Tookey missed

[ian.birchall]

Whilst Wigan have been involved in this macho struggle with Stains for a second row forward (Wiki)we want to play at prop as with Farrell and Tickle, Castleford appear to have sneaked in and signed NZ Warriors prop Mark Tookey.
How come all these Yorkshire sides seem to have salary cap leeway to sign new players mid season when Wigan don't. :conf:

[redhead]

Yeah heard about this one yesterday that Cas had Tookey on loan until the end of the season suppose it depends how much is being paid as I dont think he has too much game play for the NZ Warriors this year from what I remember but still he wont be free..

[Mike]

Also, they just released Shane Rudder so they've got room under the cap and the quota.

[GeoffN]

I still think it's too late for them to avoid relegation though - their 2 games against Widnes are going to be crucial. London do have a much tougher schedule ahead than the other teams at the bottom though, and they're probably second favourites for the drop.

[dancer]

Posted by ian.birchall

Whilst Wigan have been involved in this macho struggle with Stains for a second row forward (Wiki)we want to play at prop as with Farrell and Tickle, Castleford appear to have sneaked in and signed NZ Warriors prop Mark Tookey.
How come all these Yorkshire sides seem to have salary cap leeway to sign new players mid season when Wigan don't.

My reply to this is.

First off Wiki has been playing prop and second row for Canberra for about 3 or 4 seasons now. He is equally at home in either position so implying we are trying to sign a player and then play him out out of postion is totally inacurate.

Secondly, you say we are playing Farrel as a prop. He may be doing more running, but he isnt playin like a prop. What he is doing is playing the game and style of rugby that made him what he is, which is a strong running second rower with a good offload and the ability to spot runners. he is playing the best rugby I have seen him play in the last 5 or 6 seasons.

And as for tickle yes he is being played at prop, Seeing as we have only 1 prop I think Betts's hands are tied on that front.

[shanks]

although iv'e been visiting this site for the last couple of years this is my first post...

farrel... i always feel he dosn't give back what he is getting paid in performances, until recently, he makes a difference by guiding the team yes.. but for too long now his play had been far too predictable, run up centre channel, dummy , get tackled, now there is a shortage of front row forwards in the club he is comming into his own again.
hard running down the middle, centre, PASSING inside and out bringing a young pack on in leaps and bounds.
he i hope continue this style of play and in a few yers maybe prolong his carrer by playing in the front row, where he in my oppinion will end up.
really exciting, and enjoyable attacking forward display by farrell at the moment keep it up...

[dancer]

I see someone else sees how a second rower should play the game, I argee totally shanks. Of late Farrel has been the form forward in Super League. All he needs to do now is run a little wider and get the centres running off him and looking for his offloads. When we had connolly and offiah, you could see them always ready to feed off farrels breaks and half breaks.

[ian.birchall]

Dancer, I think you must be Andy Farrell in disguise,(Or after his starring role in Celebrity Come Prancing our old friend Martin).
Farrell for my mind isn't a fast enough thinker to merit the rave reviews Sky insist on giving him and whilst he is a top class player the team sometimes suffers as a whole when he takes it into his head that he has to do everything.
I do think however that he is playing better under Gregory/Betts than he ever did under Raper who let him get away with murder and to be brutally honest even better under just Betts. :eh:

[ian.birchall]

Yes Mike, Cas have released Rudder but if you were him wouldn't you have insisted that your contract was paid up, for this season at least, thus leaving no room under the cap. :conf: They are also paying Tony, Davies and Robinson and you are not telling me that Bradford had £100k left on their salary cap just waiting to sign the Welsh Wonder as I won't believe that either

[Fraggle]

ian.birchall posted:
Dancer, I think you must be Andy Farrell in disguise,(Or after his starring role in Celebrity Come Prancing our old friend Martin).
Farrell for my mind isn't a fast enough thinker to merit the rave reviews Sky insist on giving him and whilst he is a top class player the team sometimes suffers as a whole when he takes it into his head that he has to do everything.
I do think however that he is playing better under Gregory/Betts than he ever did under Raper who let him get away with murder and to be brutally honest even better under just Betts. :eh:

And yet there have been times when he has single-handedly won a game for us. I remember the London away match - was it last year or the year before? - we were pretty dire in the first half but Faz effectively won the game with his performance alone in the 2nd half?

However, I feel with Faz that for him to play well he has to respect the coach; there's no denying the fact he respects Betts and I'm sure Gregory as well, but I was never convinced about him and Raper. It *shouldn't* be a factor for any player, the coach should be the boss, but there's no denying that it's true for some in other sports as well (Beckham is the other one who quickly springs to mind, when he and Ferguson fell out at Man United). You could argue that Faz should have been told he's not bigger than the club or whatever, but then that's the kind of thing Chairman Mo would have to do and his way of dealing with that has been to get rid of the player if he thinks it's a problem. Faz is still here, so maybe Maurice is happy with his attitude?