Getting near to silly season again guys. What position do we need to recruit in ? Can we afford a marquee signing or 2 ?
Who will be leaving ?

phatguerilla wrote: The really optimistic version of the Ben Marshall issue would be that he's taken this injury enforced break to add some serious bulk and will come back as a monster ... that's possible right????

I'm envisaging something the size of Sandor Clegane with the moves of Aly Muldowney. Here's hoping you're right.

The really optimistic version of the Ben Marshall issue would be that he's taken this injury enforced break to add some serious bulk and will come back as a monster ... that's possible right????

McNamara wrote: Does anyone know what the story is with Ben Marshal? There hasn't been anything said in any recent medical updates

There's a long history of Connacht forgetting to mention players in injury updates - it's only now were getting detail and a comeback date for Ivan Soroka and he's out a couple of months already - so I wouldn't read anything *extra* into his omission. That said being out with concussion for 10 months speaks for itself unfortunately.

Does anyone know what the story is with Ben Marshal? There hasn't been anything said in any recent medical updates

Supporters player of the month for connacht. Not sure that counts for a whole lot tbf as if we're honest us supporters know a lot less about what is going on on the pitch than we think.

Jack Carty has won the player of the month award for October.

They could be short of front rows. A few away with Wales and the Georgian guy got a red card for biting so he could get a ban. It could give us parity at least if we don't have Buckley and Bealham.

@horsebox I'll respond to the comment to justify my stance only, I'm not going to get into a tit for tat argument as we obviously have differing views.

My post is my opinion, I fully respect other people's but I'm afraid I just can't agree with yours. I watch every connacht game I don't go to on tv often twice as I get too caught up in them when they are live to take everything in.

How you can say an oh who kicks ball out on the full on a regular basis, kicks ball aimlessly back to the opposition when connacht are attacking, kicks a ball dead when given a penalty inside the opposition half, misses touch with penalties or gains almost zero ground is playing well I can't fathom. Broken play running is probably all he is doing well at the moment and don't talk to me about defense as he has probably missed more tackles than anyone else in the team (I think he was in top three in pro12 last season for missed tackles? ).

I'll give any player time but he has had a lot of time now and he just doesn't seem to be improving like he should imo (which is not worth a lot in the grand scale of things to be fair). I actually stood up for him in discussions with other connacht fans last season but when you compare what he is doing to what AJ was doing last season it shows how far short he is.

As I say you are welcome to your opinion but I'm not putting our lack of cohesion going forward all down to ally and a few injuries as you seem to be.

The criticism of Carty on this forum is absolutely baffling. We are not playing well at times so he becomes the fall guy. How you could say we are Rudderless in attack due to Jack is beyond me. We have attacked pretty well most matches. When Ronnie has been fit we have been better but to blame Carty is ridiculous. Muldowney has been a huge loss, we do not have 1 ball carrying forward and the injuries have taken there toll. Plus Robb is taking time to bed in. Jack has been one of our 3 best players. Aside from his goal kicking which he has admitted himself needs to improve, he has been brilliant. His defence has been immense and generally he has attacked and kicked from.hand very well.

I cannot understand why he is repeatedly criticised on here by his own fans when no other player seems to get the same treatment. Is it that people are to lazy to bother analysing games properly and want to be heard to have some opinion? It's not right to continually be knocking one of our own, especially when he is clearly a confidence player and probably reads this. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I am all for that, but in this case it's ott at this stage.

Also last season he was playing very well until his injury, so that comment is ludicrous.

it's been a while since I've seen a squad update, had almost forgotten we had a match coming up this week, Friday evening at the sportsground can't wait.

Cardiff have been playing during the break so I'm a bit unsure how this one will go, is there a match thread for this?

will we be without the 5 players on International duty?

[quote="phatguerilla" post=50050

Personally think we need to get away from the idea of a second row playmaker as Browne is not as good as Muldowney in this regard and injured too frequently to be depended upon. .[/quote]
This is a really interesting point and something that has been bothering me for a bit. Yes it took Muldowney time to do what he did. And as you say Browne is injury prone. And if he is injured then there is nothing. I cant remember Muldowney being injured. And there is no backup to Browne. So where do we go?

Hey Phat, I agree with most of what you are saying.

We are basically rudderless in attack this season as carty is just not able to manage a game yet and we don't have the playmaking abilities of muldowney in the second row either. I said it last season and I'll say it again if carty had not got unfortunately injured after Xmas we would have won nothing.

All we can hope is that our new 10 can dictate things in attack and get us moving again.

Ronaldson is key at 13 but I'm still hopeful griffin can step it up and contribute here too (I'm not sure if he thought he would be stepping down coming back to connacht from the premiership but his intensity and commitment are just not there so far imo).

Like yiu I'd not write off the new recruits yet as it took quite a while for pat to turn even the likes of muldowney into the player he became so let's give them time.

That's a bit harsh on some of the new guys. Delahunt was very fashionable last year, this year has come in for some criticism but is a quality player. Carey has looked good when he has a good second row behind him. Roux is a capped international now and was a huge fillip when he came back from injury. Kelleher has been great imo, Ili made an immediate impact but to an extent it doesn't matter as he is only here for a year - but if he impresses he could be potentially be signed for longer.

Are you writing off Cormac Brennan at year two in the academy? needlessly pessimistic if so. Qualter yes is an odd fish, has all the physical attributes we need but has not shown himself to be trusted by the coaches, and Loughney just hasn't looked at his best for more than a game at a time in the last two-three years without sustaining an injury - those are concerns for sure.

We've quickly reached that point in the season where an injury crisis threatens to derail everything and understandably people are feeling anxious but the quality that got us to the top last year hasn't completely disappeared. For me the biggest problem will always be having to compete on two fronts, we don't have the depth for that but now there is the added expectation as league champions to give Europe a go. As much as the big european nights have been good for Connacht for a weekend their negative impact on seasons past is telling.

Once we start to get our props back and some injured players come off the physio table things will start to look up. We also have to adjust to providing multiple players to multiple international windows for the first time which has come at an inopportune time given our shallowness at second row. At the same time we need to see improvements in the lineout and maul as well as the general gameplan rather than the aimless running and drifting of some recent games, but I believe the coaches are working on that over the international break especially now the new outhalf is here. Its vital that Cannon makes an impact here, ideally he should be our 'secret' weapon in the Wasps game - if they're foolish enough to use lineout calls that he knows, which is a big if.

Personally think we need to get away from the idea of a second row playmaker as Browne is not as good as Muldowney in this regard and injured too frequently to be depended upon. Like many I'd like to see Ronaldson starting every game as second five eighth but as that's not possible we need to see someone else upskilled as that player, if that has to be Carty alongside the power of Robb or Bundee then it will cause problems for our defence with a weaker 10-12 channel but it might be a necessary risk. The sooner Leader is back to full fitness the better it will be like getting another new player and I think he's capable of providing a playmaking option from 12/13 while also being strong in defence.

have to say we really are looking limited this year. loughney, delahunt, carey, roux, qualter, ili,, kelleher, brenann is simply not going to cut it. but that is what is going to have to cut it or else we are feiced this year

Was Buckley not due to be back in early November?
Adeolokun would surely get released bar a massive winger injury list picked up against New Zealand. Australia is a must win game so Joe won't deviate from Trimble and Zebo unless they are injured.