Well yes, but given how the previous 3 seasons have gone, plusthis season so far Macca would need an amazing run of results for a lot of fans to be be at all happy with him signing a new contract ( maybe a challenge cup win ).







I think Sykes is performing well too. His tackling has been very good.

Indeed. And there you have the crux of it. And until we get a very large financial monkey off our backs, that's likely to be the ongoing constraint.

Yup - him and Rikki easily our two most improved players, I'd say?



Can't be attributed to successful player coaching though, can it? Its only the ones who are underperforming that are down to the coaching?

Probably. Lee St Hilaire must be doing wonders.





Rikki's improvement has been huge. I've always thought Sykes was quite good if a little error prone. Scruton has improved too since coming to the club.

I reckon it must be Matt Orford...

A top 6 finish and a semi final would be enough to get him a new contract imo.

April Fools Day is a week on Thursday.

Let's get Scruton out of the way first. He has started the season like a house on fire, and looks a top forward, by any standard.



As I said and agree, Sheriffe has worked hard and is far better than he was. Giving him the benefit of the doubt this also means there is scope for continued improvement.



Sykes is, indeed quite good if error prone. Though again I accept he could improve his game still.



And that's my point. Without sitting down and analysing it, off the top of my head I doubt there are many SL backlines that I wouldn't swop for ours. "Quite good" doesn't hack it. They are overfaced by most opposition, frequently caught out on the flanks, often struggle to cope with kicks and bombs, and don't run out of defence to any great effect. And yes, Sheriffe once a flood has done some good runs out of defence, but I'm wanting a couple a natch at least and some decent hit-ups.



Reardon shouldn't be on the wing anyway - but that's another story - but for a man quite recently described (by Cullen) as the best kick returner in SL - WTF has happened to him? And how many times is he going to get suckered off his wing while his opposing winger walks in for a score?



I don't think they "are" the worst backs in SL, if they all played their best it might overall be a mid-table standard back division, but they are not, as a unit, consistently playing anything like. One might have a decent game but let down by the other three.



Thank fsck we have a very decent set of forwards, and some true potential at halfback.

I don't think so. Hood has already said a top 4 finish and a final appearance is what he is expecting this season. If those aren't delivered, then it's been another failure of a year.

I agree with what you are saying FA. I'd imagine most of us including yourself knew our backline was a weakness going into this season.



Not sure how much difference it would make but i'd like to see Reardon and Halley swapped. Or i can see Kearney as a Hodgson type fullback for us though at moment he is doing fine at 6.

No he did not, though. He said that that would be what he "would regard as success", in response to the specific question asked. I wrote down his words at the time and I have just double-checked what he said. He never said that was what he was "expecting".

A success is a success. Anything other than a success by those targets is a failure. Failure means targets set by the board have not been hit.



Only a success, could get him a new contract IMO.