I agree that Hardaker at 1 makes us much stronger, but I am sure I am not alone in being very concerned when a player has an operation on their neck. We simply have no idea how long it will be before he gets the green light to go again. Smith has also had significant shoulder surgery - and we have all seen how hard that is to recover from.
From the squad available to us, a spine drawn from Hardaker/French/Smith/Field/Cust would almost certainly see us in the top half of the table. We could even play Leuluai at 9, where he is not a bad player... and if we get those lads on the field, we can get away with Shorrocks at 13, as whatever he does would be a bonus. What bothers me are the clear question marks over French, Hardaker, Smith and Field (and I am bothered that Cust may take a while settling in). Because we all know over many years that Powell at 9, Leuluai at 7 and even Shorrocks at 13 is relegation standard when its comes to creativity.
Of course I hope for the best, but there are a host of reasons to be anxious about the state of the squad that we are taking into 2022, after a scarcely believable lack of attacking threat when we had a fit Hastings to guide us round. Honestly, we could be anywhere between 1st and 12th, depending on player availability.
French update to fans
Re: French update to fans
I belatedly watched that Shaun Wane interview yesterday. As always, I was impressed with the way he spoke. Lets hope that he and Peet can bring improvement to these young players, Partington, Byrne, Shorrocks, etc. I believe they can and will. Wane's remarks about French, again, I thought, very fair.