It looks like we’ve finished recruitment unless we can bring in another half. What’s people’s opinions for the team?

1. Quinlan
2. Ryan
3. Crooks
4. Minikin
5. Kenny-Dowall
6. Abdull
7. Keyes
8. Mulhern
9. Litten
10. Murray
11. Livett
12. Linnett
13. Lawler

14. Garbutt
15. Masoe
16. Hauraki
17. Hadley

Trout, parcell, gee, Maher, Rawsthorne, Minchella and Lewis in reserve.

Elliot Minchella is probably better suited at LF than Lawler.

Linnett will play centre, and quite simply because he’s outstanding there.

Rawsthorne in front of Ryan for me. Far stronger ball carrier and defender.

Rawsthorne will be in the team.
He will also be your first choice goal kicker

A place in the squad has to be found for matty storton,quality,linnett in the centres,crooks on the wing.

That squad looks absolutely dreadful.

Similar to yours if Hastings is a no show

Lol. Surely you’re no way near spending the cap?

We’re not. Chairman has acknowledged it. Weren’t able to. Good players are reluctant to join the clubs that are most in need of them. For reasons that defy my understanding ‘we’ decided to try to build patiently from the bottom up a few years ago and it set us back massively. Now we have no choice but to keep trying the same thing, over again in the hope that one batch of gambles will pay off sufficiently well to break the cycle.

If it does, I’ll likely get to listen to the pundits saying how it was the right thing to do all along. It is difficult to convey how that will make me feel.

I have one hope before I die and I am now 73 that we will get into a grand final even if we do not win it it will still please me maybe with Tony Smith in charge we might get there or there about some look at what Salford did if they can anybody can

I hope you get your wish.

[uThe club[/u has come on massively in the 21st century, after the profound and nearly terminal difficulties of the 1990s. The last few SL seasons, [uthe team[/u has been... ‘substandard’ might be a bit harsh or unfair for some years, but only a little bit.

Obviously, Salford’s run to the GF is framed as a feelgood story of a plucky underdog now, but as a Rovers fan it is striking that they did it following a path that we, and clubs like us, were told was wrong by Phil Clarke, Jamie Peacock and other experts who spent their playing careers with successful clubs with lots of resources - and good cultures too, i’m sure... but the money was key. As it was for Rovers in the 80s when we were breaking the transfer record and suchlike.

Salford are unlikely to sustain their 2019 level of performance, but I think it has probably helped shift perceptions in a positive way for them, and they had some fun. I never managed to get my head around Rob Crossland expressing regret that Rovers had finished 4th in 2009, as it raised expectations too far. The thing is, it also provided memories that made the pratfalls that followed easier to bear.

I’d love to see Rovers in the GF or just reaching the play-offs. That’s probably some way off, but as a first step, i’d like to see us actively and immediately, trying to make the best of our circumstances at the first team level. The squad now is the way it is because of those circumstances rather choice, which is some consolation - we haven’t just been stupid at least.

I don’t agree with ‘dreadful’, although missing Parcell for the opening round does leaves us looking a bit weak across the pivots. We’re favourites for relegation for a reason, and i’d be astonished if we finished better than 7th, but I don’t think there’s a chasm to the rest of the league. There’s not much room for error or bad luck, mind you.