Re: Mike Cooper : Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:18 pm  

Starting for England tomorrow

Re: Mike Cooper : Sat Jun 18, 2022 7:24 pm  

Two good 20 min stints. His metres after contact are something we’ve been missing in a forward. If he could get an arm free and offload with people like fields, batty, Faz and french running of the back of him we’d cause a lot of teams problems.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sat Jun 18, 2022 7:55 pm  

He's a step up from any prop we have now or have had in many years. He's an athlete, not a plodder.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:43 pm  

ChrisA wrote:

He's a step up from any prop we have now or have had in many years. He's an athlete, not a plodder.

Our front row next year has potential to be the best in the league, amazing to think that last year it was one of the worst.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sat Jun 18, 2022 9:17 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

Our front row next year has potential to be the best in the league, amazing to think that last year it was one of the worst.

It’s amazing what can happen when you go out and buy decent props!

It’s probably been my biggest frustration over the years in that we haven’t always got that quite right but I’m pretty confident we are going to do very well next season… even more so if we hang on to KPP and bring in a quality Centre.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:40 am  

dany1979 wrote:

It’s amazing what can happen when you go out and buy decent props!

It’s probably been my biggest frustration over the years in that we haven’t always got that quite right but I’m pretty confident we are going to do very well next season… even more so if we hang on to KPP and bring in a quality Centre.

Yeah, if we get Wardle to come in and keep French that’s us set to improve again next season, I don’t see us needing anymore recruits outside of maybe another centre? But we would have Wardle, Thornley, Halsall, KPP and then Isa and Bateman if we get desperate. I personally don’t think he’s a superstar but I think we will miss Bibby, he’s solid enough at centre or on the wing and his injury record is good, I’d certainly prefer to keep him over Thornley or Miski.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:43 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

Yeah, if we get Wardle to come in and keep French that’s us set to improve again next season, I don’t see us needing anymore recruits outside of maybe another centre? But we would have Wardle, Thornley, Halsall, KPP and then Isa and Bateman if we get desperate. I personally don’t think he’s a superstar but I think we will miss Bibby, he’s solid enough at centre or on the wing and his injury record is good, I’d certainly prefer to keep him over Thornley or Miski.

Thornley I think is doing a great job, he isn’t a world beater but we are using him to his strengths and he won’t be costing us the Earth.

Miski I’m a bit more comfortable with if the rumours are true in relation to Wardle joining as whilst I do like Bibby I genuinely think Wardle has top class potential.

If we are retaining French, whilst Miski is a winger it gives us opinions if Field picks up a knock too or needs a rest. The fact we seem to be recruiting quality British players means his quota spot isn’t a huge issue going into 2023.

Re: Mike Cooper : Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:18 pm  

Wardle and Cooper in, with Hardaker and Bibby out (and maybe a fringe player or two) would be fantastic business. We need a period of being calm on the turnover of players front and those two would feel like we’ve really targeted exactly 2 areas we need quality in. We need a quality centre and I still feel like we’re shy of one experienced, top class front rower. One bad egg out in Zak and an upgrade coming in for Bibby would be excellent news. Fingers crossed it happens.

Re: Mike Cooper : Fri Jul 15, 2022 4:04 am  

I’m led to believe he will be joining us immediately.

Re: Mike Cooper : Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:56 am  

tugglesf78 wrote:

I’m led to believe he will be joining us immediately.

This would be great news and some thing I suspected may happen after their upturn in form with him not in the match day squad.