Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:00 am  

Win 6 out of our next ten

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:08 am  

ploinerrhino wrote:

Win 6 out of our next ten

You start by looking at the fixtures, instead of acting the fool.

You do realise we have Hull KR twice, Wakefield twice, Huddersfield, Salford, and London again in those ten. If we fail on those six, then we really have problems.

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:14 am  

We will not beat Wakey anywhere , Hull K.R away for sure and Salford and Huddersfield will be 50/50 so that leaves London who yes i think we will beat but i thought that on Friday .

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:19 am  

Sorry missed Hull .K.R at home which will be another 50/50

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:06 am  

We can't worry about the next 10 games. The only one that matters is next week now and the players need to show some fight, pride and mental toughness whether we win or lose.

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:02 pm  

Marty Grrrrrrrrrr! wrote:

We can't worry about the next 10 games. The only one that matters is next week now and the players need to show some fight, pride and mental toughness whether we win or lose.

I’m not saying the last 10 mins against London at home was acceptable, because it wasn’t. However, we were a cat’s cock hair away from winning and I think the overall performance was improved on Wakey and Hull previously.
We are playing like a Championship side because we have too many players who are Championship standard. But we will get up for the odd game and get lucky and get a result.

I have to say I usually defend the players because I think it’s far harder out on the pitch than criticising from the stands, but not contesting kicks at all (and poor 1:1 D) are signs of poor attitude. With the kicks, to be honest, I think players are terrified of making the mistake with the pressure being so high. It’s a bit different playing for Leeds, you have to be able to handle the pressure.

All the players want to win, and they put the effort in generally, but we have this hesitancy and indecision, and a lack of positive aggression. Some of that is just form and some is intrinsic to some individual players.

My view is that if a player hasn’t “got it” by 24 or so years of age, they probably never will. You can improve positionally but if you don’t have the physicality, mentality and technique by that point then -

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:03 pm  

Games aren't played on paper. It's silly to look too far ahead and try to predict who we'll beat.

What happened two games ago when we played Wakefield doesn't mean the same thing will happen when we play them again. Saints frequently mullered us in league and play-off qualifiers but we ended up getting very different results in the GF when most pundits had completely written us off. The same thing can apply to teams that seemingly can't buy a win after a run of losses. Form is temporary, and injuries, dodgy refereeing etc can work for and against teams.

Despite the nature of the defeat there are positive signs the players are responding to past defeats - the reasons we lost against London were not the same as the reasons we lost against Hull and Wakefield, aside from general mental fragility. Leeds were far from perfect but there was a high element of luck in some of London's tries - they won't be able to rely on that approach as the season wears on and play gets more expansive in the summer.

I'll be intrigued to see how this team does when the weather is warmer and the grounds start to harden. Maybe we'll be cut to ribbons by the best sides, but I also harbour some hope that these conditions will better suit some of our players too (i.e. Hurrell), and we might see a few more repeats of the form showed against Salford, at least against the weaker sides in the competition.

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:04 pm  

Furner kept mentioning the last 6 minutes in his press conference and I think he is wrong to do so. The 1st half performance had as much to do with us losing on Fri as the last 6 mins. One paced, going thru the motions is what I saw. I'm not one for bagging the players but that wasn't good enough.

I don't agree that was much better than the performances against Wakey and Hull. We had 20 minute spells in all 3 games and that's about it. The fact the score was closer doesn't show me it was a better effort. It wasn't. Mentally we was weak on Friday. The desire wasn't there for me and I don't say that often or easily.

I appreciate thos team isn't good enough but I actually think it's a lot better than we are playing. I don't think this team is fill of Championship standard players, not at all. This team is good enough to compete in Super League not to challenge for honours at this stage but to compete.

Mental toughness and pride was sadly lacking for me and that's unacceptable.

I understand that confidence is low but that should give more incentive to work harder and in truth maybe try to hard. That wasn't the case on Friday.

The players need to dig in now starting Sat in Perpignan. Effort is a minimum requirement.

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:52 pm  

Would hurrell also please stop coughing the ball in a tackle.

Re: SL RD 7 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:03 pm  

Whilst not expecting Furner to work miracles with what everybody accepts is a substandard squad of players ( buying on the cheap being a major issue eg . Donaldson , Luke Briscoe ) and also having inept half backs who cannot control a game , what most disappoints me to date is our lack of line speed and pressure on the kicker. Allowing for the fact that he was the attacking coach, every Aussie team ethos is based on defence , but there has been no improvement at all in this area. We have no line speed at all , and Jordan Abdul had hours to place every kick on Friday night, just like watching Danny Brough kicking us to death , as he has done over the years.
We watched the Wire v Wigan game on Friday night when we got home and they are playing with a totally different intensity and enthusiasm. We all accept that we will probably lose more games than we will win this season , but we want every player in a Rhino shirt to bust a gut on the field - that is not happening at the moment- if the coach cannot achieve this , then his days are numbered.