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Was having a think and compared all the announced Super League squads from all 12 clubs. I genuinely believe we go in to the new season with arguably the deepest and best squad about. You take a look at the likes of Warrington, Hull KR, Leeds, Hull FC etc, and on paper, all have a very good 13-17, but if injuries set in, they're dipping in to their 19's. Compare that to us and we have depth and quality if injuries do hit. We can bring in players who have Championship, Super League and International experience. We're pretty blessed to be honest.

Roberts
Mininkin
Shenton
Webster
Eden
Ellis
Gale
Sene-Lefao
McShane
Millington
Wardle
McMeekan
Milner
Moors
Cook
Holmes
Springer
Massey

Green
Clark
Lo
Clare
Hitchcox
Ashton
Egodo
Gill

looks good to me, but it must be frustrating for the fringe players having no reserve team to have a run out with & i seem to remember Daryl saying in an interview that things were being looked into regarding a reserve team?

heritage1926 wrote:Was having a think and compared all the announced Super League squads from all 12 clubs. I genuinely believe we go in to the new season with arguably the deepest and best squad about. You take a look at the likes of Warrington, Hull KR, Leeds, Hull FC etc, and on paper, all have a very good 13-17, but if injuries set in, they're dipping in to their 19's. Compare that to us and we have depth and quality if injuries do hit. We can bring in players who have Championship, Super League and International experience. We're pretty blessed to be honest.

Roberts
Mininkin
Shenton
Webster
Eden
Ellis
Gale
Sene-Lefao
McShane
Millington
Wardle
McMeekan
Milner
Moors
Cook
Holmes
Springer
Massey

Green
Clark
Lo
Clare
Hitchcox
Ashton
Egodo
Gill

My real concern is Roberts staying fit. I have not doubt he will be good at full back and even bring elements that ZH didn't, but he was rather hit and miss last year on the injury front

I was worried about Roberts and his injury record too but stats say he played 25 and 4 sub appearances in SL and 1 appearance and 1 sub appearance in CC. Not too bad really.

RonnieGibbs'forearm wrote:I was worried about Roberts and his injury record too but stats say he played 25 and 4 sub appearances in SL and 1 appearance and 1 sub appearance in CC. Not too bad really.

Yeh his first full season with us and it was his best. He has carried a lingering injury since World Cup though so hope it passes.

InTheKnow wrote:

RonnieGibbs'forearm wrote:I was worried about Roberts and his injury record too but stats say he played 25 and 4 sub appearances in SL and 1 appearance and 1 sub appearance in CC. Not too bad really.

Yeh his first full season with us and it was his best. He has carried a lingering injury since World Cup though so hope it passes.

The biggest issue with him was he went missing in the final key games of the year. Seemed like if Roberts played poorly, it impacted the whole team. When he was on song we looked class.
Think he will be decent at fb but certailnly no rrplacement for what Hardsker brought. Will bring a different type of play.

Squad on paper looks decent. Powell is the master of shaping players to his system and turning what appears average to something of quality.
However, question marks remain over the pack and the lack of Zak/Ellis at SO. Both could easily prove to be positive additions but could also easily be the undoing of our chances to challenge at the very top again.

You can't bring Jamie Ellis in and expect to win anything.

Mysterio wrote:You can't bring Jamie Ellis in and expect to win anything.

sorry lets not start picking on our players, but saying that it might take a bit of weight of Nathan Massey who proved alot of his doubters wrong last season

Mysterio wrote:You can't bring Jamie Ellis in and expect to win anything.

Have you ever seen him play in a team as good as ours? Hull KR's - nope. Huddersfield - nope. And before us Hull FC, which I rule out on the premise of him being young and inexperienced.

Sometimes it's all about who you play with, and how you play. Look at our halves: Sneyd, Finn, Roberts and Gale all have ALL improved under Powell.

Finn was too slow and couldnt kick in to space to save his life when he played with us. Couldnt tackle either. Apart fron that he was brilliant.

HuddsTigers wrote:

Mysterio wrote:You can't bring Jamie Ellis in and expect to win anything.

Have you ever seen him play in a team as good as ours? Hull KR's - nope. Huddersfield - nope. And before us Hull FC, which I rule out on the premise of him being young and inexperienced.

Sometimes it's all about who you play with, and how you play. Look at our halves: Sneyd, Finn, Roberts and Gale all have ALL improved under Powell.

Finn is undoubtedly playing better now at Wakefield, than at any time whilst he was at us. I don't particularly think that was down to Powell. But Sneyd certainly wouldn't of got his big move to Hull, had he not had a decent season with us the year before, £110k for someone who bottled a Challenge Cup final is steep to be fair.

On Jamie Ellis, he brings arguably one of the best kicking games in Super League, probably just behind Danny Brough. That takes a hell of a lot of pressure off Gale every week, he could do with that at the minute. One thing we've really missed is a kicking game close to the line and releaving pressure, we finally have that. He will never be an attacking stand off like Benny Roberts, but he's smarter.

Not tempting fate but Ellis is built like a brick [REMOVED] and the lad can take the knocks, Benny on his day is a player out of the top draw but over recent years we have seen the lad injured more than being fit, will he be able to take the big hits he is sure to get when playing full back ?? for me the jury is out

heritage1926 wrote:

HuddsTigers wrote:

Mysterio wrote:You can't bring Jamie Ellis in and expect to win anything.

Have you ever seen him play in a team as good as ours? Hull KR's - nope. Huddersfield - nope. And before us Hull FC, which I rule out on the premise of him being young and inexperienced.

Sometimes it's all about who you play with, and how you play. Look at our halves: Sneyd, Finn, Roberts and Gale all have ALL improved under Powell.

Finn is undoubtedly playing better now at Wakefield, than at any time whilst he was at us. I don't particularly think that was down to Powell. But Sneyd certainly wouldn't of got his big move to Hull, had he not had a decent season with us the year before, £110k for someone who bottled a Challenge Cup final is steep to be fair.

On Jamie Ellis, he brings arguably one of the best kicking games in Super League, probably just behind Danny Brough. That takes a hell of a lot of pressure off Gale every week, he could do with that at the minute. One thing we've really missed is a kicking game close to the line and releaving pressure, we finally have that. He will never be an attacking stand off like Benny Roberts, but he's smarter.

Brilliantly summarised.

I think JE will have a strong season. He has a good footballing brain and plays with his head up.

The term "a bit fragile" always comes to mind when I watch Benny play and an injury to him at some point in the season is my biggest concern for us due to the lack of decent cover at the back.