Offside Monkey wrote:
Flanders I'm 50/50 on. He's no world beater, but you can see how much extra weight he has going forward compared to the 3 young backrows we have.
I think keeping Flannery would be a good idea. We're asking our young players to take on a lot more responsibility these days, and under those circumstances it's good to keep hold of a few steady experienced professional types.
Saddened! wrote:
I'd be made up with two or three average players. Players like Mounis or Raguin or Dixon from Cas. Just bodies to shore up the squad.
I can sympathise with that impulse, but I'm not sure we can sustain that in the modern salary cap era. You're right that our squad is a little thin on the ground after the 1st choice 17-18, but I think you overestimate the strength in depth of our rivals. With the exception of Warrington and probably Huddersfield, other SL clubs are pretty much in the same boat. Even Wigan's squad from 19 (effectively 18, as they have actually - no lie - given the squad number 18 to their fans) onwards is made up of kids from their youth setup.