Let's be fair - Kelly was only rushed back for Wembley. He's pretty much had the same full pre season other players have had. Up to his injury this season he had the 2 friendly games and 3 competitive games under his belt. Somewhere between Dec and Feb Rovers/Kelly should have had enough time to address/or act on any potential fitness concerns. As fans we clearly only see a small fraction of all things players/coach relationships etc, but the difference we saw with Kelly pre Chester going and the snippet afterwards was tangible. It may not be a stretch to imagine things haven't been great behind the scenes.
Marsh being a young’un will always likely receive plenty of slack from fans at times. I think the best thing that happened to him on a few occasions on Sunday, was at times he was isolated/hit and forced to think on his feet. Too many times, I think his first and second thought process is to simply pass the ball/responsibility on, as others have also alluded to. Sink or swim philosophy needed.
As for Kelly playing or not playing on Friday …
If what we’ve been told is true, he hasn’t trained since the build up to Hudds away. You have to imagine he won’t be great, with just a day or two this week. I doubt he has much fitness in the bank to really fall back on, so in a way he’ll be in a worse fitness state than pre St Helens game (in theory). To get the best out of Kelly, he needs to put himself about/run around- be Albert Kelly trying everything and anything. Physically is he (will he be) in a position to do that? I’m not even sure James Webster knows. The tone in which Webbo spoke about the issue on RH, sounded very disheartened by it all tbh. There wasn’t much definitive about the situation/injury. “Kelly made the call Hudds game / he may have a reoccurrence / see how he is next week/not sure”
Kelly won’t be risked … or nailed on Kelly man of the match then …?
