greenwood to go with McQueen late on during the season, add the poaching of Watson and the return of Greg Brown that’s a lot of quality brought in.

We had too many massive players on the field at the same time, you simply can’t have T, G & S Burgess all defending the middle channel at the same time as the fleeter footed players will and did target them and bust us through the middle. This is exactly what NZ did to us, they weathered a battering for almost 20 minutes then when we rotated the front rower and had too many big big men in the middle they changed tactics and cut us up with footwork. Of course we’ll be weaker without 2 World Class players in Graham and Sam Burgess but to mitigate that the games getting faster and has less interchanges so having smaller and younger players might be the way to go.

Changes to OP in bold Fullbacks: Sam Tomkins, Stefan Ratchford, Max Jowitt (Once settled as the first choice FB for Trinity I think he’ll press a strong claim). No Jake Connor for me, his form is too erratic as is his temperament Wingers: Tommy Makinson, Matty Ashton, Dom Manfredi, Tom Johnstone Centres: Mark Percival, Jake Wardle, Kallum Watkins, Oliver Gildart, Harry Newman Halves: Jonny Lomax, George Williams, Harry Smith, Jake Trueman Props: Alex Walmsley, Tom Burgess, Luke Thompson, Liam Watts, Ethan Harvard, Mikalaj Oledski, Ryan Sutton Hooker: Daryl Clark, James Roby, Paul McShane Back row: John Bateman, Elliot Whitehead, Morgan Knowles, Ben Currie, Liam Farrell, Josh Jones Starting Team: Form and Fitness permitting Tomkins Makinson Watkins Percival Johnstone Williams Smith Walmsley Clarke Thompson Whitehead Bateman Knowles Bench: Lomax, Currie, Burgess, Watts

Golding McGilvery Leutele Wardle Macintosh Gaskell/Cogger Sezer English O’Brian Ashworth Edwards Greenwood McQueen Joe Wardle, Gavet, Lawrence, Hewitt, Senior, Russell, Roby, Cudjoe, Butler, Wilson, Wood, Kirby, Trout They’ve certainly brought a strong squad together and if Watson can weave them into an effective unit they’ll be up there challenging. Rumour has it that they haven’t finished recruiting and releasing yet so their squad could get stronger. Certainly a decent bet to crash the party.

I think both Chester and Carter have been chastened by the 5 wins in 36 games record that Chester had until the 3 wins on the bump papered over the cracks. Chester will not be sacked but there will be a managed promotion to Football Manager/Director and Andy Last will probably step up to Head Coach. While this will no doubt happen to Chester’s timeline I’m sure that Last has been promised the top job within a fairly short timescale maybe 1 season possibly 2. Why else would Andy Last leave a guaranteed assistants job with a bigger club like Hull also his hometown club to join Wakefield

Almost but didn’t quite happen that way. He applied for the Leeds Assistant job and was declined by Agar, Wakefield found out he’d applied for a job at a rival club and told him if he didn’t see his future at Wakefield his services were no longer required and sacked him/let him go.

Super League Clubs have squandered a huge majority of the money they’ve received since 1995. Much of that money has filled the bank accounts of short term over the hill overseas players and their agents. Other than being able to watch a few gifted players how has that helped the game over here? On the other side of the coin, it’s incalculable how many potentially good home grown players have been denied their chance to establish themselves. Back to the money, I can’t think of a single club who has used the SKY money to build a lasting legacy that will serve them and the game for years to come or has used the money to help future proof themselves. In the majority the clubs are no better off today than they were 25 years ago.

Congratulations to Leigh Let’s hope it doesn’t become a poisoned chalice because they’ve got one hell of a lot of work to do or they’ll be straight back down and in a much worse position in 2022 than would otherwise have been the case. All this talk of having the most competitive squad in place is misguided, they've got a complete first choice team rebuild to do they may get away with retaining some players as squad members but that’s it! They've also got a a novice Coach who will need to recruit some experienced assistants to help him through the unavoidably tough periods ahead. In terms of finance and facilities they’re almost certainly the correct choice especially in these uncertain times which have already cost us Toronto and created this opportunity for Leigh in the first place. Its not a great look for the sport but it’s a decision that was almost unavoidable given the circumstances. I would hope that Toulouse & York in particular learn from the processes and perhaps see beyond the horizon of today’s decision to the possibilities they’ve been awoken to because of Toronto’s demise. Featherstone Rovers ought to be looking ahead to winning promotion on the field and in doing so gain more preparation time for a real crack at staying up in 2022. If London make their move to Plough Lane on a reported 10 year minimum lease, they should use that time to once and for all lay down roots in a borough and make their push in the next 3 to 5 years. As for Bradford, I just don’t know! We saw how big their potential is but it was built on financial improprieties. The real question for them is can they generate that level of success and popularity on sensible budgets? The historical answer is ‘NO’, Bradford Northern throughout their pre Bulls existence were a mediocre supported club with average success who had suffered from severe financial problems on at least 2 occasions. They need to continue learning to live within their means while building incrementally towards another crack at the top. sorry for the long post!

If Inglis was anything near to match fitness that backline would probably tear England to shreds so perhaps not the best idea for World Cup preparation.

I’d put Bureta Faraimo on the wing to replace Uate

Uate left the Giants about a year ago, otherwise that looks like a very good team. I could see quite a lot of fans turning out just to see the Inglis & Folou Centre partnership play.

Many a true word spoken in jest! Hes been swinging that scythe in Featherstone since 1985

How long have Acorn, Heworth and All Blacks been around?

Personally I’d like to see York get promoted, they’ve steadily grown with a good financial footing over the last two or three years. They’ve just moved into a purpose-built Stadium which would be a great asset to super league. Perhaps their biggest attribute would be geographical as it’s a small step from rugby league heartland into a city that has an international profile and a well established amateur game surrounding it. If the rugby league has ambitions to expand into the north-east then York would be the logical choice!

No he meant Tess Tickles

No they wouldn’t! Wakefield Councils actions over the last 2 decades have been highly questionable, some suggest downright dishonest. It’s not that they haven’t funded a stadium (or 3) it’s that they’ve schemed behind closed doors to actively prevent a stadium being built. In the case of Newmarket they used the need for a stadium to get planning permission on Green Belt land then seemed to collude with the developer to help them avoid their obligations. They're worse than the old Doncaster Council!

No but apparently tur%s can write!

He didn’t have a clue about SL based players! More importantly he didn’t have any faith in SL based players! Motivating a bunch of Queenslanders for a SoO series bares zero comparison to understanding how to tap into the motivations of a bunch of Northern Englishmen. He’d never heard of Tommy Makinson despite the aforementioned having played for one of SLs top teams for almost a decade! His first question to Tom Johnstone was “who are you?” England/ G Britain are not Australia, different mentality, different style of play, different psychological triggers, different strengths and weaknesses. Being truculent with the press when we struggle for any coverage didn’t help! Bennett was an antipodean rhomboid in a round hole!