Harris was never a scapegoat, but as a player he did polarise opinions and neither side would ever compromise.

You ask who's the 'scapegoat' and "hope" it's not Deacon - but you immediately say "he's not cutting it". So are you making him the scapegoat, then? It isn't scapegaoting to point out when someone's form is very poor, and it is true that if we'd swopped No.7 s against Hull then we would have won. Not just because Deacon was poor, but because Thorman was superb, and had a hand in every try Hull scored. To say that is not scapegoating, it is just rational discussion of what we saw.

Thorman won't be superb every week, and many years of form suggests that Deacon will not be poor every week. For now, though, he is poor.

My thoughts always return to Dobson. Not because of him specifically but because he proves there are incredibly talented Australians over in the NRL being kept out by the clubs superstars. I just wish there was someway of finding these guys that we know exist.

Deacons structured and rather safe style needs a very very nippy stand-off imo.

Our best half back pairing IMO was Henry and Robbie but either of them worked well within Deacon. Same applied to Leon and even Karl Pratt.

So basically are you saying Deacon never gels with any of our other quality half-backs? That points only one way surely.

Useful really seen as you havent got another one for him to attempt to gel with. I think you need to bring someone in at your half back position. Bit of competition and a new face might help sort things out a little bit. Oh Yes!

Nope. I'm saying the opposite(though not doing a greta job of it obviously ). He gelled very well with almost all of the halfbacks we've had in the past 10 years.

One thing they all had in common (apart from Pratt) was that they were all very good players and better than Jeffries. They also all had better backs outside them and a better pack up front.

My fault. I read 'either' as 'neither'.

Thanks for that. We'd never have got there without your input

That's always been my view. He was the safe one who took very few risks & lived off the genius of the Pauls. FA would look good at the side of them providing he was a good kicker who knew his limitations.

His safeness and structure have won us a lot more games than they've lost. But in Jeffries we just aren't getting the sparky foil (I like that phrase so I'm going to patent it) that Deacs needs.