Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:08 am  

Seth wrote:

listening to smiths interview hes starting to really panic and that shows, previously hes not overly leant on decisions going our way but hes grasping at that now too.

He looked like he knew he’s under big pressure now

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:18 am  

Jack Burton wrote:

The game management at times is just amateurish. 2 minutes to half time, we try throwing a few silly passes and give the ball back on half way, which resulted in them kicking a penalty.
McDonnell having to kick on the last tackle of the first set of the half.
Miller almost knocked the wall down to give them a 7 tackle set just after O'Connor's try, which totally gave the momentum back to Huddersfield.
And finally, the drop out from hell.

We had the opportunity for a drop goal when 12 points up prior to the Miller kick on the last, didn't seem to enter anyone's mind.

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:43 am  

To concede that number of try’s at home is scandalous. The Swift one from 3 yards out past 2 defenders was an absolute shocker. First half we played reasonably well, picked up the giants running lines and tackled them, then punched holes in the giants defence. Croft showed some decent form, then second half we collapsed. Not certain about the Newman injury, seems a bit strange if he was injured why not replace him at half time.
As for fus, feel desperately sorry for the lad . On the field leadership woeful, Smith shows no signs of inspiring the team . Doesn’t seem much team spirit either. As I have stated on many occasions this team is deeply flawed, most of it unfortunately can be attributed to the coach and some of his signings.

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:46 am  

I rather foolishly looked on BBC Sport app hoping for a "Rohan leaves Leeds" type headline.... alas... no!

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:59 am  

I generally try an be positive.

For the first 4 games or so I thought we’d turned a corner in terms of defensive resilience and was just Waiting for the offense to click, plus Handley was on the end of some good stuff.

I wasn’t overly bothered by the first saints game, I thought we were competitive. But then for me we’ve got worse. Out of all our losses, last nights was the worst because I know we’ve talked a lot about only turning up for a half, but yesterday it was so stark.

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 9:27 am  

Broadacres wrote:

We had the opportunity for a drop goal when 12 points up prior to the Miller kick on the last, didn't seem to enter anyone's mind.

I said the same thing last year when we were 6 points in front of Hull KR . In front of there posts with one and a half minutes to half time I'm screaming for a drop goal but instead our great team hand the ball over and KR go the length to score. At least a drop goal eats a bit of clock time up . There is no one in the team with a rugby brain.

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 9:30 am  

FlyingScottyDonald wrote:

I rather foolishly looked on BBC Sport app hoping for a "Rohan leaves Leeds" type headline.... alas... no!

I wish

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 9:31 am  

FlyingScottyDonald wrote:

I rather foolishly looked on BBC Sport app hoping for a "Rohan leaves Leeds" type headline.... alas... no!

That was Foolish , Gary says we are in a good place .

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 9:58 am  

Trebor1 wrote:

He looked like he knew he’s under big pressure now

He was right about the tackle leading to the drop out, tackle was complete then a second man comes in and the lift and drag him and the last try was a clear knock on, but we put ourselves in those positions, 6 trys in second half and they scored 3 on the bounce without us having the ball.

Smith looks broken, hope he walks before having to push him, either way think almost everyone now thinks he’s not the man for the job.

We have to replace him whilst we can salvage the season not wait until its mathematically not possible to make the play offs, because if he stays we won’t.

Re: RD 8 | Huddersfield Giants (H) : Sat Apr 20, 2024 12:07 pm  

Having been at the game and watched Rohan’s post match thoughts. I thought his description of what happened was pretty accurate. But, the point surely is that though this demonstrates his skill in reading a game, he is actually employed as the coach not as a Rugby League analyst. So, fans are naturally left wondering about how he can’t translate his knowledge of the game into improving the performance of the team - particularly during games.
It is accurate to say that the collapse coincided with Fusitua and Newman leaving the field, and though Martin is an experienced replacement as a back, McDonnell was brutally exposed by Swift on our right hand side. But some of those tries in the second half were terrible to concede.
What Leeds did well in the first half was to keep possession and not engage in daft offloads, and just focus on field possession. This wasn’t exciting but for most of the first half seemed effective. Once the game started to swing back and forth in the second half, Leeds went into giddy mode (when they had the ball) and they started to doubt that they could win out by re-focussing on possession.
A bitter defeat like that is not necessarily a fair place to be drawing broader conclusions, but there are some weaknesses that go back to Rohan’s approach to roster management. Part of his approach is to pick up fringe players from other teams and hope he can improve them. And as usual with any coach in any sport he shows loyalty and support when fans may not feel it’s justified - e.g. Fusitua was having a decent game, but he is very injury prone and fans did question the sense of earmarking a significant part of the cap on a part timer.
And there is also the debate about the balance of accountability between the coach and the players, when things go wrong as spectacularly as they did last night. The startling piece of evidence we have is that Rohan firmly distanced himself from the bonkers idea of the short kick off by Miller near the end (never mind it’s comedic execution). So, why are supposedly experienced players making repeated daft decisions - the answer has to be that this makes the coach look weak, and perhaps unable to stand up to senior players.