Weak middles - Do the stats back it up?

[Caboosegg]

Does Cooper play prop? After that clip of his barging Price he should be free soon.

[fozzieskem]

Does Cooper play prop? After that clip of his barging Price he should be free soon.

It was a gobshite move from Cooper don’t like that sort of thing we can all get upset but still

[josie andrews]

Does Cooper play prop? After that clip of his barging Price he should be free soon.

It was a gobshite move from Cooper don’t like that sort of thing we can all get upset but still

I agree, thought it was disgusting!

[the pieman]

I always wondered why faz n greenwood didnt swap sides? Faz could play left side in our own half then play greenwood nearer to the try line ,as that was when he was most dangerous

Too much swapping and changing and disruption.

Wouldn't work.

There’s been loads of swapping & changing positions in our playing squads this year & last! This is why we haven’t got a settled team

i think Nathan was referring to ingame changes as opposed the the massive disruption we are seeing through injuries at the minute

[nathan_rugby]

Too much swapping and changing and disruption.

Wouldn't work.

There’s been loads of swapping & changing positions in our playing squads this year & last! This is why we haven’t got a settled team

i think Nathan was referring to ingame changes as opposed the the massive disruption we are seeing through injuries at the minute

I was yes, with regards to the hypothetical suggestion of swapping the side Farrell and Greenwood played on in attack dependent on which half we were in.

[EagleEyePie]

Teams tend to attack better when they have settled combinations so I think if we'd kept Greenwood and started swapping sides during a game it would just disrupt the attack more than it would provide any benefit.

Besides, that assumes Faz and Greenwood were our back rowers but then where would Bateman play? He was our right sided second row before he left and did well for Canberra playing that position and it seems to be where he's most comfortable, so you'd obviously pick him there. Faz isn't as effective in the middle of the field and if Greenwood could play down the middle that would have been the perfect solution but he never looked like he could be effective in the middle for the field. It seems like if Greenwood had stayed it would mean an awkward compromise that wasn't really worth it.

Add to that the fact we still have Isa on contract to the end of this year, Partington who seems fairly settled at 13 and Smithies and Shorrocks who can play 13 and back row and it kind of makes it obvious why Greenwood had to go when we signed Bateman. People have already said that our squad is unbalanced this year, keeping hold of Greenwood could only have added to that issue.

The problem we have is that we need to strengthen our middles and that's where a lot of teams are looking to strengthen and the quality just doesn't seem to be there. There are some decent middles off contract but they seem to be about 33/34. It's a risk for clubs to sign a player like that and I also think those players are more likely to just stay put for another year.

I believe Chris Chester has spoken about Wakefield trying to sign a prop forward for over a year but not being able to find anyone of the right quality during that time, and that when it comes to recruitment it's just the same players available most years.

That probably explains why we're also struggling to bring in the type of prop that we'd like. Without the quality available you're just left to take risks. Not that I think that fully justifies us looking at Nathan Mason as there are at least some props with a decent Super League pedigree available.