Given the power in the side I think we can have a ball handling 13 and really take advantage of our power wingers, getting the ball out wide quickly has never been one of our strengths, maybe JA could be that link player we've been looking for? I'd far rather do that then let JA effectively rot on the sidelines for much of the season unless injury strikes as that's not a good route to go down IMHO. IF we lose Kelly to injury or going forward after 2018 would JA and Sneyd be an effective combination, could in fact Connor become a 6 what with his attributes?

As I said I think JG needs to have a really strong start wherever he's given a slot or he could find himself being a bit part covering injuries. Given we have Logan also who when he actually got a chance was impressive it's going to be tough competition all round for everyone which should be good as players that are hungry/really wanting it can be the difference between winning and losing.

I still see that our mental fortitude last season was suspect too often and a significant part of our failures, if we can strengthen that, get players to stick to what works best instead of running about like headless chickens/going into panic mode then I really do think we have a shot at winning the comp. We certainly have the talent, I'd be so bold as to say we have one of the best starting XVII and a very very strong forward pack.

JA needs game time this season, it would be a waste and detrimental to deny him of that. He has the potential so I think we should give him a start or a sub at 13, certainly early on in the season to see how it goes. It's tricky because we're not sure if JA at 13 will gel with Sneyd and Kelly. It could be a clusterf:'ck but it could be a master stroke. I'd still expect us to revert to a prop at 13 come the business end of the season

Connor for me is a our stand-off when Kelly leaves (highly likely this will be 2019). If JA does a good job this year then who knows.... it looks like we have strength in depth going forwards.

But the point about giving our squad sufficient game time is a very valid one. Who'd have thought we'd be in this situation before Radford took over??!!

Agree we will struggle this season with current squad.

Absent from team - Heffernan, Minns, Scruton, Lunt, Jewitt, Donaldson, Lawler, Kavanagh, Walne and you may as well throw in Lee as he only lasted 2 mins.

Good post, I like your team, I think Abdul is ore likely to be on the bench, at least at the start of the year.

I don't think radford is learning, in 2016 the likes of Fash and Turgut weren't ready the play week in week out SL, last year they were, same with Litten and Downs last year and to some extent Masi, he is handling the players perfectly IMO.

I think people are writing Jansin off too early, I though he shown glimpses of what he is capable of last year, but was maybe too eager to please. I think he will go well, ran some really good lines yesterday and defended strongly.

On the game yesterday i though Logan had a good game in the 2nd half and caused Rovers a lot of problems.

We have such good options in the backs and forwards this year, I can see why you tipped us to finish top, I think the Aus trip might side track us a bit though and think we may end up 2nd.

Thoroughly enjoyed yesterdays game and the young guns have shown us in the performance yesterday how much effort and hard work has gone in over the last 12 months.
I thought they all stood up well even after going 12pts down there was no panic and they stuck to the job in hand and could have gone of to win it .
I thought JA looked very good and his loan spell has done him well along with Hadley. For me Connor just oozed talent and has that x factor which showed with the booming 40/20 and his one handed take in the air and touch down for his 2nd try. Logan showed up well and improved as the game went on.
Was also pleasantly impressed with Miloudi whilst at times looking bit erratic he shown signs of a talent in him.
Non of them took a backwards step and stood up to the plate and the future bodes well for the club.

Radford must be a very pleased guy with difficult decisions ahead for the coming season but ones he'll be glad to have for the right reasons.

Echo a lot of the sentiments on here, really decent game and as a coach you have to be happy with the output from both teams.

Stand outs for me for each team was Connor for you guys, quinlan for us. Sneyd and McGuire strolled through the game really, like quarterbacks.

We handled a bit of adversity with Addy and lee going off, and it didn’t help we had only 2 props in the squad and had to keep rotating them to have some freshness. We didn’t have enough go forward at times because of that and some energetic FC defending.

Some good young players across both teams though and really a promising reserve league would bring out the best in them, shame really.

That French fullback looks a Livewire, couple of daft mistakes but certainly tried hard. Glad Abdul’s going well, plenty of respect from us at the east side of the river.

I meant with respect to getting the inexperienced players more game time in the friendlies, the amount of time they had at the beginning of 2017 was a lot more than '16 and noted by most on here at the time, he also introduced them before there were injuries (the 2016 Easter Monday game was I thought an indicator but he didn't follow through which had consequences at the back end) though I still think he could have gone a step further especially with the likes of Litten who showed up well but didn't really get many minutes at all.
Turgut got the most games by far, actually probably as many on his own as the others combined (20 incl subs) and whilst he was only 21 I personally thought he was a bit disappointing, defensively he was alright, in attack, meh, however at times he went way overboard and lost his rag with a couple of incidents I don't want to see repeated by any player. It showed in his twitter that he sees the friendlies as really important for him to shine as he knows he had a big run of games last year and with JA and Hadley back in the fold plus 4 centres all wanting to compete to start he could be left out a lot more than last year.
The lack of experience in the younger squad members was always going to bite us at some point. As I had said several times, we've not had a Hull developed youngster come to be what you'd call a 1st XVII player who made their debut since 2013, I questioned that as to why and no-one wanted to admit that that was the truth/reality.

There are/were some reasons for that I realise but we've lagged behind the last 4 seasons or so after a good crop came through to debut in 2012/2013 and so have bought our way out and have a fair bit of catching up to do compared to other clubs in that dept IMHO. The external signings are most notable in the backs, we still haven't developed a decent SL 6 or 7 since 2002 ish, Tommy Lee being the closest until JA came along but our history is beleaguered with not having home grown halves of the highest quality.

As I said, I hope all the younger squad members get some games early doors because I think it's essential for our success both short, medium and long term (as proven by the likes of Wigan and Cas etc), the element of risk and indeed fear of failure forced Radford's hand previously which backfired at the back end of '16 despite us having incredibly good luck injury wise but he was in a poop or bust situation, IF we'd lost that derby game at Easter I reckon things would have gone very differently for all concerned. As it was he was under pressure to keep playing what he thought was his best 17 even though ultimately a knackered senior player wouldn't necessarily be as effective as a fresh junior squad player (again as proven in that 2016 Warrington Easter game with a "million quid in the stands")

This year we have even greater balance and depth than before and I hope Radford uses that depth and doesn't wait until injury to rotate, he did do that to an extent last year but I hope he does it even more this including given DH a break even if just during matches as opposed to leaving him out.

Some interesting chat and exchange of opinions here.

Sounds like JA did well. I saw him shopping in town over the Xmas period, his preseason looked to be going well, he was svelte and looked to be in great shape. I think the opposition will dictate who starts at 13 this year; were we need a sledgehammer to crack the nut I think we'll start with Watts or Manu, were we might want a toffee hammer we'll use JA. Horses for courses. Radders clearly has a place in his plans for Abdul, I hope he has a belting season !

What was the attendance?

Anywhere between 6k and 9k I've read