Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 9:32 am  

tad rhino wrote:

as others have said I expect mom, sangare, goudemond to go.
I expect newman to get a rocket up his backside too. the quality is there but his attitude stinks. it's hardly side before self as Billy bremner once said!
I think arthur will make a real player of him

I agree about the first bit, I have a bit of a different take on Newman. I think he actually needs to be much calmer and composed and focused. I know he has ADHD and heard a story from a senior player about how is mind is racing pretty much no -stop. They are different characters but I think winding up Newman is akin to winding Gazza up to play football, it’s counterproductive. I also think he is better at right centre than left.

I’d be putting him inside Ryan Hall on the right wing and trying to sign Kallum back to play right second row and they can both mentor him and keep him focused on just doing his job.

Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 9:47 am  

One point about Newman is Wane has picked him in the initial England squad but not
Picked Oledski or Smith, so whatever Newman’s shortcomings are they are less pronounced than those 2 .

That should hurt Oledski because Wane has picked a lot. Of props and some are not very good.

2 things that I hope we change for next year is kicking and who carries the ball off our try line when the opposition has upped the intensity and comes after you.

Harry Smith last week and Lewis this week showed how to kick on last tackle and for touch from a penalty. Ours gave no challenge to the FB and never hit the turf . Frawley sometimes makes 10 yards kicking for touch.

In the second half we got possession close to our line and you could sense that KR were going to pile in. Alfie and Lumb took first 2 and got battered and then Newman copped a high shot.

A proper forward would have pushed Alfie and Lumb out of the way and taken the hit, from Wardy and Graham Eccles , through Roy Powell to Peacock they would not have sent boys into do a man’s job.

That is at the heart of why Wane does not pick Oledski or Smith.

Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 10:39 am  

I thought Leeds played very well in the first half and were unlucky to go in at 10-10. High completion (94% according to Sky) and took their chances well.

In the second half we reverted to type. All it took against a good side was one error or penalty leading to pressure and more errors/penalties following shortly after. In this situation we lack the big dynamic forwards or individual brilliance to drag us out of our own half, and we just got worn down.

Please can we stop bagging the usual suspects and giving other players a free ride? Frawley played well IMO with ball in hand and served as a useful foil for Croft, who was exceptional when we were on top in the first half. It wasn't only Frawley's kicks that were going straight to hand, so did Croft's - and IMO the lack of platform from the rest of the team is a major factor here. Even the likes of Brough, Sneyd and Sinfield Snr wouldn't get great kicks off behind this pack. It's a shame we don't have a player who can kick 40-20s from dummy half in the team any more...

Edgell had a great game (one critical error aside). I have to admit he surprised me when he got over to score, and he made a decent break in the second half (?) too. Still not sure he is big or fast enough, but interesting to see what he'll be like after the pre-season. Lumb looks more of a natural athlete but he will be found out quickly if he cuts inside every time he receives the ball (Jim Fallon esque).

As for the moments of weakness, these were the lowlights for me:

Sangare was exposed in the first half for his poor lateral movement in defence. A pre-season under Arthur could be the making of him - or break him and he'll leave.

Roberts predictably dropped a high kick - IIRC he was the most error prone player in the first half of the season under Smith, so no surprises there.

Newman gave an appalling pass from DH on tackle 5 of one set that led to us conceding possession in our own half, and subsequently led to a HKR try. He actually looked okay ball in hand. We need to sort the Newman issue out sooner rather than later - whether the problems are mental, physical or both - it's gone on far too long.

Bentley coming up with two unforced errors bring the ball out in yardage... He didn't even bring his characteristic aggression. I appreciate he has his fans on here, but those errors were major factors in our loss. He's too small and inconsistent to be a regular starter on yesterday's form.

Ultimately this was the kind of game that separates the wheat from the chaff. Quite a few stood up well (Edgell, Croft, Lumb, Martin, Frawley), others were simply steady (O'Connor, Smith, Ackers, McDonnell, Oledski, Lisone, and the latest scapegoat, Momirovski), and some showed why we are likely to finish in 7th or 8th.

Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 10:40 am  

rocket up his backside was maybe the wrong phrase. I should have said make him a team player

Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 1:41 pm  

Almost everyone in the current squad makes dumb errors, or plays OK one week and goes missing the next. Without a decent platform up front though we're always playing a strange game with makeweights trying to make yardage or playing too many sets starting from poor positions.

I hope a really hard off season will fix some of the players up. That and hopefully a decent pack will at least let everyone see who is of the right quality.

Having said that, I'm fed up of hearing that player X will go well in a better team, or they were OK two years ago, or they looked good when we batter a poor team or they work hard. Its trotted out time and again when said player (players plural) play badly. No more excuses. If we want to get back to the top there can't be any sacred cows.

Re: Round 27| HKR Away : Sat Sep 21, 2024 1:52 pm  

This is my point often too. I’m sick and tired of accepting excuses (not reasons) for persistent poor performances. Those who are not capable any longer, need to be replaced by those that are.