I've seen Jack Ashworth in town the last few days too. Was surprised how big he was.

Nu Brown doing a bit of training with his new team mates according to his IG. He seems a proper fitness freak.

Also Jack Walker looks massive. Looks to have really bulked up

Over a 10KG gain for Walker, which for his size/stature is pretty impressive. Had read that he’d been putting a lot of extra work in.

Have to say that all of the players look in good shape.

Wayne Mcdonald was very good for us.

You still in panto mode?…personally I didn’t think he was all that good and given his nickname “handbrake” says it all….i await now another poster saying “well the stats are”

Why are you always so angry?

McDonald did well for us in his short spell otherwise it's unlikely that the reigning SL Champions would have signed him from us.

Since you mentioned it the stats are that he scored ten tries in seventeen games for us. Not a world beater but he certainly doesn't deserve to be mentioned alongside Maiava and Evans.

Tis the season to be jolly, la la lal lal la, la lal lal la.

Not angry at all and my quote about stats was proven right.He just didn’t seem to run his weight that’s all .As for the reigning s/l champions signing him,fair play but he wasn’t that standard imo

Just loves an argument, manages to disagree with everything I say, always agrees with Talentboy too, which makes me wonder too.

Agree on Mcdonald, decent player for us, we wanted to keep him, what props scores that many tries, went onto to play over 100 games for Saints, Leeds and Wigan. As you say we have has alot of worse players than him and shouldn't be held in the same company as those mentions, who were both awful.

Very good .....no chance

He was ok

Likes of Minichello and Kelly were very good wouldn't class Mcdonald near that category

Don’t love a argument at all and tbf mate,you do talk a lot of sense and I do agree with 90% of the time but if I disagree il tell you.Thats the good thing about fans opinions,I just didn’t rate him but agree about him not being as bad as the 2 you have mentioned but nowhere as good as other better 2nd rowers.Mind you,he’s not as bad as a Aussie we got in the 80s…Dave Brown had a big reputation and was a Aussie international…by god he was bloody awful.As for agreeing with talent boy…what a insult,he talks b@lls 99% of the time and the other 1% isn’t much better.

Kelly?…he was a bloody stand-off,not a 2nd rower/prop…You can’t compare them at all and stop banging on about a pack from 6/7 years ago.

:2ek9heqp

Here’s one for you

1993–99 Wakefield Trinity (Wildcats) 27 8 0 0 32
2000 Hull Sharks 13 4 0 0 16
2001 St Helens 18 4 0 0 16
2002–05 Leeds Rhinos 81 14 0 0 56
2005 Wigan Warriors 4 0 0 0 0
2005–06 Huddersfield Giants 34 1 0 0 4
Total 177 31 0 0 124
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1999 ScotlandScotland 6 0 0 0 0
2009 United Arab EmiratesUAE 2 2 0 0 8
Source

Apart from Leeds and hudds…he didn’t do much at the 2 big clubs did he ….can’t argue with stats

I was merely pointing out players who were "very good"

Mcdonald wasn't in that category for us

Just alarming how bad our pack has gotten since then 6 years isn't that long really

Funny how most of what I say ends up right



I'll say it now 3 or 4 years from now Houghton people will be like we could of done better

Yes he's a legend for tackle 52

But we'd have won more than 2 challenge cups with josh Hodgson as our 9

Can't have a 9 with no attacking threat

Well I can given that they are incorrect. I'm guessing you've just copied and pasted from Wikipedia. Also we weren't called Hull Sharks in 2000.

You have just made up the Hodgson thing, for a start Hodgson played many years in SL and he didn't get near winning anything.

We have had at least ten good years out of Houghton, we would have had 5 max out of Hodgson who always had ambition of playing in Aus.

Bad timing, but definitely the right decision.

I did copy and paste it…tbh,I like to forget the bloody sharks era.Still didn’t rate McDonald though.

He is bloody obsessed with Houghton….il admit to not being Houghtons biggest fan and yes he does lack the spark of a Roby,Clarke and Hodgson but I think he has been flogged to death and that’s took its toll.Hodgson improved massively down under.As a side note…What coach got rid of Hodgson.

There’s some good bedtime reading on here tonight.. zzzz

You can interpret the past and interpret stats to suit your agenda.
Just look forward to a young hungry team representing the shirt.
I personally think we will go well next season.
My dark horse to shine is
Morgan Smith.
Anyone that’s sports a dodgy tache must have bags of confidence.

But imo we could of had so much more with an attacking 9

Imagine if we had Roby or daryl clark in 2016/17

Would of been another level

The fact Houghton hasn't ever really got close to a full england/gb call up says it all

... will he even play ?

Fit 17 he doesn't get in

YES likes of lane, fash, cator, Jack brown are hungry lads with passion......but they're not good enough imo just hold us back year on year

Yet people can't see it frustrating

I wish you would mention this more.

Or conversely imagine if we hadn’t had Houghton we may not have achieved what we did in 16 & 17?

Your continuation of stating that Houghton not getting a GB call up whilst that is true it doesn’t prove he wasn’t good enough and you trying to claim this as a fact is tiresome and repetitive.

We all know the politics in picking England/GB teams for one thing & that it’s rarely a level playing field. Yes Roby was ahead of Houghton as his all round game was better but he came through very good St’s teams. We were also well stocked in quality 9’s in the British game at that period too.

Of course had Roby been at 9 for us we could possibly have achieved more as he’d have improved us but he’d have improved any team he went too (including NRL) so it’s a pretty moot point.

I think we have overused Houghton over the years due to him been not only very dependable in his role but also his fitness.

I’ve been one to criticise him at times but he has been an important and integral part of the clubs success which you seem unwilling to see or accept.