Your Ideal Line-up

[marklaspalmas]

At the moment we have a 25 man squad, which includes Tommy Lacans who is unfortunately gone for the year.

Let's imagine the other 24 all get fit, healthy, suspension free and in good form, all at the same time.

I suspect that most of us would come up with similar looking lists, perhaps something like this:

1. AEKINS

2. WYNNE/EDEN/JEFFERY

3. MINIKIN

4. HARDCASTLE

5. GALE

6. REYNOLDS 

7. PATTON 

8.

9. JONES & BOWES

10.

11. DAY

12. BUSSEY

13. ADDY

Depending which winger you prefer that's 12 players right there. I'm assuming that poor old Charlie Harris would miss out too.

The other five would be the middle forwards, typically two starting and three on the bench. We have Nine middles.

Which Five would you choose?

Springer / Nakubuwai / Kamano / Albert / Massey / Lockwood / Arnold / Beckett / Kibula 

 

[J Phil Loxton]

3 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

At the moment we have a 25 man squad, which includes Tommy Lacans who is unfortunately gone for the year.

Let's imagine the other 24 all get fit, healthy, suspension free and in good form, all at the same time.

I suspect that most of us would come up with similar looking lists, perhaps something like this:

1. AEKINS

2. WYNNE/EDEN/JEFFERY

3. MINIKIN

4. HARDCASTLE

5. GALE

6. REYNOLDS 

7. PATTON 

8.

9. JONES & BOWES

10.

11. DAY

12. BUSSEY

13. ADDY

Depending which winger you prefer that's 12 players right there. I'm assuming that poor old Charlie Harris would miss out too.

The other five would be the middle forwards, typically two starting and three on the bench. We have Nine middles.

Which Five would you choose?

Springer / Nakubuwai / Kamano / Albert / Massey / Lockwood / Arnold / Beckett / Kibula 

 

Mine..would be-

AEKINS Missed his chiming in from the back

WYNNE One of my favourite players..fearless

MINIKIN Experienced and sometimes gets unnoticed 

HARDCASTLE Getting back to his best

GALE Strong wingman strong and fast

REYNOLDS Great to have him at last, takes line on.

PATTON He's short term. Needs to keep nose clean

SPRINGER Powerful.. Scares defences.

BOWES Stood up well in Jones absence

LOCKWOOD Leader of the pack. Quality defence

DAY Having great season with Reynolds.

BUSSEY. Just quality hard working and strong.

BECKETT. Fine first game back Plenty to come

ADDY. Think he has an injury problem but you have to play him.

NAKUBUWAI Just starting to settle in more.

ALBERT Needs to show us his London form.

JONES Everybody's favourite player. Like him to come on when opposition is tiring.

How do you leave out youngster Jeffery. Needs more playing time and Kimono always gives his all on the pitch

Edited August 8 by J Phil Loxton

[The Phantom Horseman]

4 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

The other five would be the middle forwards, typically two starting and three on the bench. We have Nine middles.

Which Five would you choose?

Springer / Nakubuwai / Kamano / Albert / Massey / Lockwood / Arnold / Beckett / Kibula 

 

To be honest I'd be happy enough with most combinations of five from those nine.

Springer sets the tone with his aggression in attack and defence, Nakubuwai is a big unit who makes good metres and generally seems to tackle low and effectively, Kamano is very steady and has barely put a foot wrong, Albert has shown some flashes of very good form but also has had one or two moderate games and I don't think we've seen the best of him this season and he doesn't hit with the same aggression in defence as some of his team mates, Massey has looked pretty good when he has played but obviously his season has been blighted by injury, Locky looked pretty much like the old Locky against Batley even at 38, Arnold had a really good game against Wakefield and was solid against Batley too and is surprising me as I had him down very much as a fringe player before then, Beckett's ability to play big minutes is very valuable and he had a very solid "2nd debut", and we haven't really seen enough of Kibula to judge him yet.

We're bound to pick up some injuries amongst our middles during the remainder of the season so it's good we have so many capable ones.

[lingaro]

If we can get this team into the play offs sit back and watch them kick ass!

[The Phantom Horseman]

It will be interesting to see how Beckett and Addy are deployed. Both have tended to play big minutes but neither are "big" middles. Beckett filled the Addy role last week ie nominally starting at 13 (though his style is nothing like a traditional loose forward) and playing 80 minutes. If they are on the field at the same time, that reduces our size in the middle, but does free up more interchanges to keep our big "traditional props" fresh.

[sentoffagain2]

    As i have said before i think Beckett is a second row forward.But his passing ability  means he can play 13 if required.His defence in the middle also allows him to fill in as prop.That is why i was glad when we signed him.

[The Phantom Horseman]

9 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

    As i have said before i think Beckett is a second row forward.But his passing ability  means he can play 13 if required.His defence in the middle also allows him to fill in as prop.That is why i was glad when we signed him.

What do you mean by second row forward?

[sentoffagain2]

   If you type Rugby League positions almost every site will gave the players positions as supporters recognise them ie prop hooker second row loose forward.Most supporters still call the same playing positions.You do not often hear supporters saying middles and edges.The forwards have changed with lack of proper scrums but people i talk to still call the old positions.Although the Aussie 5/8th has not caught on it is still either half backs or scrum half and stand off.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 minute ago, sentoffagain2 said:

   If you type Rugby League positions almost every site will gave the players positions as supporters recognise them ie prop hooker second row loose forward.Most supporters still call the same playing positions.You do not often hear supporters saying middles and edges.The forwards have changed with lack of proper scrums but people i talk to still call the old positions.Although the Aussie 5/8th has not caught on it is still either half backs or scrum half and stand off.

Yeah I get all that but I just wasn't sure what you meant in terms of where you want him to play. In terms of where he plays do you mean on the edge rather than in the middle?

[jamescolin]

I have followed RL for 86 years and a second row forward has always been one of the two behind the two props and the hooker. So we have: Prop      Hooker          Prop

                                    Second Row  Second Row

                                            Loose Forward

 

What has changed?

      

     

[Michael Bates]

2 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

I have followed RL for 86 years and a second row forward has always been one of the two behind the two props and the hooker. So we have: Prop      Hooker          Prop

                                    Second Row  Second Row

                                            Loose Forward

 

What has changed?

      

     

What has changed is that's it's mostly irrelevant. The scrums tend to be formed based on what is required, such as a halfback at loose forward, a forward at scrum half when defending etc. A second rower and a prop are pretty much the same player in the modern game.

[The Phantom Horseman]

14 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

I have followed RL for 86 years and a second row forward has always been one of the two behind the two props and the hooker. So we have: Prop      Hooker          Prop

                                    Second Row  Second Row

                                            Loose Forward

 

What has changed?

      

     

The game has changed massively in a number of ways. In particular, the positional names were all based on where players lined up at the scrum, whereas for nearly 30 years scrums have been merely a way of restarting the game, and coaching staff have altered who goes into the scrums - in particular, the attacking team will usually put its hooker at the old loose forward position (and he will pick up the ball and pass it), and the defending team will usually have its full back at the same position at the back of the scrum.

It's not unusual to see centres lining up in the scrum either, and on Sunday at different stages Batley used each of their half backs in the "second row" of scrums when it was Fev's feed.

It's something of a mystery that the terminology of positions hasn't changed given a large number of them are based on one aspect of the game that basically hasn't existed for 30 years, but then RL followers tend to be a pretty conservative lot!

[Featherstonerovers2000]

Nathan Massey has retired so he out of our starting team haha 

[RobLambert]

 

10 hours ago, Michael Bates said:

What has changed is that's it's mostly irrelevant. The scrums tend to be formed based on what is required, such as a halfback at loose forward, a forward at scrum half when defending etc. A second rower and a prop are pretty much the same player in the modern game.

So it's all good if we have 7 Josh Hardcastles in the pack / on the bench ?

[RobLambert]

11 hours ago, sentoffagain2 said:

   If you type Rugby League positions almost every site will gave the players positions as supporters recognise them ie prop hooker second row loose forward.Most supporters still call the same playing positions.You do not often hear supporters saying middles and edges.The forwards have changed with lack of proper scrums but people i talk to still call the old positions.Although the Aussie 5/8th has not caught on it is still either half backs or scrum half and stand off.

Don't upset the naming convention police.  I mean second row ?  Whatever could that mean ?

But seriously if we continue to adopt the Aussie 'Neighbours' style language of the younger generation where we end every statement as a question ? then I wouldn't rule out 5/8th being adopted for halves.  Maybe quarterbacks if we really want to rule out any identity we have left 

[The Phantom Horseman]

7 hours ago, RobLambert said:

Don't upset the naming convention police.  I mean second row ?  Whatever could that mean ?

 

That's exactly why I asked the question - because I'm not totally sure what he means by "I think he is a second row forward". If the name is the giveaway, as you are clearly implying, then is the suggestion that Beckett should pack down in the second row of the scrum rather than the front row?

[Andrew Vause]

Just to fan the flames of this very pedantic, almost twitteresque thread in its school boy type whataboutery (you can tell the on field events are average to say the least). Why is the 'hooker'still called a 'hooker'? They've not 'hooked' a ball since the early 90s!!!

Edited August 10 by Andrew Vause

[Andrew Vause]

On 08/08/2024 at 13:21, marklaspalmas said:

At the moment we have a 25 man squad, which includes Tommy Lacans who is unfortunately gone for the year.

Let's imagine the other 24 all get fit, healthy, suspension free and in good form, all at the same time.

I suspect that most of us would come up with similar looking lists, perhaps something like this:

1. AEKINS

2. WYNNE/EDEN/JEFFERY

3. MINIKIN

4. HARDCASTLE

5. GALE

6. REYNOLDS 

7. PATTON 

8.

9. JONES & BOWES

10.

11. DAY

12. BUSSEY

13. ADDY

Depending which winger you prefer that's 12 players right there. I'm assuming that poor old Charlie Harris would miss out too.

The other five would be the middle forwards, typically two starting and three on the bench. We have Nine middles.

Which Five would you choose?

Springer / Nakubuwai / Kamano / Albert / Massey / Lockwood / Arnold / Beckett / Kibula 

 

I might be wrong but hasn't Kamano now gone? 

Massey isn't going to play anymore and Danny needs knee surgery. Once we're technically safe I think Danny will be withdrawn. 

I remember Martin Pearson playing on with a knee injury only for it to become far worse, he was never the same player after it, hope this isn't the case with Danny. 

 

 

[sentoffagain2]

35 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

Just to fan the flames of this very pedantic, almost twitteresque thread in its school boy type whataboutery (you can tell the on field events are average to say the least). Why is the 'hooker'still called a 'hooker'? They've not 'hooked' a ball since the early 90s!!!

  Agree hooker is defunct now as they are played as an extra half back a name of (middle half) would be more suitable.

[The Phantom Horseman]

37 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

Just to fan the flames of this very pedantic, almost twitteresque thread in its school boy type whataboutery (you can tell the on field events are average to say the least). Why is the 'hooker'still called a 'hooker'? They've not 'hooked' a ball since the early 90s!!!

Quite, it's another anachronism. Football has changed a lot of its positional terminology - when I was a kid, teams had players at "inside left", "outside right", "wing half" etc, now it's all "CDM" etc to reflect the changing game...the NFL has even brought in a new position name ("Edge") to reflect the fact that teams have changed the way they line up. It's the most rugby league thing that we still use positional terminology based on a facet of the game that was virtually done away with 30 years ago.

[Andrew Vause]

2 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Quite, it's another anachronism. Football has changed a lot of its positional terminology - when I was a kid, teams had players at "inside left", "outside right", "wing half" etc, now it's all "CDM" etc to reflect the changing game...the NFL has even brought in a new position name ("Edge") to reflect the fact that teams have changed the way they line up. It's the most rugby league thing that we still use positional terminology based on a facet of the game that was virtually done away with 30 years ago.

I think that football has changed far less than RL. You're correct about the positional terminology of football, aligned to that newer terms have crept in; 'group'  'overload', 'assist', 'wing-back', 'expected goals', 'knuckle-ball' being a few examples. 

However, I believe intrinsically the game of football has metamorphosized far less than RL. For instance a law change in football has to be ratified by FIFA and is applied universally through the game at every level. Whereas RL seems to have local rules and nuances that are different from continent to continent, in some cases league to league. 

I am an aficionado of 70s sport so therefore find myself often getting embroiled in the world of "youtube" watching Cricket, RL, Football, even RU on occasion. To me the game of RL has changed irrecognisably over the last 40 years, whereas Football with all it's terminology does still have a basic resemblance to the game that I loved when growing up. 

 

Edited August 10 by Andrew Vause

[gazza77]

1 hour ago, Andrew Vause said:

I might be wrong but hasn't Kamano now gone? 

Massey isn't going to play anymore and Danny needs knee surgery. Once we're technically safe I think Danny will be withdrawn. 

I remember Martin Pearson playing on with a knee injury only for it to become far worse, he was never the same player after it, hope this isn't the case with Danny. 

 

 

No idea if you're right, but I'd be disappointed if Kamano had gone.

[wasginger]

7 hours ago, Andrew Vause said:

Just to fan the flames of this very pedantic, almost twitteresque thread in its school boy type whataboutery (you can tell the on field events are average to say the least). Why is the 'hooker'still called a 'hooker'? They've not 'hooked' a ball since the early 90s!!!

How dare you say that. 

[marklaspalmas]

On 08/08/2024 at 13:21, marklaspalmas said:

We have Nine middles.

Which Five would you choose?

Springer / Nakubuwai / Kamano / Albert / Massey / Lockwood / Arnold / Beckett / Kibula 

 

That aged well, didn't it? And they say a week is a long time in politics. Try Fev Rovers 2024.

Massey has retired, no-one knows about Kamano (gone? injured?), Kibula was selected but not used (out of favour?) and Springer might be looking at another suspension.

I wonder if Fishwick and Tennison are still on call.

[J Phil Loxton]

11 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

That aged well, didn't it? And they say a week is a long time in politics. Try Fev Rovers 2024.

Massey has retired, no-one knows about Kamano (gone? injured?), Kibula was selected but not used (out of favour?) and Springer might be looking at another suspension.

I wonder if Fishwick and Tennison are still on call.

Fishwick is tainted goods now Mark. He's turned out for Bradford Bulls. He needs a proper scrub down