Makinson would get in before Gardner/Meli, but yes, three is not many.

Most of the tries on the highlights shown during the Wigan/Saints match were pathetic. Just crash overs or awful kick defence.

Hate to say it Mr Eve, but I'm coming round to agreeing with you, the playing standards this year have not been up to scratch. Especially defensively Imo. Even the blowouts and Wigans score today is more down to poor defence.



Even the traditional top teams aren't producing the tight or interesting games we need, and even the games that are tight seem to be that way because of a team not killing the opposition off.

Aren't some fans on here in danger of thinking you still have the team of last season?



You're never going to replace those three players but once all are settled in and you have a somewhat full squad to choose from for a number of weeks I think you'll find that you're not that far off from last seasons standards.



Might be 12 months till you get to it but can anybody really question McD's methods over 6 or 7 weeks and especially considering what you are without from yesteryear?

Mac has to go. Sinfield ran that team. Sutcliffe is still not a stand off. Sick of saying it. We create nothing because we have the worst halves in the league

I agree he's not good enough. He's not vocal at all for a HB and people have said it's because he's young surrounded by a more experienced partner. However I recall the 2014 pre season game vs Hunslet, he'd made a dozen or so appearances for the first team the previous year yet he was just as bad in that game for not opening his mouth at all and it was left to the other HB who had no SL experience (Ben White I think?).



Also people who think he should play loose, no way, this isn't the late 90's/early 00's anymore with the ball handling loose. I'm pretty certain he couldn't do the defensive work in the middle.



He might be a good player in time but maybe he should take the Luke Gale route and work his way up.

Now that is a player that i would love back at the club to add his game management skills to our lack lustre attack in the oppositions 20m zone

(Now that he has worked his way up of course)

Warrington and Wigan look the top 2 by a fair bit at moment. Wigan's defence is excellent , they look fit and have plenty of pace. Throw in Tomkins and Williams and they will be much better on attack. Widnes good to date. The rest are up down and all over the shop. If Widnes slip, (they may not given current competition) it will leave 2 places in the 4 and still up for grabs. Not saying it will be Leeds, but saints look average at best and Huddersfield are struggling. So opens up for hull, cas or anyone else.

The lack of halves is prevalent over the comp. gale was only 1 doing anything on Thursday. I am concerned that Liam Finn will run the show on Monday !

I read an article about a month back with Ablett and he was discussing the derth of HB in the game and even his own team mates don't see Sutcliffe as a HB he described him as a running threat in the main with some ball skills. A ringing endorsement from a team mate

It looks a fair enough assessment. I wonder if long-term he's more suited to centre. Even short term we might look better with Moon - who's has plenty of experience at half - at 6 and Sutcliffe at 4.

Without trawling all the way through this thread it would seem bad decisions have been made in the past regarding player retainment.



Two of the best players on the pitch last night were Gale and Macshane who I believe both started their careers at Leeds. (apologies in advance if wrong) but you would have won the game with those two in your team.



I never thought of Watkins as a bad defender but was surprised last night at Gales touch screen analysis when he seemed to suggest that Cas had targeted him.

Saints were OK and got to finals but didn't have enough to win them.



Roby took over from cunningham but you're right that it was done gradually. I think the plan at Leeds was to do the same with Sutcliffe. He was introduced gradually and last season looked good until his injury. That threw a spanner in the works imo. Similar with Ward.

It's a sad indictment of the current state of half backs in the SL that the two best at the moment playing for Warrington are both NRL cast offs/has beens.

Catalans could be this season's dark horses for a top 4 berth now that they've discovered how to win away from home.