: Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:50 am  

mystic eddie wrote: I am most certainly not a reformed character, but I have just been trying to be a bit more balanced with my opinions. The issues I raised after three games this season are still unaddressed and there is little to suggest that the coach is capable of changing this slide we are on under his tenure. We will wait and see what faces finally come into the club and we will take it from there. However, the post Iestyn Bulls starts today. It is about time that we moved onwards and upwards. I very much doubt Steve McNamara will get much sympathy from even his biggest supporters if we do not improve next season. However, I was right at the start of the season...... 'atta boy Still. A balanced post though ME . . . . . . so, reformed in that respect at least

mystic eddie wrote: I am most certainly not a reformed character, but I have just been trying to be a bit more balanced with my opinions. The issues I raised after three games this season are still unaddressed and there is little to suggest that the coach is capable of changing this slide we are on under his tenure. We will wait and see what faces finally come into the club and we will take it from there. However, the post Iestyn Bulls starts today. It is about time that we moved onwards and upwards. I very much doubt Steve McNamara will get much sympathy from even his biggest supporters if we do not improve next season. However, I was right at the start of the season...... 'atta boy Still. A balanced post though ME . . . . . . so, reformed in that respect at least

[Bullseye]

: Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:51 pm  

mystic eddie wrote:

I very much doubt Steve McNamara will get much sympathy from even his biggest supporters if we do not improve next season.

Agreed. It's make or break year in 2009 for him. We've had a bit of bad luck with injury this year but there wasn't much to suggest we could do better when everyone was on deck, the team was still dogged with inconsistency.

The facts as I see it is that performances aren't as good as they were because we're watching poorer quality players. Many of those are Macca recruits. Unless he can start to get better performances out of them his days will be numbered in my book.

Macca "its been a tough season" : Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:26 pm  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 618736.stm Very true and especially for the fans, though I don't expect the forum whingers on here will have learnt anything!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 618736.stm Very true and especially for the fans, though I don't expect the forum whingers on here will have learnt anything!

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:28 pm  

We'll see if he's learnt his lessons next year won't we!

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:31 pm  

I think people have to realise that we reaped the benefits of Super League by getting behind it from the start. As a result we've had 10 great years. We are now entering a new phase where to suceed you need some kind of financial backing. People have to accept that whilst we try to improve we are going to find it tough to compete with Saints, Leeds, Wigan & Warrington in future.

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:41 pm  

Aren't there any Russian oil billionaires or Abu Dhabi Sheik's interested in rugby league?

Peter Hood needs to book a flight to the Middle East this winter and court some tea-towelheads.

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:43 pm  

I've not seen any evidence that McNamara has developed into a better coach this year.

I thought he did an amazing job to finish 3rd last year, especially with the points deduction and the squad at his disposal (St. Hilaire, McAvoy etc), only to run out of steam at the end of the season. If anything, 2008 saw this decline carry on, despite many believing the Bulls to have made some astute signings and improved the squad.

The main problems for me that were unaddressed from 2007 are:

1. Poor handling - backs who can't catch and forwards who don't know when NOT to offload.
2. Fitness. Your pack looks noticeably off the pace at the end of each half - big contrast to Saints, Leeds and the Catalans. You have to wonder why players like Solomona and Nero have looked like shadows of their former selves this year
3. Defence - was a problem in 2007 but this year the defence has been particularly brittle, making some teams look a lot better than they actually are.
4. Handling of young players. Burgess predictably burned out after being over exposed in the pack, yet others with promise don't seem to get much game time. Balance is needed.

He has a lot of work to do. At least with so many obvious problems it will be easy for him to spot what needs working on

[Bullseye]

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:45 pm  

rugbyreddog wrote:

I think people have to realise that we reaped the benefits of Super League by getting behind it from the start. As a result we've had 10 great years. We are now entering a new phase where to suceed you need some kind of financial backing. People have to accept that whilst we try to improve we are going to find it tough to compete with Saints, Leeds, Wigan & Warrington in future.

While I agree in part having a load of cash,, nice ground and friendly council hasn't done much for Warrington.

While we still are able to spend the full cap we ought to be able to compete with the other clubs. It should be easier than it was in the days pre-cap when everyone was on a loser competing with moneybags Wigan. While other clubs may have better training facilities etc the gap shouldn't be too big unless we continue to recruit badly.

IMO 2009 is McNamara's make or break year, he's got acres of cap space to recruit from and has had two full seasons to get used to the job. At the very least I'd like to see some positive signs next year. At the moment I can't see us doing much better than this year so he's got a bit to do.

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:10 pm  

Lets the see two most consistent teams have been Whinos and Stains, a major reason has been keeping more or less the same squad, whereas once again the Bulls have had to deal with big changes to the personel of the squad. That without injuries would take time to gel but given the run of injuries this season has made it nigh impossible to find consistency week in week out. Next season will also see another changed squad but less so than the last 3 seasons, and perhaps the high run of injuries will also reduce. I think Macca would like a more even playing field re injuries so we can see that he an produce a team playing good rugby and winning rugby at that!

: Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:34 pm  

It does seem strange that whilst we have the same cap as Saints and Leeds, we had to dismantle our team while they improved their already good squad. To me the salary cap is a bit like the introduction of the video ref i that it raises more questions than it answers.