: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:29 pm  

simy123, its toss pots like you what get the rest of the fans disliked, coming out with arrogant comments about getting to the final, dont put your house on it , old lad.

: Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:49 pm  

Hmm...we've not yet played well for a full game all season. We lost the WCC and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the first round. Our best player this year (when he's played) is now injured and could well miss the play offs. We still seem pretty unsure about what to do with the right centre position, our full back is beginning to look a bit fragile - back problems are notoriously difficult to really sort out - our pack seems to get bossed more often that they really should and is way too relinat on performances from JP, we are short a world class centre and a second rower and have been all year and we seem to consistently make a pigs ear of our interchanges with the hooker rotation option simply not working as far as I can tell.

More worrying than all this is we now have a coach who seems to be unable to instill the discipline required to win anything (I believe we are near or at the top of the penalty count league table this season so far). In fact I remain of the view that 'Bluey' is not (and can not) take the team forward.

Whatever chance we may have to win the Championship again depends very heavily on the rest of the League continuing to decline in footballing standards. I am not that convinced we can/will hang on to second in the league table

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:35 am  

Highbury Rhino wrote:

Hmm...we've not yet played well for a full game all season. We lost the WCC and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the first round. Our best player this year (when he's played) is now injured and could well miss the play offs. We still seem pretty unsure about what to do with the right centre position, our full back is beginning to look a bit fragile - back problems are notoriously difficult to really sort out - our pack seems to get bossed more often that they really should and is way too relinat on performances from JP, we are short a world class centre and a second rower and have been all year and we seem to consistently make a pigs ear of our interchanges with the hooker rotation option simply not working as far as I can tell.

More worrying than all this is we now have a coach who seems to be unable to instill the discipline required to win anything (I believe we are near or at the top of the penalty count league table this season so far). In fact I remain of the view that 'Bluey' is not (and can not) take the team forward.

Whatever chance we may have to win the Championship again depends very heavily on the rest of the League continuing to decline in footballing standards. I am not that convinced we can/will hang on to second in the league table

All that and still 2nd in the league ?

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:48 am  

Elisedriver wrote:

All that and still 2nd in the league ?

but we'll be awesome when we get it right

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:57 am  

Highbury Rhino wrote:

Hmm...we've not yet played well for a full game all season. We lost the WCC and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the first round. Our best player this year (when he's played) is now injured and could well miss the play offs. We still seem pretty unsure about what to do with the right centre position, our full back is beginning to look a bit fragile - back problems are notoriously difficult to really sort out - our pack seems to get bossed more often that they really should and is way too relinat on performances from JP, we are short a world class centre and a second rower and have been all year and we seem to consistently make a pigs ear of our interchanges with the hooker rotation option simply not working as far as I can tell.

More worrying than all this is we now have a coach who seems to be unable to instill the discipline required to win anything (I believe we are near or at the top of the penalty count league table this season so far). In fact I remain of the view that 'Bluey' is not (and can not) take the team forward.

Whatever chance we may have to win the Championship again depends very heavily on the rest of the League continuing to decline in footballing standards. I am not that convinced we can/will hang on to second in the league table

Excellent analysis.

I'd expect the believest head in the sand brigade to be burning effigies of you within the hour!

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:00 am  

Highbury Rhino wrote:

Hmm...we've not yet played well for a full game all season. We lost the WCC and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the first round. Our best player this year (when he's played) is now injured and could well miss the play offs. We still seem pretty unsure about what to do with the right centre position, our full back is beginning to look a bit fragile - back problems are notoriously difficult to really sort out - our pack seems to get bossed more often that they really should and is way too relinat on performances from JP, we are short a world class centre and a second rower and have been all year and we seem to consistently make a pigs ear of our interchanges with the hooker rotation option simply not working as far as I can tell.

More worrying than all this is we now have a coach who seems to be unable to instill the discipline required to win anything (I believe we are near or at the top of the penalty count league table this season so far). In fact I remain of the view that 'Bluey' is not (and can not) take the team forward.

Whatever chance we may have to win the Championship again depends very heavily on the rest of the League continuing to decline in footballing standards. I am not that convinced we can/will hang on to second in the league table

Well summed up. I think we know what to do with right centre but it seems to also rely on the 1st choice full back been available.

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:05 pm  

The fact that we are still second in the league says more about the league than it says about us.

We do still have the playing personnel to win something but this year feels like a significant decline over last in terms of our playing standards and general performance levels.

We may indeed have the right centre spot sorted for the remaining 7 or so games left this season not sure about next year.

Left centre is also a worry with Senior only really able to put in 1 top flight performance for every 4 or 5 games.

If Senior vacated the left centre position who would we the starting 2 centres be next season?

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:35 pm  

While I agree there is no need to panic yet, I don't think we can say that our poor performance against Wigan doesn't matter, because we are second in the table. It may not have been the big one on Friday but every game should matter on the road to Old Trafford.

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:40 pm  

Charlieboo wrote:

While I agree there is no need to panic yet, I don't think we can say that our poor performance against Wigan doesn't matter, because we are second in the table. It may not have been the big one on Friday but every game should matter on the road to Old Trafford.

Every game does matter but losing isn't as season ending as some would think.
Wigan were better and took their chances we were average in defence and once they got a roll on gave away daft penalties again.
However i think we will still finish top 2 and make the grand final and in the grand scheme of things losing to wigan other than 2 points dropped and a poor performance won't matter!

: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:51 pm  

Highbury Rhino wrote:

We may indeed have the right centre spot sorted for the remaining 7 or so games left this season not sure about next year.

I didn't think we were discussing next year at this point.

I would hope a centre replacement for Smith was found and that will at this point need to come from outside the club IMO. It's interesting that Shenton's form has picked up with a move back to his favoured flank.

Highbury Rhino wrote:

Left centre is also a worry with Senior only really able to put in 1 top flight performance for every 4 or 5 games.

I don't agree with that statement based on this season's form. I'd reverse the formula and Wigan did an excellent job of keeping him quiet on Friday. Not having a recognised threat on the right hand side helped them concentrate on keeping Senior in check.