Sat 8th Apr: SL: Leigh Leopards v Salford Red Devils KO 14:30 (Sky)

[Snowys Backside]

16 hours ago, Oxford said:

No I agree with Gubrats here you should aim high no matter how long you've been in SL.

Of course you should, but the lowest we will accept is 11th !

Leigh will not be in the Top 6. If they get in the region of 20 points this year, they would have done very well. 
 

Im just being realistic as we haven’t strength n depth !

[LeytherRob]

2 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Off course there is no point in getting in anyone of a standard who will not improve the squad, but we may differ in our opinions Rob, with the numbers we have in the squad it was inevitable that injuries and or suspensions would come into play at some stage I said this at the start of the season, I am of an opinion that prevention is better than the cure and therefore I would have brought players in previously, it is not as though we did not have time to do so even Blind Pugh could see we were going to be promoted long before the end of last season. No I don't know if the club have not been looking, do you know they have!

Lam has said in multiple interviews there are still looking and are talking to players/agents. Genuine question - who would you have been looking to sign in terms of who has been available in the pack? Because to me looking around, there isn't a great deal of quality available.

 

1 hour ago, phiggins said:

Desperate times and all that. At the moment, our unavailable list could be, Seumanufagai, Nakubuwei, Wardle, Hughes, O'Brien, Brand, Nisbet, Smith. If they are all out (hopefully not), that leaves us with 19 I think. And some of them might be injured!

I don't think Davis was signed to play hooker, and I wouldn't expect Reynolds to be any better or worse than him there. So there would be a benefit to freeing Davis up to play down the middle.

O'Brien had a mandatory 10 day stand down as per concussion protocols and was pictured in training last week, so it's highly likely he will be back for Sunday. Smith should also apparently be back for Sunday which would free Davis up to play prop/back row without having to play Reynolds out of position.

7 minutes ago, Snowys Backside said:

Could bring back Mellor and play Reynolds 13. Played there before. 
 

Asiata could play any position in the pack. Fabulous player !

Asiata already plays 80 mins and is our leading carry maker, so would be pointless to move him out of his best position. We have 3 forwards in the squad that haven't played yet this season and are fit, time to start using them.

[phiggins]

13 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

who would you have been looking to sign in terms of who has been available in the pack?

I would've been tempted to go for Mason. But can see why Lam wouldn't want somebody that is only available to build their fitness up after injury.

14 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

O'Brien had a mandatory 10 day stand down as per concussion protocols and was pictured in training last week, so it's highly likely he will be back for Sunday. Smith should also apparently be back for Sunday which would free Davis up to play prop/back row without having to play Reynolds out of position.

Good news on both fronts. I think O'Brien and Smith will make a difference to the squad, and would make better use of Davis.

[LeytherRob]

19 minutes ago, phiggins said:

I would've been tempted to go for Mason. But can see why Lam wouldn't want somebody that is only available to build their fitness up after injury.

Good news on both fronts. I think O'Brien and Smith will make a difference to the squad, and would make better use of Davis.

Mason would have been an option potentially, but I doubt Lam would've been that interested after he was abysmal against us last year when playing for Fax. I think Mason is a decent top end championship level player or 7th/8th choice SL prop if i'm honest and I'd rather see us blood the likes of Gannon, who has a much higher ceiling of potential than Mason, than drafting in a journeyman for 2 weeks for his 3rd spell with the club. 

 

 

[phiggins]

17 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

Mason would have been an option potentially, but I doubt Lam would've been that interested after he was abysmal against us last year when playing for Fax. I think Mason is a decent top end championship level player or 7th/8th choice SL prop if i'm honest and I'd rather see us blood the likes of Gannon, who has a much higher ceiling of potential than Mason, than drafting in a journeyman for 2 weeks for his 3rd spell with the club. 

 

 

Tend to agree, but I don't know if recent selections are a reflection of how much Lam rates Gannon, Jones and Wilde, or if he just prefers to have one sub (Davis) only doing one stint of around 15 minutes, while another sub is generally only going to come on if there is an injury (Nisbet and Chamberlain). 

If it's the former, we need to bring someone in. If it's the latter, then I think it is a bizarre selection policy from Lam. And one that is in danger of flogging Amone, Mulhern and Asiata.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, LeytherRob said:

Genuine question - who would you have been looking to sign in terms of who has been available in the pack?

Honest answer, It seems that we plebs only find out who is available once they move on, how much talk is done between agents contacting the club re player availability that we never hear about?

Edited April 11 by Harry Stottle

[Oxford]

3 hours ago, Snowys Backside said:

Of course you should, but the lowest we will accept is 11th !

Leigh will not be in the Top 6. If they get in the region of 20 points this year, they would have done very well. 
 

Im just being realistic as we haven’t strength n depth !

Leigh sould be about 8th / 9th as a guess and going on their form.

You may be right about the strength in depth though I think some of that is blaming some players and really the aim should be to compete in every game so that the wins will come.

 

[GUBRATS]

Thankfully we've appealed Ava's ban , so we have him available for Wakey , bring O'Brien and Smith starting at 9 with Edwin impact from the bench and I'd be confident of a positive result 

[Snowys Backside]

2 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Thankfully we've appealed Ava's ban , so we have him available for Wakey , bring O'Brien and Smith starting at 9 with Edwin impact from the bench and I'd be confident of a positive result 

That’s great news. We need to do a good job on Wakey. 
 

Bookies state it will be a struggle !

 

 

[phiggins]

9 hours ago, Snowys Backside said:

That’s great news. We need to do a good job on Wakey. 
 

Bookies state it will be a struggle !

 

 

This game reminds of the 2017 season, where we’d won three early games and then played widnes at home. Pretty much everyone assumed a Leigh win and we put in a horrible performance. 
 

If Smith is back, there’s no reason to not have 4 forwards on the bench and spell them properly during the game. But I suspect that Chamberlain will be on the bench and go unused unless a back is injured. 

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, phiggins said:

But I suspect that Chamberlain will be on the bench

Mr Lam wouldn't, would he?

Chamberlains confidence must be shot to pieces after last week, and especially if he watched it back on TV when he was highlighted on full screen and the comments not being very complimentary as to his performance, and besides that he is simply not SL quality, he has been tried often enough whilst others have not been tested to show their worth irrespective of making positional changes, time to bite the bullet if we are not bringing in any new bodies.

[phiggins]

20 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Mr Lam wouldn't, would he?

Chamberlains confidence must be shot to pieces after last week, and especially if he watched it back on TV when he was highlighted on full screen and the comments not being very complimentary as to his performance, and besides that he is simply not SL quality, he has been tried often enough whilst others have not been tested to show their worth irrespective of making positional changes, time to bite the bullet if we are not bringing in any new bodies.

I suspect so. There have been a number of games where Chamberlain or Nisbet have been on the bench, with Wilde / Gannon / Jones overlooked. Similarly last season, Charnley or Reynolds were on the bench towards the end of the season, rather than Jones. 

I think the only way he will have four forwards on the bench is if Smith and Nakubuwei are fit, alongside Davis and Ava. But if he has a choice between Chamberlain or one of those younger forwards, he'll go Chamberlain. Or at least that's what he's regularly been doing.

[Oxford]

You Leythers certainly know how to keep a thread going past its sell by date.

subtitles:

donkey hind the off leg talk

Edited April 12 by Oxford

[Harry Stottle]

8 minutes ago, Oxford said:

You Leythers certainly know how to keep a thread going past its sell by date.

subtitles:

donkey hind the off leg talk

Quite simply don't read it if it irks you that much.

PS, as per your last sentance................ kettle, calling burnt R'se pan. 24.5 K posts and still counting.

Edited April 12 by Harry Stottle

[Snowys Backside]

7 minutes ago, Oxford said:

You Leythers certainly know how to keep a thread going past its sell by date.

subtitles:

donkey hind the off leg talk

We will keep it going until Salford make it 3/3 at the AJ Bell! 

 

Must be in a deal Degsy did for Paul when he left

[idrewthehaggis]

Nah keep it going. 

Dupree and Wright excelled again and featured in SL team of the week after the Leigh win.

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Quite simply don't read it if it irks you that much.

That's disapointing 'arry.

Interesting response though.

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

PS, as per your last sentance................ kettle, calling burnt R'se pan. 24.5 K posts and still counting.

And counting 'arry, look after yourself and stay well ... and for some time I've considered this and you're quite right time to go.

All the best Russ. xxx

[GUBRATS]

6 hours ago, phiggins said:

This game reminds of the 2017 season, where we’d won three early games and then played widnes at home. Pretty much everyone assumed a Leigh win and we put in a horrible performance. 
 

If Smith is back, there’s no reason to not have 4 forwards on the bench and spell them properly during the game. But I suspect that Chamberlain will be on the bench and go unused unless a back is injured. 

Thankfully Danny Craven hasn't signed for Wakey , he really doesn't like us , performs like Johnathon Thurston every time he plays against us

[phiggins]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Thankfully Danny Craven hasn't signed for Wakey , he really doesn't like us , performs like Johnathon Thurston every time he plays against us

But they do have Tom Lineham, who seems to score a hat-trick against us whenever he plays us.

[LeytherRob]

22 minutes ago, phiggins said:

But they do have Tom Lineham, who seems to score a hat-trick against us whenever he plays us.

Does he? Didn't do much for Fev last year

[phiggins]

4 hours ago, LeytherRob said:

Does he? Didn't do much for Fev last year

True, but he’s scored plenty of tries against us before that. Mainly for Warrington 

[Stanley30]

9 hours ago, idrewthehaggis said:

Nah keep it going. 

Dupree and Wright excelled again and featured in SL team of the week after the Leigh win.

Thought both were superb. 

Dupree is really banging on the door for international recognition. He's having a blinder so far this season. And still a baby at 23, which is scary how much potential he has. 

Wright has really settled into it this year and stepped up a gear as well. Looks more of a potent attacking threat to match the work effort as well.