Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sat Apr 29, 2017 3:43 pm  

Greg Florimos Boots wrote:

Yeah and our second team is been used to prepare our young players to play in the Championship.

What's the point of that if we just ship in SL players on DR. As RM said himself, "What does it say to my reserve players if i overlook them for DR players?"

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:32 pm  

cannot believe marshall is messing about with the squad again we are on a winning roll why drop Jonno hes created some good stuff of late the mind boggles

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:41 pm  

darren smith wrote:

cannot believe marshall is messing about with the squad again we are on a winning roll why drop Jonno hes created some good stuff of late the mind boggles

he is in the squad.

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:05 pm  

Saw that as well. Darren, do you have some inside info that he's not playing?

Jonno has a great grubber kick on him (better than anyone else we have on the team), but his "step inside" isn't working and he needs some coaching to help him distribute the ball effectively. I'm a Jonno fan, but I can see why RM might be a tad frustrated with him.

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:12 pm  

Talking about frustration, can someone coach Ben Kaye (and possibly others) to pick up the ball and pass it... rather than picking up the ball and then pulling his arms back before he passes the ball?

I didn't really notice this until AOB played for us and showed how quickly the ball can get played out wide.

We seem witless on attack at times, and speed from the ruck is maybe our biggest failing?

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sun Apr 30, 2017 12:04 pm  

The best teams have settled half back combinations and it looked like we were actually getting that this season and then to change half backs for a game this big especially to play a lad there who has hardly played that position this season is asking for trouble in my opinion.

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sun Apr 30, 2017 3:11 pm  

Greg Florimos Boots wrote:

The best teams have settled half back combinations and it looked like we were actually getting that this season and then to change half backs for a game this big especially to play a lad there who has hardly played that position this season is asking for trouble in my opinion.

One of the reasons for last season's failure was RM falling into the Karl Harrison trap, chopping and changing the team and playing lads out of position. I would like to have thought we had learned the lesson. Saying that surely we have enough to beat Batley today. Up The Fax.

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Sun Apr 30, 2017 10:22 pm  

HXSparky wrote:

Saw that as well. Darren, do you have some inside info that he's not playing?

Jonno has a great grubber kick on him (better than anyone else we have on the team), but his "step inside" isn't working and he needs some coaching to help him distribute the ball effectively. I'm a Jonno fan, but I can see why RM might be a tad frustrated with him.

Agree on this one and I like Jonno but sometimes he loses the plot and starts stepping and running all over the place, it's a bit like headless chicken stuff.
It's one of his strengths having the opposition not knowing what you are going to do but it's also a weakness when his own team mates and himself sometimes don't know what you are going to do.
It actually disrupts your own attacking plays and has players out of position, some over run the play when he steps back and some are too far back when he steps forward with it being so unpredictable and off the cuff.

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Mon May 01, 2017 2:13 am  

A bit tongue in cheek not having seen the guy play, could he not wear an arm guard like the poof balls in USA do with the plays written down and then follow them to the letter.
Although I have to play the other code due to league being a spectator sport in Asia we have set plays from mauls and scrums that every one knows will happen from the call. Not saying it is a perfect solution as teams will work out the plays but it may work short term and get him and his team mates on the same page.
This may hapen now , does anyone know?

Re: Batley Bulldogs (H) : Mon May 01, 2017 7:52 am  

We missed his short kicking game yesterday but that said the lads played pretty well and we did look capable of scoring at any point, whether that was down to an improvement in our attack or down to how poor Batley are is open to debate.
As much as I think we must use DR to help us make the top 4 we do have some young lads that have a lot of potential. Woodburn Hall looks great going forward and once Heaton is fit it gives Marshall a difficult decision as you have Heaton who is better defensively than JWH but on the flip side Woodburn Hall has great feet and looks quality going forward. Moore and Morris both look like established top end Championship players at the moment and the game changes when they come on which is what you need from your bench. Morris in particular is developing in to quite a player, he takes the ball in like he is double his size(we should know we have had enough players taking the ball in like they are half their size). I thought Reilly did well as well when he got a run and has not looked out of place the last couple of games. He's got good footwork for a big lad and thats what is going to set good players apart.

All in all though we are ticking along very nicely on the quiet. I think we would have taken 2 points off second at this stage of the season and we are effectively part of a top 5 now. Not a bad position compared to where some people thought we would be.