Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 9:29 am  

I'm really interested to see the squad Peet selects for the weekend. Not reading too much into it, but it might give some indication on who he sees as rotation players i.e looking at some of the strong performances from the weekend, I think we'll see a few retained. So...

You'd expect Hill & possibly Silva to play so who are the next two props? Mago, Byrne perhaps?

The other 2nd row along with Nesemba.

King Vs Wardle in the centre (I hope Eckersley stays in).

Will he partner Cust with Astley?

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:28 am  

jonh wrote:

Much better second half.

Astley, Hill, Forber, Butterfield, Eckersley and Nsemba (second half performance) were a cut above.

Great game for them against a physical Whitehaven side who were not there to make up the numbers.

Probably as close to a perfect friendly as you could get for the youngsters.

A very enjoyable game and the young lads came through well.
I thought Hill was particularly good and Forber will push O'Neil for the replacement hooker in the first team.
I haven't been overly impressed previously with Astley but I thought he performed well and always looked dangerous in the opposition 20.

Nsemba is quickly becoming an enigma to me. His size and power gives him every chance of making a great career in the game however, his work rate (first 35 minutes) was poor in the extreme. I wonder if he is playing to instructions because he is down for playing the full 80 minutes and is "pacing" himself?
I really want the lad to be successful but unless he ups his aggression and involvement to another level he could struggle to breakthrough. Hopefully he is still developing and the coaching staff can work with him to the next level. His second half display shows that he has the capabilities to be a very good prospect.
KPP when playing in the backrow also seems to spend as much time on the wing as he does in the middle.

I thought Sumner was a very solid FB and he gave an almost faultless defensive display. Would like to see him in dry conditions to see how he can perform from an attacking point of view.

I thought the commentary team gave some real insightful comments and added to the quality of the output which made it a very enjoyable 80 minutes or so.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:37 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

A good first hit up for the young lads. The standouts were Hill, Forber and Astley but there were good showings from most including all the first team fringe players once they'd settled into the game in that 2nd half.

Forber will be of interest to those wanting a hooker who can scoot as he seems to have this in spades.

Silva was interesting. He had some good touches, particularly around his offloading ability, but I can't help thinking that maybe he's a little on the small side for prop. I wonder if, given his work rate and offloading ability, if he wouldn't be better from the back row?

We were discussing Silva at the game and the general thoughts were that if you’re a small prop, you then want to have some decent pace but unfortunately he doesn’t look to be that quick in getting off the mark. Size wise he reminds me of Flower but Flower looked quicker and with better footwork. It’s one game, on a heavy pitch though, so I’m not writing him off yet.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:43 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I'm really interested to see the squad Peet selects for the weekend. Not reading too much into it, but it might give some indication on who he sees as rotation players i.e looking at some of the strong performances from the weekend, I think we'll see a few retained. So...

You'd expect Hill & possibly Silva to play so who are the next two props? Mago, Byrne perhaps?

The other 2nd row along with Nesemba.

King Vs Wardle in the centre (I hope Eckersley stays in).

Will he partner Cust with Astley?

Interesting one. Beardsworth was excellent in the 2nd row too, especially defensively. 2nd row is one area we need the fringe players to step up and both lads who played yesterday look capable so it wouldn't do any harm to give them both more game time. Farrell/Isa are seasoned pros and you would expect them to hit the ground running. KPP perhaps would benefit from the extra run out though having spent last year in the centres. I think he'll give him a short stint, perhaps from the bench.

I'd definitely play Astley again. He looked quality and seemed far less "kick happy" than last season. Ran the ball more and was great at backing up. With only Smity and Cust as first choice halves in the squad, he'll definitely get game time so, again, the extra run out would be beneficial.

Front Row will definitely see a couple come in. Only Hill from the game on Sunday looks ready so the first teamers need the game time as, even if we play them all against Salford, they'd only get limited game time.

In the backs I'd play the young lads again with cameos for both King and Wardle. No need to consider any of the others until next week.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:53 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

We were discussing Silva at the game and the general thoughts were that if you’re a small prop, you then want to have some decent pace but unfortunately he doesn’t look to be that quick in getting off the mark. Size wise he reminds me of Flower but Flower looked quicker and with better footwork. It’s one game, on a heavy pitch though, so I’m not writing him off yet.

I'm with you on that. A little too early to write him off as he definitely has some good areas in his game. His leg drive after contact is good but, I feel, is wasted down the middle against the bigger men. A little wider and it could prove very effective, especially close to the line. His offload is good. I know we have KPP in the 2nd row this year who's offload is even better but he's gone next year. His workrate is unquestionable. He really gets stuck in and is good at slowing the opposition ruck. All of that points to a "workhorse" 2nd rower in the Mick Cassidy mold for me but with more attacking threat.

Isa is gone next year in all probability and Silva won't be on a lot of money. He could, perhaps, look to fill that role as a squad 2nd rower that won't let you down, so to speak. Just a thought and I know the positional change from middle to out wide could be problematic but I just feel it could be the making of him.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 12:57 pm  

Phuzzy wrote:

Interesting one. Beardsworth was excellent in the 2nd row too, especially defensively. 2nd row is one area we need the fringe players to step up and both lads who played yesterday look capable so it wouldn't do any harm to give them both more game time. Farrell/Isa are seasoned pros and you would expect them to hit the ground running. KPP perhaps would benefit from the extra run out though having spent last year in the centres. I think he'll give him a short stint, perhaps from the bench.

I'd definitely play Astley again. He looked quality and seemed far less "kick happy" than last season. Ran the ball more and was great at backing up. With only Smity and Cust as first choice halves in the squad, he'll definitely get game time so, again, the extra run out would be beneficial.

Front Row will definitely see a couple come in. Only Hill from the game on Sunday looks ready so the first teamers need the game time as, even if we play them all against Salford, they'd only get limited game time.

In the backs I'd play the young lads again with cameos for both King and Wardle. No need to consider any of the others until next week.

I think that we might see Cust. He got injured towards the end of last year, so I think he might get half a game or so. Would be good to see Astley alongside side him + behind a bigger pack too much

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 1:02 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I think that we might see Cust. He got injured towards the end of last year, so I think he might get half a game or so. Would be good to see Astley alongside side him + behind a bigger pack too much

True, although I'm assuming it'll be Smith/Cust for most, if not all, the Salford game. It would be good to see Astley in combination with one or the other of the first choice halves though as I fully expect him to feature this year. Cust would be the more obvious combination but, given his injury record, it's more likely a Smith/Astley combination will feature at some point so it might be good to see how that works.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 1:24 pm  

Some good problems came out of the game, I'd reserve judgement on Nsemba just yet. The whole team played below par in the 1st half, starting with not dominating the PTB so we were always starting from our 10 yard line. Nsemba needs a bit of room to run into. In the 2nd half he got better ball and made good yards (as did all the forwards). I was impressed with some of the really young lads who came on late and made a difference such as Adam Jones, Ryan Brown and Dylan Kelly-Duffy.

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 5:09 pm  

Phuzzy wrote:

I'm with you on that. A little too early to write him off as he definitely has some good areas in his game. His leg drive after contact is good but, I feel, is wasted down the middle against the bigger men. A little wider and it could prove very effective, especially close to the line. His offload is good. I know we have KPP in the 2nd row this year who's offload is even better but he's gone next year. His workrate is unquestionable. He really gets stuck in and is good at slowing the opposition ruck. All of that points to a "workhorse" 2nd rower in the Mick Cassidy mold for me but with more attacking threat.

Isa is gone next year in all probability and Silva won't be on a lot of money. He could, perhaps, look to fill that role as a squad 2nd rower that won't let you down, so to speak. Just a thought and I know the positional change from middle to out wide could be problematic but I just feel it could be the making of him.

No where near mobile enough for second row mate I don’t reckon

Re: Pre-season chat : Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:08 pm  

NSW wrote:

No where near mobile enough for second row mate I don’t reckon

Quite possibly but it would be difficult to know for sure from his time at prop.