Bulls in Crisis

This article was written at the time of the Bull's having 6 point's deducted and entering into administration for the second time and was published on the www.the18thman.com website in February 2014.

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I feel for the Bradford Bulls supporters, staff and players – I really do – the latest setback in a turbulent couple of years has seen them deducted 6 points by the Rugby Football League’s Board of Directors – the maximum penalty for entering administration this month for the second time in 2 years.

To make matters worse, the decision has prompted the club’s proposed new owners, The Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited, to remove their offer for the club.

The offer has been withdrawn as they believe that the sanctions imposed makes ‘’relegation almost a certainty.’’

All Rugby League fans will know that relegation has been re-introduced this season after the scrapping of the Licensing system which guaranteed a club Super League status for a minimum of 3 years if they achieved certain criteria laid out by the RFL. The last club to be relegated was Salford in 2007.

Bradford started the season with a home loss against Castleford Tigers before showing real spirit and determination to overcome Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in their second league game – therefore, the 6 point deduction leaves them on -4 points – 2 wins behind 5 teams who have yet to record their first win of the season. Of those 5 teams London and Wakefield will be the one’s that the Bulls will, probably, have the best chance of catching.

Omar Khan

When local businessman Omar Khan took the Bulls out of administration in September 2012, it appeared the future of the club was bright and that the new owners would be in a position to greatly improve the financial position of the club.

It appears the opposite was actually the truth and when Mr. Khan took the surprise decision to step down in September 2013 after just 12 months in charge the new consortium of Mark Moore, Andrew Calvert, Ian Watt and Ryan Whitcut soon found that the club’s financial problems were far greater than they believed.

In early December they announced that the club had to make at least £400,000 worth of savings and immediately redundancies were made across the club.

On Christmas Eve, the quartet resigned from the club over Mr. Khan’s refusal to transfer the club’s shares but then returned within a week.

On 31^st January, the Bulls were placed into administration for the second time in two years when it’s former holding company, OK Bulls Limited, the company of Omar Khan, entered administration.

The new company, Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited, secured a 28 day Super League licence.

Garreth Carvell

Immediately, they hit further problems with the change of ownership allowing marquee signing Garreth Carvell to break his contract and move to Hull FC and after the first game of the season star player Jarrod Sammut was allowed to leave and join Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – it is galling for any team to lose a star player but when they join a club in a similar position to you it must be even worse – if Sammut had joined Wigan, Saints or Leeds etc, it would have been easier to bear

However, last Friday the administrator accepted the Bradford Bulls 2014 Ltd consortiums proposed takeover which meant that the next step was to have the takeover ratified by the RFL.

This is where more problems appear to have raised there ugly heads.

It seems that despite the new consortium having made cost saving measures of nearly £1m over the past few months, they have been unable to prove to the RFL that they have the funds in place to complete the takeover and were, in fact, attempting to use the club’s own money to buy the club from Omar Khan.

Put simply, it appears Mr. Moore and his fellow members of the consortium do not have the cash to buy the club and honour the agreement they made back in September and, therefore, have been unable to prove that they have a workable business plan to the RFL, leaving the governing body with no alternative but to refuse the takeover by Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited and impose the 6 point penalty.

Add in the fact that part of the sanctions against the Bulls has included them only being awarded 50% of the television money owed to them with the other 50% split equally between the 13 other Super League clubs and it all makes a very bad situation even worse.

Obviously, the Bradford Bulls 2014 consortium are not happy and have been scathing of the RFL’s management of the situation and have withdrawn their offer due, primarily, to the 6 point penalty – this seems strange to me as they must have known that there was a very strong possibility that some kind of points deduction would have been incurred due to the club entering administration prior to them issuing their proposal.


Bulls CEO - Robbie Paul

So, what happens next and what future do the Bulls have??
 As Chief Executive Robbie Paul, a Bradford Bulls legend, tweeted earlier today ‘it’s now time to stand tall – BE PROUD AND STRONG.’

This was obviously aimed at the clubs supporters and it is for their sakes, and obviously the players and staff, that it has to be hoped that the RFL and the administrator can move on and find a new investor.

Local businessman Richard Lamb is reported to be still interested in buying the club.

The club have a talented young coach in Francis Cummins and made some good acquisitions in the summer although Carvell and Sammut have since jumped ship and off half Lee Gaskell suffered a serious knee injury in the win against Wakefield.

Iestyn Harris

Brian Noble with James Lowes.

This is all a far cry from the trophy laden days of the late 90s and early 2000’s when the Bulls, under first Matthew Elliott and then Brian Noble, swept all before them winning 4 Super League titles in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2005 and were Grand Final runners up in 1999, 2002 and 2004.

Add to those titles the Challenge Cup wins of 2000 and 2003 and three World Club Challenge victory’s in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and those were heady days for the Bulls fans.

Leon Pryce

The Bulls where at the forefront of the razzamatazz of the new Super League era and set about revolutionising the concept of match day entertainment which saw their attendances average over 15,000 at their peak in 1997 – over double what it had been in the last vestiges of winter rugby league.

They have had some wonderful players such as Leon Pryce, Stuart Fielden, Jamie Peacock, Paul Deacon, James Lowes, Iestyn Harris, Lesley Vainokolo, Shontayne Hape, Tevita Vaikona and the Paul brothers, Henry and Robbie, who have provided some wonderful memory’s in the Super League era.

Stuart Fielden

Unfortunately for the Bradford club, this is not the first time that there entire future has been in jeopardy – in fact Bradford Northern went out of business on the 10^th December 1963 after playing just 13 games that season in front of crowds as low as 324 against Barrow – a club record low attendance.

Club legend Trevor Foster was one of the people who helped resurrect the club in 1964. They went on to win their first trophy as the reformed Bradford Northern in 1965-66 – a 17-8 Yorkshire Cup Final victory over Hunslet.

It is to be hoped that the supporters, staff and players do not suffer the same fate as those involved in 1963 and that Mr Lamb or some other interested party can come in and save this famous rugby league club.

Hopefully, the next owner of Bradford Bulls will have a sensible and workable business plan that can bring the club back to it’s former glory days – for now it would be nice just to keep this club alive and kicking.

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Businessman Marc Green took over the Bulls in March 2013.

He sacked coach Francis Cummins and replaced him with former Bull's player James Lowes.

An appeal against their 6 point deduction failed and, inevitably, the Bull's were relegated to the Championship for next season.

 

 

 

Hull Kingston Rovers - doing it tough in 2014.

This article was written in the wake of an embarrassing Derby defeat and was published on www.seriousaboutrl.com on the 30th August 2014.
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New coach - Chris Chester

On the back of a woefully inept and embarrassing performance in the 28-0 defeat to Hull FC last night, in my mind the jury is still out on whether Chris Chester is the right man to lead Hull Kingston Rovers forward.

Whilst the recent performance at home to champions Wigan was a massive improvement after the dire performances at Widnes and the previous home game against Salford, last night’s performance was the worst of a very poor season.

Rovers were outplayed in every department. Hull were more aggressive in defence and looked dangerous in attack every time they had the ball. On the opposite side, Rovers missed tackles and dropped balls all night long and never looked like scoring  a try.

Allowing for the very wet conditions cannot question the fact that FC out enthused Rovers and simply wanted to win the game more than we did.

A record of 2 wins from 7 games, one of which was against bottom placed London Broncos, does not signal a massive upturn in performances since Chairman Neil Hudgell decided to remove Craig Sandercock from the coaching position just prior to the result of the season – a 40-10 home win against league leaders St. Helens on 6^th July.

Ex coach Craig Sandercock

The Saints game was Chester’s first in charge of the team and many thought that the result was a massive endorsement of Chester as a full time replacement for Sandercock – in my mind it was pretty clear that Chester did not have time to change game plan’s prior to this game and that the team, systems and game plan were Sandercock’s.

The following week resulted in a second half cave in against Leeds Rhinos before the very poor display at home to Salford Red Devils – a game in which we gifted the points to Salford with errors from 3 kicks costing us 18 points in an 18-38 defeat.

The win against London the following week was very welcome and Rovers played some good rugby but we could not follow that up in a pressure situation at the Widnes Vikings which was a must win game if we were to have any chance of making the play off’s – again a poor second half display, something that Chester has continually harped on about, cost us two very important points.

Overall, 2014 has been a tough year for Hull Kingston Rovers.

An 8^th place finish in 2013 was expected to be improved upon as the squad was overhauled for the second year in a row.

Michael Weyman

Neville Costigan

Although star playmaker Michael Dobson was lost to the NRL, former State of Origin forwards Michael Weyman and Neville Costigan were brought in from the NRL with Justin Poore signing from Wakefield Trinity Wildcats along with Grand Final winning scrum half Kris Keating from Canterbury Bulldogs to replace Dobson.

Added to these new signings was the return of the iconic Ben Cockayne from Wakefield and the addition of more forward strength with Jonny Walker joining his twin brother Adam, the experienced Jamie Langley joining from Bradford Bulls with French international Kevin Larroyer signing a 12 month loan deal from Catalans Dragons. 

The fixture list for the start of the new season was tough with 4 of the first 5 fixtures against 4 of last season’s top 5 teams  – Leeds at home and Huddersfield, St. Helen’s and Wigan away – it was clear that the new team would have to gel quickly to get off to a good start.

An opening round loss at home to Leeds Rhinos, in front of an 11,500+ crowd, was no disgrace – although conceding 28 unanswered point in the second half was concerning.

An unexpected second round draw at 2013 League Leaders Huddersfield, after trailing by 12 points with just a few minutes remaining, was encouraging but this was followed by consecutive defeats at home to Castleford Tigers and away at St. Helens and Wigan Warriors.

Consecutive home wins against the struggling Bradford Bulls and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats at last kick started the season and was followed by an excellent win at Warrington Wolves and a late Craig Hall drop goal won the first Derby of the season, 21-20, in a pulsating clash at the start of the Easter Weekend.

Craig Hall winning drop goal

The early season discipline of both Poore and Weyman was frustrating with both receiving bans and preventing them from forming a formidable front row trio with co-skipper Josh Hodgson as often as Sandercock would have liked.

The second game of the Easter weekend, away at Catalans Dragons, put paid to Poore’s season due to a broken knee cap – add in injury’s to David Hodgson and Jonny Walker along with slow start’s to the year from new signings Keating and Costigan and the poor form of full back Greg Eden, sent on loan to Salford Red Devils immediately after the Catalans game, and it was clear that a tough year was on the cards.

The early season form of Omari Caro, Josh Hodgson, Travis Burns, Kevin Larroyer and Michael Weyman were all positives and with Cockayne replacing Eden at full back we now had an extra attacking weapon and a much stronger defender at the back.

Unfortunately, consistency has been a key missing ingredient from this season and indeed from the whole of the Sandercock era and we struggled to build on the foundations of the 4 successive league wins with the defeat at Catalans being followed by a disappointing late defeat at home to Widnes Vikings and a draw away at struggling Salford Red Devils.

The second Derby of the season came at the right time and a morale boosting 38-24 defeat of our local rivals at the Magic Weekend should have catapulted the season forward.


Cockayne injured at Magic

Instead we lost Ben Cockayne, who had been outstanding at full back, for 10 weeks and lost 2 players, Wayne Ulugia and Jonny Walker due to repeated breaches of the club’s disciplinary code whilst Adam Walker and Greg Eden were also dropped for one match each because of poor discipline.

Add in the removal of Sandercock at the beginning of July, a run of 4 wins in 12 league games (3 of them against relegated London and Bradford), poor displays against Castleford, Warrington, Salford and Widnes, strong performances against Leeds (the first 65 minutes anyway), Huddersfield and Wigan and the performance of the season against St. Helens and you have the story of an unfulfilled, disappointing, ill-disciplined and inconsistent campaign.

All of the above bring’s us to where we currently stand – after last night’s defeat and the Widnes victory over Wigan, we cannot make the play off’s, we need to replace our 2 captains and best players Josh Hodgson and Travis Burns who will be plying their trade in Canberra and St. Helens (still to be confirmed but highly likely) next year and with a coach who has a multitude of problem’s to solve if he is to prove himself the right man to take the helm and warrant his new contract.

I can only wonder what Darrel Goulding is thinking – the recently signed centre from current champions Wigan Warriors is a quality player – but will have been expecting to play outside Travis Burns, following Josh Hodgson’s line breaks and being coached by Craig Sandercock – none of that will now happen.

Darrell Goulding

Goulding is an outstanding acquisition, as is Kieran Dixon from London Broncos – a player who has more ability than Omari Caro and who was rated higher than Mason Caton-Brown before a devastating knee injury removed him from the game for the best part of 12 months until recently – Ken Sio, signed from Parramatta and having scored 34 tries in 54 first grade appearances in the NRL, looks as though he could become a firm favourite at the KC Lightstream Stadium whilst young gun James Donaldson from Bradford Bulls will be a solid player for the team as will former Warrington forward Tyrone McCarthy.



Josh Mantellato

The unknown new signing is Josh Mantellato from the Newcastle Knights – having played most of his career in reserve grade, with only 2 NRL appearances to his name, he is an Italian international winger or full back who has been a prolific try and point scorer in the lower grades – it will be interesting to see if he can transfer his skills to Super League successfully.

With local born players Liam Salter, James Green and Jordan Cox continuing their improvement in 2015, the club will be looking to the likes of Aaron Ollett, Sonny Esslemont, Conor Robinson, Macauley Hallett and Josh Gudzek to take on the mantel and increase the number of academy graduates making the step up to Super League.

However, the announcements are yet to be made about the main positions that will have the greatest influence on how Hull Kingston Rovers perform in 2015 – namely, who will replace our co-captains Hodgson and Burns – both players have performed brilliantly for the club and it is these 2 positions along with the new Head Coach Chester that will ultimately influence whether Hull Kingston Rovers contest the top eight play off’s in 2015 or will be competing with 3 Super League clubs and 4 Championship clubs for the right to maintain their Super League status in 2016.

Before last night there was only one positive to take from 2014 - Hull FC had been even worse than us – but after the embarrassing result last night it is clear that Chester has a whole host of serious problems that he need’s to solve before the start of next season.

Good luck Chris and I hope you prove me wrong. 
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Hull KR lost their final home league match against Catalans before ending the season with a confident win at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.

Since the end of the season Rovers have confirmed the release of high profile signing Kris Keating, Neville Costigan resigned after deciding to stay in Australia, Omari Caro was not offered a new contract and Greg Eden left the club to sign for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL.

On a positive note they have recruited Maurice Blair and Albert Kelly from the Gold Coast Titans, Ryan Bailey from Leeds Rhinos, Greg Burke from Wigan Warriors and are set to announce further signings in the near future.

Magic 9's

This article was written the weekend after the inaugural Auckland 9's competition and was posted on www.the18thman.com website in February 2014.
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It appears the Antipodeans have done it again and created a Rugby League concept that may endure and captivate for years to come.

From the reports I have read and the clips I have seen on YouTube, it’s clear that the Auckland 9’s weekend was a fantastic success with the reduced numbers on the field creating more space for the like of Shaun Johnson, James Tedesco and Sam Tomkins among others to wreak havoc with wonderful sidesteps, great off loads and long distance tries.

Sam Tomkins

Add in the great weather, the beautiful Eden Park Stadium, crowds of 40,000 + on both days with a carnival atmosphere, fans from all over Australia and New Zealand and it’s difficult to see how it could get any better.


Inaugural winners - North Queensland Cowboys



The North Queensland Cowboys carried away their first ever trophy in their 20^th anniversary year and it was made even sweeter by beating the Brisbane Broncos, their Queensland rivals, in the final.



Now, changing the subject matter very briefly but does anyone else think it’s slightly unfair to have a rogue 27^th fixture in a season when there is relegation back in the mix?

That 27^th fixture, Magic Weekend, could be held up as an excuse / reason for a club’s relegation – especially if a team goes down by a point or on points difference. Unlikely I know, but possible – so, take away any possible controversy and let the teams play each other home and away – 26 games – traditional. This would mean ditching the Magic Weekend fixture – but it doesn’t mean ditching the Magic Weekend.

Anyway, back on track – welcome to the Magic Weekend Super 9’s Tournament!

That’s right! See a good idea and take it and use it to your advantage – everything the Aussies do well, we nearly always copy, so why not this? I am convinced it would be a success.

 

The only unfortunate this is that we would have to have the RFL involved in organising it. Or would we?

Could the RFL be persuaded to set up a separate organising committee of forward thinking individuals who could concentrate on this tournament and make it something special – a la the World Cup!

The clubs would have to buy into this concept completely. There’s no using the weekend to rest players because no league points are at stake; a rule could be that there are no more than 2 players  per squad who have not appeared in Super League games prior to the weekend, meaning the vast majority of Super League stars would be on show. It was the only real negative of the Auckland 9’s, that the majority of clubs left out their big name internationals.

An organising committee would have the time and contacts to attract a major sponsor for the event – making it financially worthwhile for the clubs (the winners of the Auckland 9’s took home AUS$370,000 and the total tournament prize money was AUS$2.25m) and they would also have the time and ability to promote the tournament to the full and why not put the TV contract out to tender to SKY, BT Sports, Premier and a highlights package could be thrown in for BBC and / or ITV as well.

Can't wait for next year?

The tournament would have to be full of razzamatazz, making it a funfilled weekend that parent’s could take their kids too and come home saying ‘WOW – I can’t wait for next year.‘

Razzamatazz.

 

 

The clubs would have a special 9’s tournament jersey which would bring in extra revenue in merchandise sales and hopefully the designers would show a little imagination.

Also, the rules could be altered to make the concept even more exciting – teams wouldn’t be allowed to kick penalty goal’s – there would be bonus zones such as an extra point for scoring a try between the goal posts (as in Auckland) and what about an extra point for scoring from your own half between the 10 and 50 yard lines and two points for scoring from behind your own try line and up to the 10 yard line!

So, a try that is worth 4 points as standard could become a 7 point try if, for example, Greg Eden picked up a kick behind his own try line, carried the ball out and broke the defensive line, drew in the opposition full back (Jamie Shaul of Hull FC!) and sent Ben Cockayne away to score between the posts – 4 points for the try, 2 points for the move originating before the 10 yard line and an extra point for scoring between the posts = 7 points + 2 points for the conversion = a 9 point try. What a killer that would be if you were 8 points up in the last minute and your opposition did that – it would be scintillating.

The tournament would also add a 3rd major trophy into the season for all Super League teams to play for.

I think it could work – it just needs a bit of imagination and the right people to push it forward.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFjCQxDcTs0#

The Enigma of Sean Long

This article was written and published by www.the18thman.com on March 2014 when it became public knowledge that Sean Long had suffered from depression.
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The recent news that St. Helen’s legend Sean Long attempted suicide in January after a private battle with depression was shocking and brought back stark memories of the tragic death of his former international team mate Terry Newton back in 2010.

Terry Newton

Thankfully for Sean and his family his suicide attempt was unsuccessful and, now that he has made his problems public, he has a lot more support from the game and his immediate family and can plan the next stage of his life.

This battle with depression, brought on after his premature retirement from the game through injury, may go some way to explaining why Long has been unable to hold down any of the coaching jobs he has been handed since his retirement.

Long has always been something of an enigma. He has polarised opinions throughout his career and has regularly courted controversy.

From the highs of a record breaking 3 Lance Todd Trophy’s, a Man of Steel Award and multiple Grand Final and Challenge Cup winners medals to the lows of a 3 month suspension for betting against his own team to walking out on a Great Britain tour, long’s Rugby League career was never boring.

The first 3-4 years of Long’s professional rugby league career showed nothing that would suggest that he would become one of the greatest talents of the Super League era.

Long signed for all conquering Wigan, his hometown club, from local amateur side Wigan St. Judes in 1994 but went on to make just 12 appearances for the Cherry and Whites in 3 years before he was released and signed by Widnes in 1997.

In just 9 lower division matches for Widnes, Long made a big impression and St. Helens were impressed enough to lay out a fee of £80,000 for him – the fee rose to £100,000 after 30 first team appearances.

He found his true home at Knowsley Road and the seeds of a Super League legend were quickly sown.

At that time St. Helens had a team of formidable talent and, under Shaun McRae, had won the inaugural 1996 Super League title and the Challenge Cup in both 1996 and 1997 – however, they were on the lookout for a long term replacement for Bobbie Goulding and Long fitted the bill perfectly.





Signed midway through the 1997 season, Long made his debut in the ill-fated World Club Challenge competition in 48-8 home defeat to Cronulla Sharks.

For the rest of the season Long switched between both half back positions before making the scrum half position his own in 1998.

For the next 11 seasons he became the fulcrum of the St.Helens team forming superb half back partnerships with Tommy Martyn and then Leon Pryce.

He played huge parts in 4 Super League title winning sides – who will forget his last minute drop goal in the 2002 Grand Final to give the Saints a 19-18 victory over Bradford Bulls – five Challenge Cup final victory’s and 2 World Club Challenge wins.

Long with Paul Sculthorpe

Add in the 2000 Man of Steel award and a record three Lance Todd Trophy’s for being awarded the man of the match in the Challenge Cup final along with 164 tries, 1023 goals and 23 drop goals for points total of 2725 – second only in Saints history to Kel Coslett, and you can see why he is held in such high regard.

As we all know, there were negative sides to the Sean Long legend – not least the 2004 ban he received, alongside Martin Gleeson, for betting on his own team to lose in a Super League game against the Bradford Bulls at Odsal.

Long did not play in the game as Saints had a very inexperienced team out that day, but Gleeson did.
 Both players were fined £7500 each and ordered to pay costs of £2205 each with Gleeson suspended for 4 months and Long for 3 months.

Two years later and Long was the man of the match as Great Britain beat Australia 23-12 in Sydney in the Tri-Nations tournament – 9 days later, after a test defeat in New Zealand, he decided to leave the touring party early and head home to his pregnant wife. This was on the back of reports that GB officials were unhappy with Long’s behaviour on the plane back from New Zealand and after the team’s arrival back at their Sydney hotel.

The Great Britain players were reported to be on a drinking ban but reports suggested that Long was heavily intoxicated both before the flight out of New Zealand and upon arrival at Sydney Airport.

Long was MoM against Australia in 2006

 

Long never played international rugby league again but he went on to captain the Saints to a World Club Challenge victory over the Brisbane Broncos in early 2007 and enjoyed a successful testimonial year which included another Challenge Cup Final victory, this time against Catalans Dragons, and a Grand Final defeat to Leeds Rhinos.

 

 

At the end of 2009 Long’s Saints career came to a close and he joined Hull FC on a 2 year contract, a major signing for the East Yorkshire club. Unfortunately, injury’s curtailed his time and limited his effectiveness for the club and he officially retired from playing on 10^th August 2011.

It appears that this is where the wheel’s started to fall off.

After over a decade of unparalleled success in a team environment, the question was what to do next?

A stint playing low level rugby union for Preston Grasshoppers did not last long.

Neither did a number of coaching positions with Long leaving posts at Salford Red Devils, Wigan and London Broncos far a variety of reasons.

Most recently, the London Broncos released a statement stating that ‘’Sean’s performance as an assistant coach did not meet the professional levels expected.’’

To be fair Long has rejected this statement and insisted that he left because the Broncos wanted to make his role part time.

In July of last year, Long left his position at the Wigan Warriors after just 3 months with the club stating that ‘’Whilst it remains clear to the Wigan staff that Sean is a highly skilled and competent coach, he has found it difficult as a new staff member to integrate into the disciplined and already high-performing culture at the Wigan club.’’

Long is now back at Salford

His first coaching position in the professional game did last 18 months before he moved onto Wigan after Brian Noble took over at Salford City Reds.

In the last week it has been announced that Long has re-joined the Salford coaching staff as a consultant to Brian Noble – let’s hope that this new role give’s Sean the structure he obviously needs to put his life back on track – no one want’s to see another Rugby League tragedy.

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Long has been part of the Samoan coaching team at the 2014 Four Nations. 

England's 4 Nations Squad

This article was written and posted on the website www.seriousaboutrl.com just prior to the start of the 2014 Four Nations tournament.

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ENGLAND 4 NATIONS SQUAD

Last Sunday England Head Coach Steve McNamara selected his 24 man squad that he hopes can take England to Four Nations glory in Australia and New Zealand this autumn.

The squad is a mix of the old and the new with the odd little surprise thrown in as well.

Steve McNamara

It is also a squad shorn of top quality players due to injury, retirement, a well publicised move to Rugby Union or simply due to lack of form.

Eleven players from the World Cup squad of 2013 are absent – incumbent captain Kevin Sinfield announced his international retirement earlier in the season and the honour of leading his country has gone to Wigan captain and loose forward Sean O’Loughlin – a strong choice but McNamara must be keeping his fingers crossed that O’Loughlin maintains the fitness levels he has had this year.

Harry Sunderland Trophy winner James Roby and his Wigan and Grand Final counterpart Michael McIllorum are absent due to impending close season surgery as are Warrington back rower Ben Westwood and former Wigan prop Lee Mossop, whose debut NRL season with the Parramatta Eels was ruined by injury.

Carl Ablett, Tom Briscoe, Rob Burrow, Rangi Chase and Leroy Cudjoe are high quality players that have been dispensed with from last year’s squad and Salford back rower Gareth Hock will not have been considered following his high profile disciplinary problems and fall out with McNamara prior to the start of the World Cup.

The biggest loss, obviously, is Sam Burgess. He will move to rugby union, with Bath and England RU,  once the damage he received to his cheekbone and eye socket in the first tackle of the NRL Grand Final in a head clash with James Graham has been repaired. Burgess is one of the greatest players in the world and he cannot be replaced, by South Sydney or England. It is up to the rest of the squad, particularly his younger twin brothers Tom and George, to step up and fill the huge gap left.

There is always very public conjecture about who should and should not be included in National squads – particularly in this day of Social Media – and there are 2 surprise exclusions in my opinion.
Widnes half back Kevin Brown and St. Helen’s winger Tommy Makinson will probably be asking themselves what more they can do to earn international recognition.

Makinson was included in the mid-season 34 man elite training squad and there was major consternation when Brown was not.

Makinson in try scoring form.

Makinson was the top try scoring Englishman in 2014 with 25 tries, many of them spectacular trademark dives to the corner – he really has been one of the entertainers of the season - with Josh Charnley 6 tries behind on 19. Rookie Wigan flyer Joe Burgess, who scored 17 tries, has been preferred to Makinson and is likely to back up Charnley and the experienced Leeds winger Ryan Hall.

Brown has really kicked on in 2014 and proved himself a top quality half back – bringing interest from Cronulla Sharks in the NRL – and was pivotal in Widnes Vikings qualifying for the play offs contributing 24 assists and 12 tries – only Danny Brough (31), Marc Sneyd (30) and World Cup 2013 stand off Rangi Chase (25) contributed more try assists.

In the NRL the man who will be first choice stand off in the 4 Nations, Gareth Widdop, contributed 16 try assists and 3 tries as St George Illawarra failed to make the play offs. His form was outstanding though as shown by his high placing of fourth in the prestigious Dally M player of the Year awards.

Only such great players as joint Dally M medallists Jonathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne and 3^rd placed Sam Burgess finished in front of him.

There is still a huge amount of talent in the squad and some of the new faces brought in to replace the players mentioned above have very high skill levels and are very exciting to watch.

Man of Steel winner Daryl Clark, moving from Castleford to Warrington from next season, has had a stellar year and is one of those players who is constantly thinking ahead and looking for an edge in attack. He plays the game at a furious pace and is a mean competitor – he may not get through the defensive work that James Roby does but he was the forward that made the most tackle busts (96) in 2014 and averaged 10.86m per carry compared to Roby’s 5.85m per carry and scored 13 tries to Roby’s 7.


Daryl Clark with the Steve Prescott Man of Steel Trophy

He will be backed up by Hull Kingston Rovers and England Knight’s captain Josh Hodgson who will be playing in the NRL for Canberra Raiders from 2015 and will provide a solid and hardworking alternative when Clark needs resting.

In form Castleford captain Michael Shenton has earned his re-call in to the England squad after an absence of 4 years thanks to an outstanding season for the resurgent Tigers – his 17 tries and 17 assists testimony to a superb year.

A surprise first timer to the England squad is former Warrington forward Mike Cooper who has certainly proved that his decision to leave his comfort zone and try to carve out a career in Australia was the right one. The back row forward played in all but one of St. George Illawarra’s fixtures in his debut season and is a surprise call up to the squad.

Sarginson - surprise selection?

 Another surprise to me is the selection of Wigan’s former London Broncos centre Dan Sarginson – I believe he has been solid at best and I would not trust his defensive ability against the Australians or Kiwi’s – I would have preferred to have seen in form Warrington centre Chris Bridge selected as he is much stronger defensively or Carl Ablett retained as I believe he is an all round better player and can cover centre and the back row positions. 

Likewise, Joel Tomkins – I can only assume that he has been picked on reputation and what he did in his previous time in League – I have not seen any performances to suggest that he has been picked on form. I believe McNamara will have him earmarked for a back row spot but he would not make my squad let alone my 17.

Warrington utility Stefan Ratchford has had an outstanding season and can cover numerous positions which is always a positive for a coach at big tournaments and would earn him a place on the bench in my 17.

Matty Smith of Wigan has been the most consistent scrum half in Super League for the last 2 seasons and his kicking game and organisational ability will be important – but he will have to impose himself immediately and strike up an understanding quickly with Widdop to enable them to release the outside backs and running forwards.

In a struggling Hull FC side, loose forward Joe Westerman has been their best player this year and rediscovered the form that made Hull pay out big money to sign him from Castleford Tigers in 2010 – 81 tackle busts and 41 off loads are strong figures and he will provide good cover for all back row positions.

The final newcomer is Elliot Whitehead. The former Bradford Bulls back rower has been brilliant for Catalans Dragons this season and was comfortably Super League’s leading try scoring forward with 18.

I believe he would form a potent back row trio with Brett Ferres or Liam Farrell and captain Sean O’Loughlin. 

This leads us to the players almost everyone would have been expecting to be named in the squad.
Led by captain Sean O’Loughlin, who we have already discussed, we have a pack of forwards that will be more than a match for the packs from Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

James Graham has had another great year with Canterbury Bankstown, although it culminated in the 7^th consecutive Grand Final loss of an otherwise brilliant career, and he will be the forward McNamara expects the most from in this tournament – and there is no doubting Graham will deliver.

James Graham

He was named prop of the year at the recent Dally M awards, was second only to Sam Burgess in the number of hit ups and was one of the top 5 tacklers in the NRL this season – he will lead from the front and will be desperate to win.

I think he will be joined in the front row by Daryl Clark and Warrington prop Chris Hill who has had another great year with Warrington. His powerful bursts and strong defence will be needed most in the heat of battle at the start of the matches with Australia and New Zealand and will see him helping to pave the way for the Burgess twins, George and Tom, to come on and wreak havoc.

The Burgess twins are unstoppable at times and the confidence they will have gained from another successful season with South Sydney must be used to great effect in the 4 Nations.

If you have seen George’s blockbusting try in the Grand Final you will know what he is capable of – I think both of these great young players should start on the bench and provide a major boost of energy when they hit the field.

Liam Farrell and Brett Ferres complete the forwards. These two are capable of forming a very effective second row partnership themselves but I would like to see Elliot Whitehead partner Ferres.

As mentioned earlier, Whitehead knows how to score tries and I believe he will prove a bigger threat than Farrell and will complement Ferres nicely.

Wingers Josh Charnley and Ryan Hall will be strong favourites to cement their first choice status as I do not see the inexperienced Joe Burgess being risked.

Even though Charnley had an injury hit season he still bagged 19 tries and is a proven threat to all defences.

Hall is a must start and his record speaks for itself at international level where he has scored 21 tries in 20 games and is England’s joint record try scorer along with Sam Tomkins. He knows how to score tries against Australia and scored 8 tries in last year’s World Cup tournament.

Tomkins has had a good year in his debut season with the New Zealand Warriors scoring 13 tries in 24 appearances from full back and also providing 12 assists. He really needs to impose himself on this tournament to cement his position as one of the best full back’s in the world – something that he failed to do at the World Cup where he was the only England back who failed to score a try.

The Leeds pairing of Kallum Watkins and Zak Hardaker, I think, should take the 2 centre berths in this tournament.

Watkins will start inside Josh Charnley and rightly so – he is a top quality centre and has the size, pace and strength to trouble the best of defences.  

The second centre position is not so clear – I am sure McNamara is looking at Shenton but I have major concerns about his ability to compete at this level and the same goes for the uncapped Sarginson as discussed earlier.

Another option is Joel Tomkins but I would plump for Hardaker – he is outstanding defensively and has pace to burn and an attitude to match, he would not be intimidated and would be paired with his team mate Ryan Hall and is used to playing centre even though he is the first choice full back for the Rhinos.

My 17 for the matches against Australia and New Zealand would be:

FULL BACK:                        SAM TOMKINS

RIGHT WING:                    JOSH CHARNLEY

RIGHT CENTRE:                 KALLUM WATKINS

LEFT CENTRE:                    ZAK HARDAKER

LEFT WING:                       RYAN HALL

OFF HALF:                          GARETH WIDDOP

SCRUM HALF:                    MATTY SMITH

PROP:                                 JAMES GRAHAM

HOOKER:                           DARYL CLARK

PROP:                                 CHRIS HILL

SECOND ROW:                  ELLIOT WHITEHEAD

SECOND ROW:                  BRETT FERRES

LOOSE FORWARD:           SEAN O’LOUGHLIN (CAPTAIN)

 

BENCH:                              STEFAN RATCHFORD

BENCH:                              JOSH HODGSON

BENCH:                              GEORGE BURGESS

BENCH:                              TOM BURGESS