WN83

He looks done to me but he does have that body shape/style that means he will always make ground when he has the ball, even against the Aussies but you'd worry about him defensively I think. As things stand, Walmsley would be that big, awkward to handle, metre making prop we'll need. If both aren't right, I'm liking what Oledzki is doing.

My England 17 and squad currently would be (if all were fit and firing) Welsby Young Farnworth Wardle Ashton Williams Smith Thompson O'Neill McMeekan KPP Bateman Radley Subs-Walmsley Havard Nsemba Lewis Rest of squad Marshall Percival Litten Knowles Lees Wilson Nicholson Just missing out/reserves Johnstone Newman Robertson D Clark Smithies Minchella Mulhern Oledzki Gannon Batchelor (KR one) I think it's the guys I'm leaving out of a 24 man squad that gives me confidence we're in a good place. I'd have no issues if we needed to call on any of those.

This is where I don't quite understand the RFL and the easy wins they walk past. Sales have been amazing but shout it from the rooftops and drive more. Everton close to a sell out 'we think' but let people know day in, day out! 45k sold, 48k sold, 50k sold and so on. It's a few tweets, that'll take seconds to bang out but it's really powerful I find at Wigan and at other clubs like Leigh. It'll shift the rest of the Everton tickets in no time and get people moving on to Wembley. If you need to be creative with the truth, so be it.

It's hard without watching him every week but I've never quite seen it with him. He's not massively threatening running out of dummy half, he's not really a try scorer and he's not that aggressive, big body in there, who will rattle people. He just looks ok at most aspects of the role, probably a bit like Kruise Leeming is for us.

If O'Neill can come back ok from his really bad injury, then I'd go with him and Litten as the two in the squad ahead of Walker and Clark. I'm not a huge fan of Walker and Litten is outperforming Clark currently. You want balance and an aggressive, competitor like O'Neill, interchanging with one of Litten or Clark, who will speed things up, is perfect IMO.

Great position to be in. One to leave until nearer the time and see how things stand then with form and injuries.

When I go on there looks to be next to nothing available but I'm not sure if that's because I've already ordered tickets and it's then not letting me get more. If all the greyed out blocks are sold out, then it looks like it would be a sellout within days.

It's that sort of pre match that could really drive the event. Now you may be taking the mick but realistically why should you be? If they owe Moran a favour and you can get to watch a few songs for a ticket costing £30-60, everyone is a winner. Something like that could be the difference between 40k and 80k at Wembley. That is an awful amount of revenue.

Very true. We're quick to do the game down here and the Aussies seem quick to say we're at deaths door but quite a few clubs are in as positive a position as I can remember for a while. It's being propped up to a degree but in terms of crowds, feel good factor and overall progress, it's not as grim as can be made out. The league is producing some really good fixtures each week..

It'll be interesting to hear the atmosphere at the first two. Day games don't seem to generate much and recent games have been flat but it was Tonga and Samoa. Plenty will make an early start in Liverpool, so that should oil the wheels a bit.

If it's a decider, I could see it being a pretty hostile atmosphere for the Aussies. It would never overstep the mark but I hope that would be the case. Respect the anthem but get stuck in to everything else.

Hopefully mate. International crowds have been up and down over here in the last couple of decades but I think a lot of that has been due to there being no games against Australia to build interest and to build players reputations. It's a huge shot in the arm for the game here. That 60k figure will shoot up as well. Since that announcement our group got Wembley and Everton tickets, after initially saying we'd wait a while. I'm sure loads will have done the same.

It's fabulous news. I always felt there would be a real appetite for the return of the Ashes but this start probably outweighs what I thought we'd see. People saying Headingley might not sell out couldn't have been any further from the mark. Almost sold out in a couple of days. Roll on that first test! I don't think I've been as up for a game in decades.

Really disappointing but unsurprising news. It would always need good finance behind it and once that went, it was a matter of time. I really enjoyed my one game I made it to, when we were down seeing family and so did they and were planning to go to more games.

And this is the issue isn't it, those past owners/people in charge obviously knew they were over spending but wanted to give the club some good times, give the fans some memories and maybe it was even a case of stroking their own egos but long term, the damage is huge and the die hard Salford fans would just like a stable club to support. Fans that go each and every week, in the good times and bad, do it for more than just the chance to have success. It's a release from every day life, a social chance to meet up with friends/make new ones etc and just a sense of being part of something and then you get people gambling all that away.

It's such a mess but there feels little option but to do everything possible. Things really need to change in this sport going forward. In what should be a week of celebration, with the Ashes being announced, we're still not able to enjoy it because of how poorly run the sport has been over so many years.

Every option has major problems. When you weigh everything up, it would seem the game propping up an extremely scaled back Salford squad would be the most sensible. It looks like clubs are picking up Salford players or are interest in doing so. As that happens at some clubs and more teams are knocked out of the cup, loan options should open up. I don't know if there are rules on how many loan players a club could have but if there are any, then they could surely look at waving them. At Wigan, I see no reason why 5 or 6 young players couldn't be loaned out to Salford, in addition to Chan already being there. It's not ideal but needs must sometimes.

I'm going to start the blind optimism that always comes ahead of an Ashes series and say that I think we've got a group of players now that could do it, without the need to look at a recruitment drive. We'll need some lads to step up and reach their very best level and don't get me wrong, a series win would be a shock but I think we can catch them a bit cold and possibly play on the fact that there hasn't been an Ashes series for that long, that this is a bit of a reset. The talk of not winning an Ashes in 50 odd years is redundant, given that we've not even played in one in the last 22 years and that can take away some pressure. We've dispatched Tonga and Samoa as comfortably as they have recently and there are some special players in this group. We're doing it! 3-0!! Easy

and HKR aren't even playing

It's extremely simple but the messaging teams like Wigan and Leigh use, with the 10k, 15k sold etc seem to really drive sales. King Derek himself openly admitted that Leigh just make figures up, saying in one game they posted that there was only 500 tickets left for the terrace, when in fact they'd not sold many tickets and within a day or two it was sold out. Take him with a pinch of salt I suppose but nothing drives sales like FOMO and the feeling that you're attending a big event.

Talk I saw yesterday that he'd put 'his team' on to this project was encouraging. As long as they don't mean Warrington that is.

Is Walker actually that good? every time I watch him he looks a decent enough player but we have a horrible habit of talking down our own and building up NRL players. Obviously Cleary is a freak but I'm certainly not worried that we'll be short with Williams, Lewis and Smith going up against the rest. I think it's the best place we've been in from a halfback POV for a long while.

Right, I get you. I honestly don't think we need Walker, even if he pleads a case. If Payne Haas finds some English heritage, I might have a different view.

Which Young are we talking about? Dom is British anyway. Radley did that and is in but I've not heard of anyone else wanting to, other than King. Wane may well be receptive if he does want to talk with him but I'm sure he won't be going out touting for new players. He's extremely loyal Wane (too loyal some would say) and his squad for the Ashes won't be far off the one he picked for Samoa.

It would be a nice problem to have to worry about at some stage. I wouldn't mind an approach a bit like Wigan use with the North stand but on a bigger scale. They will give away tickets or sell them at a reduced cost to community clubs/charities etc. This sort of fixture deserves the opportunity for as many kids/volunteers, who are involved in rugby league as is possible to attend. Using a fair section of that upper tier for that would be something to consider IMO.