Re: Smith out ASAP : Sun May 05, 2024 8:25 pm  

It's not about recruitment.
It's about playing style, an identity, moving forward.
On that he's failing miserably

Re: Smith out ASAP : Sun May 05, 2024 9:28 pm  

It is partly about recruitment in my view. I don’t believe this current squad is good enough to top Super League. Do you?

Identity is a bit of a buzz word again, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.

Playing style… I think there is a way we want to play, but we have lost the ruck too much this year and also made too many stupid errors. I’d like to see us more dominant in D; bringing us back round to players again, especially in the middle.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Sun May 05, 2024 9:56 pm  

We are a prop short, ideally two needed. Both need to be guys who can offer what our current cant.
I cant see us being top 4 until that happens and we get some luck with being able to field our first choice outside backs for large chunks of the season.
Something that hasn't happened for a while.

However, this team is better than results suggest. They just can't seem to do anything well consistently and look poor in structure/ organisation etc.
Who is to blame and why it's happening is where people disagree

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 10:45 am  

identity is a style of play that runs through the club. as you know but use an excuse jim. I like you but its all excuses. 2 years on we still look a disorganised mess. no structure no style of play. but he deserves longer? really?

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 10:59 am  

tad rhino wrote:

identity is a style of play that runs through the club. as you know but use an excuse jim. I like you but its all excuses. 2 years on we still look a disorganised mess. no structure no style of play. but he deserves longer? really?

As you say how long does he need before we get structure which is probably the most important factor.
Look at Willie Peters who has been for a shorter time at Hull KR and what he has done for them.
Anybody who has watched Frawley at the Giants or the NRL knows he was never the answer.
MOM looked decent in the NRL but has been average so far and needs alot of improvement.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 11:45 am  

even average players are OK with good structure and good coaching. all clubs have average players.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 11:55 am  

tad rhino wrote:

even average players are OK with good structure and good coaching. all clubs have average players.

Agree that a good or coach will get the best out of average players. Look at Wayne Bennett at the Dolphins a team made up of largely cast offs from the NRL.
Regarding Frawley and MOM to a lesser extent I was trying to say his choice of recruitment has not been brilliant either.
Before anybody says it, yes we signed Croft and Akers but anybody who watches rugby would know they would be a vast improvement on existing players.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 2:09 pm  

That's fair enough, but let's include McDonnell who's been good on the whole, and even Ruan, Roberts and Hudson are reasonable project signings (for what they are).

Mom is a good player, I think we'll see better from him later this year and he's very good for the winger outside him. He's disappointed me so far but you can see a player in there somewhere.

Frawley - I can see what they were thinking with him, but it's not working out so far. Sure he'll play other games this year but.. he was always a stop-gap until the youth came through I guess.

Olpherts was a signing made on stats not quality, and I think we've retained a couple of players we probably shouldn't too. We'll see.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Mon May 06, 2024 6:59 pm  

The Momster will come good. It was a shame Lumb got injured so soon as it seemed they had the makings of a decent combination. I like Roberts but he doesn't seem to be a natural winger.

Re: Smith out ASAP : Wed May 08, 2024 2:08 pm  

Roberts was training as a centre during the off-season. Fusitu'a's injury and the release of Olpherts, while maybe predictable, left Roberts as the last experienced outside back on the books. I don't think he's bad as a reserve. Its not his fault that he's ended up playing almost every week. It looks quite likely that he'll end up behind a few other players though, even without Fusitu'a. Lumb looks a better winger and McCormack and Simpson (touch wood) have more potential as centres. I'd be surprised if he's here much beyond this season.