Kick off a week today. Should be a good game, plenty of niggle given Jones transfer, Ian Watson knocking us back and Hodgson/Cpnnor's previous Huddersfield connections. With Taylor and Johnstone back probably go something like

Connor
Swift
Griffin
Tuimavave
Fonua
Reynolds
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Sao
Ma'u
Savelio
Cator

Satae
Bowden
Johnstone
Lane

Looking forward to it.

I'm more concerned how I'm gonna fit 14 live NRL/SL games in through this Thursday come Sunday.


Where there's a will...............................

A lot of the team picks itself I think, but there are a couple of positions I'm not quite sure about. I thought Swift went well against York and probably should get the nod ahead of Faraimo. I do think Faraimo offers more overall but he also makes too many mistakes. Swift is the safe choice.

The other question is who will be the bench forwards? Do you go with Johnstone or carry an extra big man and move Cator to hooker to Houghton a spell? I also really want to find a place for Brown, but would it leave us short of second row options if he is picked ahead of Lane?

I think if I was selecting the side I'd go with this:

Connor
Swift
Griffin
Tuimavave
Fonua
Reynolds
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Satae
Ma'u
Savelio
Cator

Sao
Johnstone
Bowden
Lane

I like Satae starting the game, him and Taylor are the 2 biggest bodies in the squad and will take plenty of energy out of Huddersfield. Then bring on Sao who is a bit more athletic and will look to offload against tiring defenders.

I don't the side will be too different to that. Maybe a couple of subtle changes. I'm really excited for the game though. New era begins.

Connor
Faraimo
Griffin
Tuimavave
Fonua
Reynolds
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Satae
Ma'u
Savelio
Cator

Johnstone
Sao
Brown
Fash

Bowden should be 5th choice prop now. He hasn’t done much the last couple of seasons and Brown deserves a shot. Fash over Lane as Savelio and Ma’u can do 80mins and I’d rather have Fash defending in the middle over Lane assuming he’d be coming on for Cator.

Could possibly line up like this

Connor
Swift
Griffin
Tuimavave
Fonua
Reynolds
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Satae
Ma'u
Savelio
Cator

Sao
Brown or Johnstone
Bowden
Lane

Connor
Faraimo
Griffin
Tuimavave
Fonua
Reynolds
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Sao
Ma'u
Savelio
Cator

Lane
Satae
Brown
Fash

I would go with a all power pack and not carry Johnstone on the bench. Hudds main weakness in my eyes is the lack of go forward their front row offers and I would like to think we could really restrict them carrying the ball and get over them when we have the ball.

Not much news coming from Fartown, but this was a selection of their team last week. Some talent in this squad, and James Cunningham will be all out to make his point. Don’t know if Matty English is injured, but he wasn’t included on the sheet.

Jermaine McGillvary


Jake Wardle


Ricky Leutele


Darnell McIntosh

Lee Gaskell


Aidan Sezer


James Gavet


James Cunningham

Michael Lawrence


Joe Greenwoo

Chris McQueen

Josh Jones

Kenny Edwards

Luke Yates

Very good line-up that.

I would swap Brown for Bowden, Josh has never looked committed to me since his return and he certainly doesn't run with the same conviction he did prior to his injury, which although possibly understandable, leaves him behind Brown in the pecking order in my mind. I think Swift will get the nod on the wing over Faraimo as he is the only back we have with something like genuine pace. Must admit I cannot call this one; they have added so talent to what was already a decent squad and I am just hoping that it is too early in the season for them to have gelled as a unit and we can get the win. Looking forward to seeing Josh Reynolds and Jake Connor in the same team, the playbook gets ripped up and cast aside with those two; off the cuff, instinctive performers who can mesmerise the best of defences.

The NRL has some crackers to watch in between , Storm v Panthers and Roosters v Rabbitohs, to name just two. Almost feels like normal living again - things are looking up folks, slowly but surely and if we are all careful it shouldn't be too much longer...................

I think Bowdens being given some unfair press, he was well off the pace after his injury, but I thought we saw some signs of his old form towards the back end of the season, it seemed to coincide with Last taking over, I'm sure Hodgson will get the best from him if not we have an able backup in Brown.

One of my biggest niggles was the use of our props last season, Satae and Sao played big minutes before joining us, but for some reason Satae was well underused , wasted as an impact prop in my opinion, his workrate along with Saos is huge. For this reason I'd start both as props against Huddersfield, especially with Taylor being injured recently and missing the friendly too I think he l be abit under cooked, so for me it'd be Satae and Sao to start gain some early momentum and field position, with Bowden and Taylor off the bench.

Agree with you about Bowden and it seemed it was more a psychological/confidence issue with him rather than the injury itself which if I remember he'd said as much in an interview. I thought in the 2nd half of last season he was certainly looking like a player who should be in the 17. As good as Brown is at the moment I would still put Bowden in ahead of Brown (just) so Bowden certainly can't afford to be below par but neither can any of the forwards as Brown would rightly be given the opportunity to shine.