Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:33 pm  

St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt.

St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt.

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:51 pm  

Can a proponent of no-props RL please explain why the Awesome foursome were so named and which 4 centres they would replace them with to be as effective in the war of attrition props usually engage in

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:04 pm  

I think we should play a team of just props. The awesome 17.

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:52 pm  

I would sooner take 3/4 props into a game and 2 centres rather than 5/6 centres. Props are pretty hard to stop when running full pelt, take 3/4 players to take him down, these 3/4 players have to get up, 2 have to get back to line, centre and winger comes in and takes advantage (or burrow/tomkins).

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:01 pm  

Bullboy wrote: St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt. The events and names in that article don't quite match the years when Saints won the cup and lost the GF to Leeds.

Bullboy wrote: St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt. The events and names in that article don't quite match the years when Saints won the cup and lost the GF to Leeds.

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:09 pm  

Bullboy wrote: St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt. It was 2003 when Saints went into the season with only two props (one of which was Barry Ward so he shouldn't count) and they didn't win anything that season. As a consequence Millward went out and signed Keith Mason mid season and Nick Fozzard for the the following year and they subsequently won the challenge cup but had their super league season derailed by the infamous betting scandal.

Bullboy wrote: St Helens once went into the season with a very lightweight pack and were pillared for it. At the time Millward talked about trying to reinvent the game without forwards but most people recognised that he's just been caught out with his recruitment. In fairness, they went on to win the Cup and lose in the grand final to Leeds, which I'm sure everyone except Warrington would settle for right now, but then they had players like Gidley in the centres rather than Platt. It was 2003 when Saints went into the season with only two props (one of which was Barry Ward so he shouldn't count) and they didn't win anything that season. As a consequence Millward went out and signed Keith Mason mid season and Nick Fozzard for the the following year and they subsequently won the challenge cup but had their super league season derailed by the infamous betting scandal.

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:49 am  

Giants tweet Fielden has signed for them for 2 years!

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:38 am  

Fielden removed from suggestions on original post squad list, Stuart Duffy's comments on the radio yesterday added: resigning discussions going very well in a few cases, short of props and talking to other clubs and players about that.

Sammut is a key resigning, if he does have a dispensation then that makes him even more attractive to other clubs, and that article about his 40 points did say a number of SL clubs were interested, so fingers crossed that discussions are going well with him.

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:47 am  

What about Crossley, I know we got rid a couple of years back, but comments I Havre read suggest he has done pretty well for Dewsbury.

He was definitely a big prop

Re: Preview of 2013 squad - who's left plus rumours : Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:53 am  

daveyz999 wrote:

What about Crossley, I know we got rid a couple of years back, but comments I Havre read suggest he has done pretty well for Dewsbury.

He was definitely a big prop

Signed for Featherstone. He was one of the best in the Championship last season.